Living in the Real World :

Workplace Basics

 

 

            “The heart of most jobs, especially the higher-paying more interesting jobs, is teamwork. Teamwork involves getting others to cooperate, leading others, coping with complex power and influence issues, and helping solve people’s problems in working with each other. Teamwork involves communication, effective coordination, and divisions of labor.” (Johnson & Johnson, 1991, p. 1:24)

 

A survey of major businesses and industrial firms conducted by the American Society for Training and Development and the U.S. Department of Labor  (1988) elucidated the following workplace basics that need to be learned while in school .

 

1. Learning to learn.

 

2. Listening and oral communications.

 

3. Competence in reading, writing and computation.

 

4. Adaptability based on creative thinking and problem solving.

 

5. Personal management characterized by self esteem, goal setting, motivation and personal/career development.

 

6. Group effectiveness characterized by interpersonal skills, negotiation skills and teamwork.

 

7. Organizational effectiveness and leadership.

 

 

Reference:

Johnson, D.,  Johnson, R.,  & Smith, K. (1991) Active learning: Cooperation in the college classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.

 

 

 

Positive Interdependence and Pro-motive Interaction

 

Positive interdependence refers to students promoting each other's learning and achievement. Pro-motive interaction is characterized by individuals (Johnson & Johnson, 1991, p, 2:4):

 

1. Providing each other with efficient and effective help and assistance.

2. Exchanging needed resources such as information and materials   and processing information more efficiently and effectively.

3. Providing each other with feedback in order to improve the subsequent performance of their assigned tasks and responsibilities.

4. Challenging each other's conclusions and reasoning in order to promote higher quality decision making and greater insight into problems being considered.

5. Advocating the exertion of effort to achieve mutual goals.

6. Influencing each other's efforts to achieve the group's goals.

7. Acting in trusting and trustworthy ways.

8. Being motivated to strive for mutual benefit.

9. Having a moderate level of arousal characterized by low anxiety and stress.

 

**Face to face pro-motive interaction among individuals fostered by the positive interdependence powerfully influences efforts to achieve, caring and committed relationships and psychological adjustments and social competence.

 

Interpersonal Trust

            To disclose one's reasoning and information, one must trust the other indivduals involved in the situation to listen with respect. Trust includes:

1. Risk- the anticipation of beneficial or harmful consequences

2. Realization that others have the power to determine the consequences of one's actions.

3. Expectation that the harmful consequences are more serious than are the beneficial consequences.

4. Confidence that the others will behave in ways that ensure beneficial consequences for oneself.

            Trusting Behavior is the willingness to risk beneficial or harmful consequences by making oneself vulnerable to another person.

            Trustworthy behavior is the willingness to respond to another person's risk-taking in a way that ensures that the other person will experience beneficial consequences.

Learning Outcomes Promoted By Cooperative Learning

 

Achievement

Higher individual achievement

Increased retention and persistence

Greater achievement motivation and intrinsic motivation to learn.

More positive attitudes towards faculty, advisors and staff

More positive attitudes toward discipline specific learning and education in general

 

Critical Thinking Skills

More frequent higher-level reasoning, deeper-level understanding, and critical thinking.

Greater long term maintenance of skills learned

Increases flexibility in solving problems jointly

Active learning promotes greater conceptual understanding

 

Improved Cross-Cultural Relationships

Greater ability to view situations from other's perspectives.

More positive, accepting, and supportive relationships with peers regardless of ethnic, sex, ability, social class or handicap differences.

Facilitates creation of a learning community

Greater development of trust, cohesiveness and esprit de corps

 

Personal Benefits

Greater social support

Greater psychological health, adjustment, and well being

More positive self esteem based on self-acceptance

Greater social competencies

 

 

References:

Johnson, D.W. & Johnson, R. (1989) Cooperation and competition. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company

Johnson, D., Johnson, R. & Holubec, E. 91992) Advanced cooperative learning. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company

Johnson, D. & Johnson R. (1993) Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic procedures for educating adults: A comparative analysis. University of Minnesota, Cooperative Learning Center.

