ERIC Number: EJ1257225
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-May
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1072-4303
EISSN: N/A
Infusing Cooperative Learning in Distance Education
Jacobs, George M.; Ivone, Francisca Maria
TESL-EJ, v24 n1 May 2020
Providing students with opportunities for peer interaction is considered best practice in classroom teaching. However, facilitating peer interaction as part of distance education represents a new challenge for some teachers. The present article raises eleven questions for teachers to consider when infusing cooperative learning (thoughtfully organized peer interaction opportunities) as part of distance learning. These questions concern group size (with pairs also considered to be groups), group membership, whether to teach collaborative skills, the difficulty level of the tasks the groups undertake, how often group activities are done as opposed to individual activities and teacher input, encouraging everyone in the group to contribute their fair share to the learning of all group members, assessment of students when they learn in groups, whether to include thinking skills when students do cooperative learning via distance, how to convince students of the benefits of learning together, reaching out to stakeholders other than students, and helping other teachers learn to use ICT tools. The authors encourage teachers to develop their own answers to these eleven questions, based on their own teaching contexts and, at the same time, to keep an open mind as they accumulate more experience and continue to learn from colleagues and students.
Descriptors: Cooperative Learning, Distance Education, Best Practices, Peer Relationship, Group Membership, Difficulty Level, Teacher Student Relationship, Teaching Methods, Linguistic Input, Comparative Analysis, Thinking Skills, Management Systems, Second Language Learning, Native Language, Student Evaluation, Class Size, Computer Software
TESL-EJ. e-mail: editor@tesl-ej.org; Web site: http://tesl-ej.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A