The acting headteacher, Mr Andrew Howard, discusses his rationale for introducing the structural approach to Cooperative Learning at Stalham Academy after becoming aware of the research of the Sutton Trust on the effective use of pupil premium published in this year’s EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit.
The EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit compares collaborative learning with a host of other approaches, including everything from after school programs over behavioral interventions to digital technology. According to the report, collaborative learning is the most cost/efficient approach, based on “extensive evidence.” (See comparison table on page 2).
This is especially true when noting that the only two approaches classified as “high impact for low cost” are Feedback, Peer tutoring and Meta-cognition and self-regulation which are seamlessly integrated into Cooperative Learning as we have discussed in numerous posts.
As the Sutton Trust’s 2014 publication EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit states:
“The impact of collaborative approaches on learning is consistently positive, but it does vary so it is important to get the detail right. Effective collaborative learning requires much more than just sitting pupils together and asking them to work together; structured approaches, with well-designed tasks lead to the greatest learning gains. (…) Approaches which promote talk and interaction between learners tend to promote the best gains” (p. 11).
Getting “the details right” with “structured approaches” and “well-designed tasks” to “promote talk and interaction between learners” is the very description of Cooperative Learning Interaction Patterns (CLIPs) which Mr Howard refers to in this interview.
More posts will follow with reflections from Mr Howard on pupil premium and the response of teachers and pupils at Stalham Academy to Cooperative Learning.
For more information, go to full post on on Werdelin Education’s engagement with Stalham Academy:
Skills and Mastery at Norfolk Academy: Attainment with CL
Get notifications of related posts on twitter.
cooperativelearning.works 