 

Cooperative Learning is...

an active learning teaching strategy

 

Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy in which the instructor carefully structures content specific materials for students to work on in small group settings in class. Students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning.

 

Five Basic Elements

Cooperative Learning is characterized by five basic elements.

  • Positive Interdependence  a belief that one’s learning is enhanced by sharing  learning with others. The students sink or swim together.

  • Face to Face Promotive Interaction  a process where students orally explain, discuss, teach, help, encourage, assist and support each other’s efforts to learn.

  • Individual Accountability/Personal Responsibility  the instructor must design each activity so that each student must do his/her share of the work and set up on-going assessment of each individual student. Feedback is provided to the group and to the individual.

  • Interpersonal Skills include leadership, decision-making, trustbuilding, communication, confrontation and conflict management skills

  • Group Dynamics  involves the development and maintenance of effective working relationships among members of the group.

     

                Teams

    Cooperative Learning “Teams” are carefully formed by the instructor. Teams are:          

  • heterogeneous on the basis of achievement, experience or skills.

  • relatively small - four is the ideal number as it sets up natural pairs work

  • active throughout class time to clarify and apply lecture material

  • predictable as they grow and develop through stages. The stages are: form, norm, storm and perform.

     

                Activities

    Cooperative Learning activities are tightly structured and can easily elucidate critical thinking skills.  Students are given specific instructions, such as to:

  • solve a problem                 

  • reach concensus on specific focus questions

  • create questions to quiz their team mates

  • take an opposite position of that presented in their readings

  • debate two positions elucidating the salient aspects of critical arguments

  • apply methods and theories to new problems or situations

  • provide concrete examples to illustrate theories

  • compare/contrast different theories and ideas or synthesize different points of view

  • read different articles or sections of a text and teach each other

     

     

          Skill Development

    Cooperative learning teaches supports and encourages the development and use of interpersonal and collaborative skills. These include:

  • teambuilding activities which structure information sharing and serve to solve “fun” problems

  • group development of class and team rules

  • training and support in group processing/dynamics: giving teams time to reflect on their work as a group and to solve their own problems

  • defining social skills such as listening, equal participation, and constructive feedback and providing opportunities for practice of these skills

  • assigning specific roles, such as: ~ recorder ~ gatekeeper ~ time keeper ~ encourager~ task master ~ speaker/representative.

     

    Instructor Role

    The Cooperative Learning Instructor's role is to be a “guide on the side” who carefully structures and monitors:

  • all content material to ensure accurate and complete understanding

  • all group activities to ensure positive interdependence and individual accountability

  • time for development of social skills and group processing

  • team work to provide feedback or to intervene when necessary

     

    Cooperative Learning Definitions

    Learning Goal: a desired future state of competence or mastery in a subject area being studied.

    Goal Structure: specifies the type of interdependence among students as they to accomplish their learning goals.

    Interdependence: may be positive (cooperative) negative (competitive) or none (individualistic).

    Structures:  cooperative learning frameworks that can be used to deliver an infinite range of content. Content is placed into a structure to create a learning activity.  Kagan (1994) advocates multi-structural lessons.  Different structures are useful for different objectives. Deciding on a particular structure one considers what kind of cognitive and social development it will foster and where in the lesson plan and in the curriculum it fits. 

     

     

    References:

    Bonwell, C.C. and Eison, J.A. Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom. 1991 ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports

     

    Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T. and Smith, K.A. (1991) Active learning: cooperation in the college classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company

     

    Kagan, S. (1994) Cooperative learning. San Juan Capistrano: Kagan Cooperative Learning

     

     

     

    Classroom Dynamics

     

    The Differences in Thoughts and Feelings Cooperative, Individualistic and Competitive.

