•  What is wrong with this scenario?

Whenever Alexandra has a question, instead of asking her groupmates, she raises her hand to seek help from the teacher. As a result, the teacher has less time to help other groups, and Alexandra’s groupmates lose opportunities to learn by teaching her and learning together with her. Also, the quantity and the quality of peer interactions in the group is low, and the feeling of positive interdependence among group members does not develop.

This scenario illustrates why group autonomy represents an important CL principle. Students need to learn to depend on each other. After all, throughout life, they will often need to depend on peers; their teachers cannot follow them around forever. Students need to believe that 1 + 1 can equal not just 2; it can also equal some other values as well depending on the context. As students struggle together to understand, they can develop their own understandings and their strengths at cooperative problem-solving.

One strategy for assuring students turn to each other for help and don’t always depend on the teacher is for the teacher to practice “remote monitoring.” Rather than staying at the front of the classroom while students are working, circulate among the groups. However, while standing close enough to one group so you can hear them, watch another nearby group so you can see how their work is going. Both groups will feel that you are busy with the other group and will therefore turn to each other for help.

Reflective Break

If groups are trying to be autonomous, trying to depend on themselves instead of immediately seeking teacher assistance, what will teachers do while students are learning together?

Sample Response

We teachers need to step away from always being the center of attention. We should monitor groups and observe what students know and don’t know, as well as observing how well they interact. Are CL principles, such as equal opportunity to participate and maximum peer interactions (quality), being enacted? Furthermore, while we are observing, we should try to stand or sit at a slight distance from the groups we are observing; otherwise, old habits can raise their heads, and we can become the center of the groups’ attention.