The interactive and interdependent components of cooperative learning offer emotional and interpersonal experiences that boost emotional awareness, judgment, critical analysis, flexible perspective-taking, creative problem-solving, innovation, and goal-directed behavior.
Positive interdependence: When teachers create an environment of interdependence, students feel responsible for their own work and the group’s success.
Face-to-face interaction: In cooperative learning, students engage in discussions, make eye contact with each other and provide support.
Individual and group accountability: In a group activity, each student has an individual role or assignment. This can help the group reach its goal.
Group behaviors: Students can learn behavioral techniques like interpersonal skills, social interaction, and collaborative skills that teach them how to work with others.
Group processing: Toward the end of a project or assignment, students can assess the effectiveness of their group by analyzing how well its members were able to informal cooperative learning, small, temporary, ad-hoc groups of two to four students work together for brief periods in a class, typically up to one class period, to answer questions or respond to prompts posed by the instructor.