Implementing the Standards: Cooperative Learning

Abstract

Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy that holds promise for improving the mathematical skills and attitudes of students. With increased frequency teachers have been reporting their positive experiences with cooperative-learning techniques in the mathematics classroom (e.g., Artzt [1979]; Behounek et al. [1988]; Gilbert-Macmillan and Leitz [1986]; Rosenbaum et al. [1989]; and Slavin [1987]). Support for cooperative learning now comes from the NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (Standards) (1989): “Small groups provide a forum in which students ask questions, discuss ideas, make mistakes, learn to listen to others' ideas, offer constructive criticism, and summarize their discoveries in writing” (p. 79). Group assignments enable learners to work together, helping each other integrate new knowledge with prior knowledge and discover their own meanings as they explore, discuss, explain, relate, and question new ideas and problems that ar ise in the group.