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Figure 2.1: Attentive listening Y-chart.

       How to practice demonstrating skill mastery: Students can show that they understand a skill through multiple means—by drawing it, role-playing a situation in which the skill is used appropriately, role-playing to demonstrate the skill in action, or writing about themselves or others using this skill in real-life situations. When guiding students through practice, teachers need to select a suitable social skill to fit the situation at hand. At first, students may feel awkward with the use of social skills and even become a little exaggerated in their use. As students practice the skills over time, however, they become more relaxed and appropriate in their use. Teachers in PLCs can assign a skill of the month to make sure students get lots of exposure and practice in using individual social skills.

      As you can see, supporting the social brain offers students important tools they will leverage in every aspect of life in—and beyond—school. Of course, one of the most challenging arenas for maintaining strong social skills is in group work. School offers an important opportunity to practice the social skills required for group collaboration, as we outline in the next section of this chapter.

Utilizing Cooperative Group Learning

      Cooperative group learning is the key strategy for the differentiated classroom that uses heterogeneous grouping to promote success for all students. Although grouping students showed a low effect size (0.18) in Hattie’s (2009) meta-analysis, especially for ability grouping, heterogeneous grouping is more beneficial for all students’ ability levels (Lou et al., 1996). Cooperative group learning has also been one of the most researched strategies for educators since the 1980s. CGL not only increases student achievement but also supports the development of the 21st century skills of communication and collaboration.

      When educators implement CGL carefully and thoughtfully, they can expect students to experience the following benefits (Johnson & Johnson, 2009; Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1998).

       Greater self-esteem among students

       Higher achievement

       Better retention of material

       Increased social support

       Improved collaborative skills

       More positive attitudes toward school and teachers

       Higher levels of reasoning

      In addition to these benefits, CGL also contributes to creating a safe and supportive classroom climate, and it provides students with opportunities to discover and develop their own learning interests and preferences. CGL contributes to vocabulary and concept development as well, since students develop higher-order thinking by using vocabulary in the context of discussion and collaboration. The dialogue of group work contributes to this development in ways the monologue of a teacher lecture cannot. Hattie’s (2009) research suggests a 0.82 effect size boost in learning growth from the dialogue of group work.

      For all these reasons and more, teachers are wise to consciously and consistently teach students CGL skills. Yet, in too many classrooms, true cooperative group learning is not routine. If students can’t work together successfully with appropriate social skills, group work will fail most times. Teachers of such classes are prone to abandon group work, saying their students simply can’t handle it.

      Cooperative group learning is simple in concept, but its implementation can be complicated. Like anything else that is worthwhile, teaching CGL effectively requires careful planning, an anticipation of issues, and persistence. Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) suggest that students may need twenty-four practice trials in order to master a new skill or concept. Teachers should, perhaps, expect the same number of attempts as they learn to implement a new classroom practice or strategy. During this time, educators can leverage their own collaborative skills by discussing their practices, trials, and errors with supportive colleagues who will listen to the glitches that develop and offer their own problem-solving ideas. Now, let’s examine some of the most successful best practices for implementing CGL in the classroom and for overcoming some of the most common problems educators encounter as they learn to leverage these powerful CGL strategies.

       Flexible Groupings

      Flexible grouping is an integral part of the brain-friendly classroom, in which teachers group students according to their needs, readiness, and interests. Such groupings can encompass any number of students, as is illustrated in the TIPS (total class, independent students, partners, and small groups) chart in table 2.1. Educators can use the descriptions of group organization and functions in this chart to consider types and uses of grouping in the classroom for variety and purpose.

      Teachers can use a variety of these flexible groupings throughout the day to offer students a change of venue and varied opportunities to interact with their classmates. Teachers can base them on student needs and readiness levels. Similarly, students can work in learning centers or stations (see chapter 5, page 125) based on need or heterogeneously to promote the cross-pollination of ideas. Heterogeneous groups are best for fostering student achievement. In readiness-level groups, students don’t experience the diversity of thinking that occurs in heterogeneous groups. Homogenous groups often lack the periodic sparks of inspiration necessary to keep the group going. Lou et al. (1996) caution us that only average or grade-level students do slightly better in homogenous groups. The struggling learners in homogenous groups still struggle, and the more able students may be competitive rather than collaborative. Teachers can embed communication and collaboration skills into instruction while helping students reach targeted standards in all subject areas, thus allowing students to work in collaborative heterogeneous groups of any size. This type of group work models how the real world of business, industry, families, and organizations operates.

Table 2.1: TIPS for Grouping