• What is wrong with this scenario?

A group is scheduled to make a presentation in class this afternoon. Yesterday, they discussed what each group member would do, and yesterday evening they were supposed to email each other to share feedback on their parts. Unfortunately, Haryanto never emailed the other group members or replied to their emails, and this morning, when the others asked him what had happened, he told them he was busy playing a video game with some friends.

The CL principle of individual accountability is so important because it seeks to encourage all members to maximize the opportunities to participate and, thereby, share their ideas and energy with the group. In the story, Haryanto, unfortunately, decided to use his ideas and energy elsewhere.

Among the ways that CL encourages each student to feel individual accountability to their group are:

• each member takes a turn in group activities and discussions;
• each group member has a role to play in group work, such as questioner (whose job is to ask questions), praiser (who highlights what group mates have done well), encourager (who encourages quieter members to take part in the group activities), and facilitator (who keeps the group on track toward completing their tasks); and
• after the group activity, everyone takes an individual quiz or does some other individual task, or the teacher calls on group members at random to present and explain their group’s ideas.

Reflective Break

Have you ever seen any of the above ways of encouraging the CL principle of individual accountability? Did they work? If you have never seen any of these ways of encouraging individual accountability, if you are working with others, please discuss one.

Sample Response

I like to use CL techniques in which everyone needs to take a turn. Many CL techniques use turn taking. For example, two students can cooperate to do a mind map, and they can take turns to add to the mind map.