     

    Situation 1                    Cooperative Structure (team effort)

    Think                                                                Feel

    This is fun                                                         Confident..if I can’t solve it, they can

    This is interesting                                               Enjoyable

    This isn’t really work because               Anxious (because I have learned to

    we get to talk; This is cheating               rely only on myself)

               

    Situation 2                    Individualistic Structure (do your best on your own)

    Think                                                                Feel

    No pressure                                                     Relaxed

    There is no hurry; Bored                                   Confident

    I’m going to entertain myself                              Anxious

    I’ll do two or three and that’s all                        Bored

     

    Situation 3                    Competitive Structure (who can do the best?)

    Think                                                                Feel     

    I can’t do it                                                       Scared

    I’m not smart: I have to cheat                            Angry, nervous & giggly

    I’m not even going to try                                   Sick to my stomach

    This is fun                                                         Excited

     

     

     

     

     

     

    References:

    Bonwell, C.C. and Eison, J.A. Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom. 1991 ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports

     

    Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T. and Smith, K.A. (1991) Active learning: cooperation in the college classroom.Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company

     

    Kagan, S. (1994) Cooperative learning. San Juan Capistrano: Kagan Cooperative Learning

     

     

     

     

     

    Cooperative Learning Structures

    Increasing Student Engagement

     

    1. Think Pair Share

                a question/problem is posed

                individuals are given a specified amount of time to think alone

                they pair up and compare their answers

                teacher calls on pairs randomly to share with the class

     

    2. Write Pair Share

                a question or problem is posed

                individuals are given a specified amount of time to write their answers

                they pair up and compare answers

                teacher calls on pairs randomly to share their answer with the class

     

    3. Team Problem Solving Template

                a problem is posed

                the team must arrive at a solution to the problem

                            a. there can be only one answer from each team; all team members must agree on the answer and be able to explain it

                            b. one member of the team will be called upon randomly to explain their team's answer

                           

    4. Team Consensus Activity

                the team is given an article

                they must summarize the article by coming to consensus on the author’s thesis and write a statement that all group members agree expresses it clearly

                they must come to consensus on the main points which support the author’s thesis

                they must agree on and write a statement that paraphrases each point

                they must evaluate the merits of the article and write a statement together that reflects the team's opinions and experiences

     

    5. Jigsaw

                the team is given one long article - divided into four parts or four short articles

                each member skims their article silently writing three salient points the article makes and writing two questions that they can use to check for their team mates understanding

                each member takes turns teaching their article to the other team members and questioning for understanding

               

    Variation:

    Expert Group

                If an article is especially dense or difficult, you can have the team member from each group who reads that article discuss together (if you have six groups of four you will have expert groups with six members in them) what they think the three salient points are, what questions to use to check understanding and to discuss the best way to teach the article to their team members.

                They are then returned to their teams and they take turns teaching the article and questioning for understanding

     

     

    6. 5 Minute Write Reflections

                a question/problem is posed or you have completed a concept and want to check for understanding

                tell the students their response will be read by other students

                ask each student to write “What I am taking with me,” or “My understanding of this concept is...,” or “Here’s what I am still wondering about...” for 5 minutes

                have them switch papers, read what another has said and write a response for 5 minutes. Again have them exchange papers, read the last two writes and write theirown response for 5 minutes

     

    14 Communication Tools

     

    1. Ask Open-Ended Questions – when, what, where

     

    2. Listen - Paraphrase

     

    3. Responsibility – Own YOUR Feelings

     

    4. Give Constructive Criticism – good news and bad news

     

    5. Give Specific Recognition - Personalize

     

    6. Build on Other's Ideas – Decrease competition

     

    7.  Instructions – Clarity for them

     

    8. Assertiveness – State your needs: Specific, Positive, Concrete

     

    9. Conflict Resolution – Threat causes “Downshifting”

     

    10. Non-verbal Communication - Consistency

     

    11. Delay – Slow Down and Reflect

     

    12. Basic Dissimilarities – What don't you know?

     

    13. Psycho-physiological State – Is the brain available?

     

    14. Monitor Self-Talk – personal “silent” communication