THEMBELA NGWANE ADVANTAGES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING Learners can share their values and opinions with their peers. Cooperative learning promotes the positive attitude between the learner and the teacher. As students work together, they can experience the ways in which others think regarding the task at hand. Such exposure then leads to the individual to develop a higher level of thinking than previously possessed. Cooperative learning helps in building teamwork and collaboration. It helps to depend on others for tasks that require a collaborative effort. Learners use this opportunity to understand their teammates and decode their work styles. Everyone has something unique to bring to the group. There are many ways a teacher can assess the progress of the learners. It reduces the workload of the teacher, because the teacher explains for a group rather than individual. it reduces the number of scripts the teacher must mark because she can mark one scripts per group rather than the individual learner. learners begin to realize the benefits of working together and being held accountable. If a group member is not doing their part, then the whole group suffers. On the opposite end, students who work hard within their group can see the group progress and how much they can learn and grow from their group members. Since the teacher uses different learning styles, for example oral, verbal etc... the teacher can accommodate all the learners which enhance the understanding of the learners. The teacher helps students to be independently using the instructional strategies. This helps the teacher to have selfdevelopment when he/she sees that learners can work independently. DISADVANTAGES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING One of the greatest challenges of cooperative learning is its reliance on a positive group dynamic to function at its highest efficiency. Conflict between individuals can diminish or stall a group’s ability to work together, which raises a significant problem when group members are too young to have fully formed conflict-resolution skills. It is time consuming for new teachers and requires adequate facilities and infrastructure. Teachers might feel as if they do not have time to do cooperative learning on the grounds that in fact, it might require more time to get a similar material covered. If teachers are on a cutoff time, endeavors at cooperative learning could become rushed and deficient, leaving teachers with the need to reteach the material. In these instances, teachers really may feel that there is not sufficient time, and that helpful learning is fruitless in their homeroom with their learners. Working in groups can often involve situations where the group moves to fast for a student. It allows work to get done without knowing that every person in that group understands what was done. Sometimes the members in your group may work faster than others which may cause tension. learners with permission to collaborate with one another speaks increasingly louder, which can become a distraction from the learning process. It is also impossible for one teacher to constantly monitor each group, which can result in off-topic chatter. Students working in groups might also leave their seats to review materials together. Without strict discipline, cooperative learning can reduce an organized classroom to utter chaos. Cooperative learning forces teachers to be carefully prepared for this learning strategy. Working in a team can be extremely time-consuming as a student. Not only do meetings have to be scheduled outside of class hours but they have to co-ordinate with everyone’s schedule.
