“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday, we rob them of tomorrow” John Dewey American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer
Contemporary educational reality as an on-going, fast process seems to be characterized by a weakness of educational systems to respond to newly developed needs of our times. The result is that a large number of students cannot respond benevolently and stand critically towards the problems of the complex society of information and knowledge. The demand for equal opportunities and serenity in the school community leads school to search and adopt new methods of confronting these problems.
Educators are once again called upon finding a way to respond to the versatility of their students and to their new needs. Thus, learning through experience comes into light and it forms a tool in the hands of those seeking an alternative approach.
Our project: «EMB, Erasmus Minus Bullying, Practices in Prevention and Intervention in European schools», as it was created and successfully completed, needed new pedagogical approaches. As a result, it was based not only in the “learning through experience” approach but also to the “student-centered” perception which places students in the center of developments and does not leave them mere spectators in the play of their own education. Consequently, EMB’s purpose was to cultivate new, school-friendly perceptions, in relation to school violence and to develop good practices in prevention of school bullying as well as intervention strategies in cases of violence.
Students’ involvement in the creation of practices against violence proved a very effective way of prevention of the phenomenon. They were seriously interested, actively engaged and very motivated. The above mentioned practices are based on the principles of Cooperative Learning. Cooperative learning is based on modern theories which support that learning is or can be enhanced through a social process. Cooperative learning encourages interaction among students in the frame of a team. These interactions are carefully structured to allow a) positive interdependence b) individual responsibility c) interaction on a personal level d) appropriate use of interpersonal skills, as leading ability, communication, team spirit and conflict management e) regular self-assessment of the way team operates.
Cooperative Learning pre-requires the following elements:
A common goal: For cooperative learning to take place, a common learning goal must be set, a team result. It can be an Internet research, paragraph writing, script writing, a poster etc.
Interaction: It manifests itself as mutual help, mutual respect, mutual influence, empowering and encouragement, offer of knowledge and information, material exchange, student’s feedback etc.
Interdependence: The concept of interdependence is the key to success for cooperative learning. Interdependence exists when, in pursuit of a goal, the team needs to ensure every member’s contribution and vice-versa; each team member succeeds only if all team members accomplish their own goals.
Social skills: Students not having acquired basic social skills are difficult to accomplish cooperation of high quality. Thus, students should first be taught cooperative skills and then be trained in the team so as to apply them. Low tone of voice, playing a leading role, acceptance of difference, tolerance, expression of disagreement are some of the skills to be acquired so that cooperative learning can be more effective.
Personal responsibility: The most imminent danger for Cooperative learning to fail is when a member is left to dominate the team and impose his/her views or dictate solutions and answers. In that case, the members of the team not only fail to benefit but they are also immobilized and stand back.
Special care should be given so that each member feels personally responsible for the success of the team. This can be accomplished only if positive interdependence as mentioned above is ensured.
Consequently, with the help of creative forms of education like theatre, music, dance, fine arts, filming and many others, we tried to enable students to deeply understand the nature of school bullying.
The practices, which are a collective work of all participants to the EMB project (EMB teachers and clubs, travelers, hosts, general student force of the different schools, experts and guest lecturers, school psychologists, parents, free-lance partners) consist of:
Informing and sensitization of students about school bullying,
Survey research,
Lesson plans,
Ice-breaking games,
Drama activities,
Poem writing,
Poster drawing,
Song composition,
Film making,
Creation of a song CD ,
Quiz and word games creation ,
E-dictionary creation in the 10 school languages plus English
Board, card and yard games,
Electronic simulation game,
Logos,
Comics
These practices focus on students’ sensitization on bullying matters and on helping the victims. They aim at the elimination of school violence and the subsequent problems of school drop-out or poor academic performance because of emotional intimidations. The major bet to be won, though, is expected to be the enhancement of participation, solidarity, respect and involvement to school life. Instead of the imposition of a “top-to-bottom” way and content of education, we pursued expression and cultivation of individuality. Instead of promoting learning through books and teachers, we let it evolve through processing of experiences of the students themselves. Instead of students being pressed to acquire skills through exercise, they were encouraged to be involved for personal reasons (i.e. their sensitivity over the topic of bullying, traumatic personal experiences etc). Through EMB activities, with the pre-requisite that students got immediate and vital motives, they acquired those skills.
Teachers played their innate, eternal and ideal role of organizing, monitoring, inspiring, handling the tools, guiding, answering queries and giving voice to their students, the last one being in accordance to what was promised in the beginning of this project: “enable the future citizens of Europe speak for themselves” .
The use of the above practices is relatively simple and effective thanks to the instructions/ideas/recommendations found in this guide. They can be used by sensitized to the phenomenon of bullying teachers as well as in the frame of a project.
Process and stages of the application of Cooperative Learning And the role of the Educator
α) Preparatory stage
Creation of cooperative atmosphere in the classroom
Cultivation of cooperative skills
Space management and furniture arrangement
Group formation
Role description and assignment
Definition of the cognitive objective
Specification of learning objectives
Specification of cooperative objectives
Preparation of the sources/tools which the groups will use
Preparation of group and individual worksheets
Preparation of an evaluation form to assess cognitive and cooperative
objectives
β) Application of Cooperative Learning
Introduction to the new lesson
Oral or written instructions (preferable from our experience) for:
- Cooperative objectives
- Ensuring of interdependence
- The roles of the members
- The evaluation method
Work on the individual worksheet
Work on the group worksheet
Guidance and intervention of the teacher whenever needed
Empowering and encouraging.
c) Evaluation of Cooperative Learning
Presentation of the groups work-discussion and mutual editing
Evaluation of the groups work
Evaluation of the quality of cooperation
Discussions on further enhancement of cooperation
The new roles
From the procedure of application of Cooperative learning we can easily perceive the differentiation of the role of both the educators and the students.
Briefing the role of the educators
• They get to know each individual student
• They programme learning
• They manage the learning environment
• They organize the groups
• They monitor learning
• They guide and advise
• Τhey reinforce and offer feedback
• They evaluate and self-evaluate
Briefing the role of the students
• Their participation is empowered
• They become both “transmitters” and “receivers”
• They are activated
• They cooperate
• They search and discover
• They become responsible
• They self-define
• They self-assess
Indicative bibliography
Slavin, R.E. (1983), “Cooperative Learning”, New York: Longman
Slavin,R.E. (1995),”Cooperative Learning Theory”, Research and Practice. (2nd ed.) Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Haralambus, N (2000). “ Cooperative learning, from Theory into Practice”. Two-day Scientific Symposium: “ The application of Team centered Teaching- Trends and applications”
