Theory

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it. 

Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members:

• gain from each other's efforts. (Your success benefits me and my success benefits you.)
• recognize that all group members share a common fate. (We all sink or swim together here.)
• know that one's performance is mutually caused by oneself and one's team members. (We can not do it without you.)
• feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement. (We all congratulate you on your accomplishment!).

Why use Cooperative Learning?

Research has shown that cooperative learning techniques:

• promote student learning and academic achievement
• increase student retention
• enhance student satisfaction with their learning experience
• help students develop skills in oral communication
• develop students' social skills
• promote student self-esteem
• help to promote positive race relations

5 Elements of Cooperative Learning

It is only under certain conditions that cooperative efforts may be expected to be more productive than competitive and individualistic efforts. Those conditions are:

1. Positive Interdependence   (sink or swim together) Each group member's efforts are required and indispensable for group success Each group member has a unique contribution to make to the joint effort because of his or her resources and/or role and task responsibilities
2. Face-to-Face Interaction  (promote each other's success) Orally explaining how to solve problems Teaching one's knowledge to other Checking for understanding Discussing concepts being learned Connecting present with past learning
3. Individual & Group Accountability ( no hitchhiking! no social loafing) Keeping the size of the group small. The smaller the size of the group, the greater the individual accountability may be. Giving an individual test to each student. Randomly examining students orally by calling on one student to present his or her group's work to the teacher (in the presence of the group) or to the entire class. Observing each group and recording the frequency with which each member-contributes to the group's work. Assigning one student in each group the role of checker. The checker asks other group members to explain the reasoning and rationale underlying group answers. Having students teach what they learned to someone else.
4. Interpersonal & Small-Group Skills Social skills must be taught: Leadership Decision-making Trust-building Communication Conflict-management skills
5. Group Processing Group members discuss how well they are achieving their goals and maintaining effective working relationships Describe what member actions are helpful and not helpful Make decisions about what behaviors to continue or change

                From  http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm

Multiple intelligences (M.I.)

What is the theory of multiple intelligences (M.I.)?

       Howard Gardner claims that all human beings have multiple intelligences. These multiple intelligences can be nurtured and strengthened, or ignored and weakened. He believes each individual has nine intelligences:

**Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence -- well-developed verbal skills and sensitivity to the sounds, meanings and rhythms of words
**Mathematical-Logical Intelligence -- ability to think conceptually and abstractly, and capacity to discern logical or numerical patterns
**Musical Intelligence -- ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timber
**Visual-Spatial Intelligence -- capacity to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately and abstractly
**Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence -- ability to control one's body movements and to handle objects skillfully
**Interpersonal Intelligence -- capacity to detect and respond appropriately to the moods, motivations and desires of others.
**Intrapersonal Intelligence -- capacity to be self-aware and in tune with inner feelings, values, beliefs and thinking processes
**Naturalist Intelligence -- ability to recognize and categorize plants, animals and other objects in nature

**Existential Intelligence -- sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why do we die, and how did we get here.

howard gardner, multiple intelligences and education

Howard Gardner's work around multiple intelligences has had a profound impact on thinking and practice in education - especially in the United States. Here we explore the theory of multiple intelligences; why it has found a ready audience amongst educationalists; and some of the issues around its conceptualization and realization. 

(Natural Approach- NA)

          The Natural Approach was developed by Tracy Terrell and Stephen Krashen, starting in 1977. It came to have a wide influence in language teaching in the United States and around the world.

Theory of language

       The communicative view of language is the view behind the Natural Approach. Particular emphasis is laid on language as a set of messages that can be understood.

Theory of learning

    The Natural Approach is based on the following tenets: Language acquisition (an unconscious process developed through using language meaningfully) is different from language learning (consciously learning or discovering rules about a language) and language acquisition is the only way competence in a second language occurs. (The acquisition/learning hypothesis)  Conscious learning operates only as a monitor or editor that checks or repairs the output of what has been acquired. (The monitor hypothesis)  Grammatical structures are acquired in a predictable order and it does little good to try to learn them in another order.(The natural order hypothesis).  People acquire language best from messages that are just slightly beyond their current competence. (The input hypothesis)  The learner's emotional state can act as a filter that impedes or blocks input necessary to acquisition. (The affective filter hypothesis)

From
http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning/waystoapproachlanguagelearning/thenaturalapproach.htm