Literature Review- Internship

My wondering is: How can I implement collaborative learning to improve my students' reading comprehension? I spent a great amount of time researching this wondering and found one empirical article and two practitioner articles. After collecting my research, I noticed a few themes between the articles.

Cooperative learning is a very popular practice that allows students to work in groups and the teacher is the center of authority. Students are typically assigned roles and the teacher will intervene if necessary (Matthews, Cooper, Davidson, & Hawkes, 1995). Collaborative learning is becoming more relevant and this deals with students bringing their ideas together and solving problems (Matthews, Cooper, Davidson, & Hawkes, 1995). This is a more student-centered approach, and they are typically given an open-ended task where they can deepen their understanding of a topic by discussing with their team. In my research, I was unable to find relevant articles on collaborative learning, so I will be using cooperative learning articles. These two practices can be similar at times, so I am using this research as a guide to my collaborative learning approach, and changing any strategies to fit my goals for this specific teaching practice.

The first, and most obvious theme, I encountered was that there is a fair consensus among researchers showing that collaborative, or cooperative, learning is proven to be effective. The empirical article, The Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning by Chin-Min Hsiung, explains an experiment that was conducted to compare the achievement levels of people working individually versus people working in cooperative groups (Chin-Min Hsiung, 2012). He concluded: “cooperative learning is more effective than individualistic learning” (Chin-Min Hsiung, 2012). Along with these results that proved the effectiveness of collaborative learning, I also found this theme in practitioner articles. Karl A. Smith explains, “Cooperative interaction is the most effective approach [of the three listed in the article] for promoting students’ learning and teamwork skills” (Smith, 1996, p. 71). These articles confirmed my opinions about the effectiveness of cooperative learning and I believe collaborative learning will be as effective, if not more, with my students’ reading comprehension.

Another theme I noticed across the articles is the multiple outcomes that can be found when implementing cooperative learning. The practitioner article, Cooperative Learning and Achievement: Theory and Research by Robert E. Slavin, highlighted proven outcomes that arise with cooperative learning: There is an increase in “higher-order thinking, metacognition, willingness to take on difficult tasks, long-term retention, time on task, self-esteem…” (Slavin, 2013, p. 193). This article has a very similar idea to Karl A. Smith who also discusses multiple outcomes. He stated, “The multiple outcomes studied can be classified into three major categories: achievement/productivity, positive relationships, and psychological health (Smith, 1996, p. 72). He goes on to discuss the specific elements in each category, but we can see the trend in these two articles that many researchers or practitioners believe cooperative learning has more than solely the outcome of achievement, but many other outcomes that will help students become more successful in other areas as well. I believe that collaborative learning will also produce multiple outcomes due to the critical thinking and merging of ideas in a group, and I am looking forward to finding these results.

In all three of these articles, I found a common theme that there is a fair consensus among researchers showing that cooperative learning is effective and has various benefits or multiple outcomes. It is reassuring to know that my research supports my inquiry, so now I will be working on researching specific strategies to implement to facilitate collaborative learning. I am thrilled to read about evidence of this topic, which I can relate to collaborative learning, and I am looking forward to seeing the effectiveness for myself in my classroom when it relates specifically to reading comprehension.

Clare, J. (2015, March 3). The Difference in Cooperative Learning & Collaborative Learning. Retrieved October 14, 2015.

Hsiung, C. (2012). The Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning. Journal of Engineering Education, 101, 119-137.

Matthews, Roberta S.; Cooper, James L.; Davidson, Neil; Hawkes, Peter. Building bridges between cooperative and collaborative learning. Change July/August 1995 pp 34-4 (Citation from http://celt.ust.hk/files/public/ccl_related_stories.pdf).

Slavin, R. (2013). Cooperative Learning and Achievement: Theory and Research. Handbook of Psychology, 179-194.

Smith, K. (1996). Cooperative Learning: Making "Groupwork" Work. New Directions for Teaching and Learning.