Cooperative Learning at St John's CE Primary

At St John’s we are all different, all equal, all growing together. We teach children to embrace others’ differences; appreciating everybody as an equal is fundamental to our children’s development. This is key within a cooperative approach to learning – that everyone in the classroom is valued as equal. Actively engaged children are more successful learners. In Key Stage 2 we have begun our journey into using cooperative learning in our lessons. 

Cooperative learning encourages every child to be actively engaged in the learning process. Through the use of learning structures, children are taught how to learn cooperatively with their peers, while being simultaneously required to have individual accountability for their own learning. These structures are cross-curricular, and can be used in any subject in school. They are effective because every pupil shares in the successes of the group, having all played their part in the set task. 

The structures promote: 

• Active engagement – all children are actively involved in their learning 
• An environment where students feel it is safe to participate (praising, coaching, a culture where it is ok to get things wrong) 
• A wider variety of teaching and learning strategies to promote enjoyment 
• Teachers as facilitators, rather than leaders of learning 
• Activities to promote higher levels of thinking 

• Accessibility for different learning styles 

Research shows that cooperative learning greatly improves: 

• Team-building 
• Social skills 

• Communication skills 
• Knowledge building 
• Decision making 
• Processing information 
• Thinking skills 

• Presenting information 
• Increase self-esteem 
• Enjoyment of learning and achieving