Pros And Cons Of Cooperative Learning

Before we can apply cooperative and collaborative learning to the physical education classroom we must have a complete understanding of what those two things are, and what makes them different. Cooperative learning is used when introducing your students to a new skill or sport. It divides the children into groups and allows them to take on a task by themselves, except the task cannot have a goal to obtain. That is where collaborative learning comes in. Collaborative learning divides children into groups as well, but the kids are now completing a task or a goal and not just working on a new skill. These learning styles allow students to experience diversity, problem solving, social skills, and a lot more. There are certainly cons to these styles …show more content…
At an elementary level, it may be too advanced for the children to only work with themselves on the tasks at hand. Some sports or tasks you could use for an elementary classroom would be tag or the action of throwing a football/baseball. The kids are still being introduced to these tasks, so as the teacher you may be engaging with the students while they are in groups learning the concept. This shows that these styles use interactive teaching a lot especially at a younger age level. At an older level, or the secondary level, you leave it almost completely to the students to learn the task or sport being taught to them. Students at this level understand almost all the possible activities that you can be teaching them, so once you introduce them to the task they need to work on, you can leave them to their groups and analyze them without engaging with them. Some activities you can use for secondary level kids are kickball and tennis. The students at the secondary level would be learning the entire sport rather than certain skills involved with the sport itself. Some disadvantages to cooperative learning are the lack of a goal and social interaction. Some children may not get along as well as others, and you as the teacher must assign the students you think will work the best together in the same groups. This is a lot easier said than done, but you can never be perfect when assigning