Fortunately, cooperative learning (CL) offers ideas for increasing chances that students will come to class prepared to interact with peers on the topics of the day, although CL cannot address students’ need to work or take care of family members.

Roles

Firstly, students can have roles within their group. For example, one role can be to remind groupmates to prepare. These reminders can be delivered in class the previous day or the evening before class by such means as email, phone calls, home visits, or text messages. Cooperative skills can increase the chances that these reminders will be happily received, e.g., a “reminder sandwich” can be prepared. A sandwich consists of two pieces of bread with something in between, such as hummus or tofu. In a reminder sandwich, the bread equivalent consists of some two bits of friendly chat about areas of common interest, one bit before the reminder and one after, with the reminder to do the assignment in between.

Peer Help

Students, especially students with lower past achievement, may not do the preparation because they may find the pre-class materials to be too difficult. This is a second opportunity for groups to be useful, with groupmates before class helping peers understand the materials. This assistance need not be one-way help, because higher achieving students who explain to groupmates also learn, just as teachers learn by teaching their students. Schools can facilitate this peer teaching and learning by providing spaces, such as picnic benches on the school grounds, where students can meet to prepare before class or before school.

Again, cooperative skills can be useful when students prepare for class. In this case, one potentially useful skill is asking for help. Too many times, students are reluctant to admit they do not know. This links to the CL principle of individual accountability which encourages students to do their fair share in their group. While CL principle of positive interdependence involves groupmates supporting each other; individual accountability entails pressure from groupmates for each person to contribute to achieving group goals. This includes students letting groupmates know when they cannot do their fair share, so that groupmates can help them.

Contracts

Contracts provide a third way that groups can assist students in being individually accountable by coming to class prepared. Of course, the contracts referred to here are not financial contracts. Instead, the group members promise each other to prepare ahead of class so that they are ready to play their roles as active group members during class. Should there be rewards or penalties when group members fulfil or do not fulfil their obligations as stated in the contract? That question is for groups to decide. Leaving the decision to each group fits with the cooperative learning principle of group autonomy, i.e., groups attempt to stand on their own rather than relying on teachers. Other groups and teachers remain ready to help, but one’s group members constitute the first option when assistance is needed. This applies to assistance in understanding materials and doing tasks. Group autonomy also applies to group members motivating each other to be individually accountable to their fellow group members.

While groups holding members accountable fits well with CL, it is important to emphasize that there can be a fine line between pushing peers to be individually accountable and pushing too hard. One teacher tells the story of a student who stopped coming to school because his groupmates had threatened to beat him up if he did not do his fair share toward the group effort. This story is yet another example of the importance of cooperative skills.

Scaffolding by Teachers

Last but not least, teachers play an essential role in students’ successfully preparing for class. In addition to the usual teacher roles, such as making materials comprehensible, teachers can also help their students by adding short self-check tasks for students to do while preparing. Additionally, teachers or group members can prepare mini-quizzes to do at the beginning of class for students to review what they have learned. While teachers are important, students can have the scope to decide on their own ways to interact with the materials, such as drawing or choosing a song they are reminded of while reading, viewing, etc. Also, students can generate topics for the class to discuss based on their pre-class work, instead of relying exclusively on teacher-generated topics. In general, two slogans to bear in mind are “Start Small” and “Play to Success” i.e., do short, easy tasks to build students’ skills and confidence. These slogans certainly apply to the Flipped Classroom and all CL activities.