Why learn collaboratively - Inquiry

Common Ground: Teaching Kids the Benefits Of Working Together

During the course of the assignment, the children work together for a shared benefit, realizing that all members share that goal and the rewards of achieving it. Cooperative learning goes hand in hand with social and emotional learning (SEL). Briefly, the two approaches help develop a number of skills, including

• self-awareness: recognizing feelings and identifying interests, strengths, and weaknesses.
• self-management: managing feelings and behavior to control impulses and persevere in achieving important personal and academic goals.
• social awareness: understanding the needs and feelings of others, while appreciating similarities and differences among individuals and groups.
• relationship skills: maintaining positive relationships with others.
• responsible decision making: making good choices and contributing to one's school, one's community, and the world.

Studies of cooperative-learning strategies regularly report an increase in engagement and active participation in the learning process, which in turn increase student motivation, time on task, and retention times and improve cognitive reasoning and the ability to see from others' perspectives.