Transformative Classroom Management

Webinar #10 of 12Facilitating Effective Cooperative Learning

Virginia Department of EducationOffice of School Improvement

Transformative Classroom Management Series

• Series of Twelve Sessions• Facilitator and Participant Guide• Clips of Skills in Practice • Other Resources • Virginia Department of Education Web site

VDOE Guidelines for Uniform Performance Standards and

Evaluation Criteria for Teachers

• Offers professional development for Performance Standard 5: Learning Environment

Transformative Classroom Management (TCM)

Professional Development Series 1. Data Shows Transformative Classroom Practices Increase Achievement2. Moving Up the Function Continuum3. Understanding the Classroom Environment4. Creating Clear Classroom Expectations5. Effective Technical Management6. Motivation7. Creating a Class Social Contract8. Facilitating the Social Contract & Implementing Consequences9. Instruction – Management Connection

10.Cooperative Learning11. Challenging Students12. Creating the 1-Style Classroom

Purpose

The purpose of the tenth webinar is to:

Become an expert in how to design, facilitate, manage and assess the cooperative learning process

Presenter - John Shindler • Dr. John Shindler is a Professor of

Education at California State University, Los Angeles, and the Director of the Alliance for the Study of School Climate.

Today’s Agenda1. Welcome and Reflections from Webinar

nine2. Designing Cooperative Activities3. Facilitating the process4. Assessing the process5. Managing Cooperative Groups 6. Reflections and Activities (See TCM

Guidebook)

What are the benefits of cooperative learning?

• In our experience, what can be accomplished with cooperative learning that cannot be accomplished without it?

• What is the difference between cooperative learning and group work?

• Mutual interdependence• Meets a learning target/standard (better or as

well as individual work)• Clear definition of task requirements• Clear definition of quality skills and processes• Facilitation that promotes growth in skills,

dispositions, reasoning and knowledge – i.e., each activity is more effective than the last

Features of Effective Cooperative Learning

Pre-PlanningA few questions to ask yourself before youbegin:

• What are my learning targets? Can the objectives that I am trying to reach be accomplished in a collaborative format?

• What benefits will the cooperative aspect bring to the learning?

• What will I need to change about my approach to teaching and management?

• Am I haphazardly incorporating cooperative learning, or am I committed to developing a system for incorporating cooperative learning and making it work?

• Have I built in mutual-interdependence of students?

 

Pre-PlanningUse your answers to the previous questions to make choices related to what you want to achieve in the area of cooperative learning (CL) related to the following:

• Designing your CL activity• Managing your CL activity• Dealing with problems that arise• Using CL to achieve your long-term

management goals

Designing Your Activity

• Consider the best choices for the following:– Instructional Model– Group Composition– Use of Participant Roles– Assessment Methods

Some of the Possible Instructional Models

• Group Products/ Performance• Inquiry-based/Discovery/ Lab activity• Collaborative Content Processing• Jigsaw Model• Graffiti Model• Collaborative Assessment

Example - Graffiti Model• Structure: oRandom assignmento All the same roleo Three minutes per stationo Butcher paper and pens (different color for each

group)o Final group presents the findings

Group Composition• Number in a group?• Grouping of students

◦ Students choose◦ Random (counting off)◦ Similar ability◦ Mixed ability◦ Learning style

• Pros and cons of each type of grouping structure?

Student Roles within GroupHere are some typical roles that can be useful in various cooperative learning activities (Johnson & Johnson, 1999a).

• Manager• Reporter• Reader• Consensus builder• Recorder• Researcher• Leader• Mediator• Monitor

Assessing the TaskFor any cooperative task you will have the following assessment options:

Type Individual Accountability Group Accountability

No Formal Assessment Fine, as long as the task is inherently engaging and you want to promote internal LOC. May not provide enough incentive.

Formal Self- Assessment Good for having the students reflect on their process effort. Problematic when trying to promote accountability.

Process Assessment Helps motivate the student to put forth full effort and be cooperative. Does not penalize students for others lack of effort

Helps motivate the group to work through problems, collaborate and use the prescribed process format.

Product Assessment Rewards students for their personal contribution and does not penalize them for others lack of quality. Does not readily promote cooperation skills.

Helps motivate students to create a quality outcome, but may lack the ability to reward effort and desired process along the way.

Teaching Cooperation SkillsIf we want to see growth in the students’ cooperative learning skills, we will need to teach these skills like any other learning outcome.

• Listening• Conflict Resolution• Communicating Concerns• Making Decisions• Performing a Role• Executing the Procedure• Sharing

Making Skills ConcreteTo make the practical aspects of a skill concrete to students, we need to find ways to model, provide positive recognitions, debrief and make any concept as concrete as possible

Examples of Active Listening Non-Examples of Active Listening

Eye contactClarifying pointsWaiting until speaker is doneParaphrasing what you hear

Looking awayDaydreamingGetting lost in one ideaMaking assumptions

Dealing with MisbehaviorReflect on a situation in which a group is struggling to function. What would be an appropriate intervention?

◦ Keep in mind the Social/Indirect Learning Model (it is not so much about solving a problem today as teaching a lesson so that there are less problems like this tomorrow)

Dealing with MisbehaviorAvoid when possible Instead try this

Rewarding with inactivity Activity should be seen as a privilege

Splitting up group that do not get along

Helping groups work out their issues

Hovering over dysfunctional groups Putting your attention mostly into groups that are trying

Nagging Taking action (consequence, intervention, illicit a commitment from each group member)

Public Shaming All interventions should be private

• Select a behavior or part of the process that you want to emphasize and/or reinforce (i.e., the task/procedure, a cooperative learning skill such as active listening, or a concept that was included)

• Or just ask, “what are some things that we will want to keep doing next time?” and then, “some things that we learned that did not work?”

• Ask students to give examples of others in their group that displayed the appropriate behavior and what it looked like.

• The effect is to reinforce that correct behavior in a very concrete and personally positive manner.

• Over time you will develop a class that is looking to display these behaviors as well as find ways to encourage and support each other.

Debriefing: the most powerful two minutes in all of teaching

Upcoming TCM WebinarsThe next webinar in the series provides an explanation for how to work with our more challenging student behavioral issues in a way that promotes sanity and growth.1. Data shows Transformation Classroom Practices Increase Achievement2. Moving up the Function Continuum3. Classroom Environment and Social Learning4. Creating Clear and Effective Classroom Expectations5. The Technical Management of a Classroom6. Motivating Students to Learn7. Creating a Class Social Contract and Logical Consequences8. Implementing a Consequence and Dealing with Power Struggles9. Instruction – Assessment - Management Connection10. Facilitating Effective Cooperative Learning

11.Succeeding with Challenging Students12. Creating the 1-Style Classroom

References• Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. (1999). Learning together and alone:

Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning (4nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

• Shindler, J. (2010) Transformative Classroom Management. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, CA