Panitz makes an interesting revelation in his study of the nature of interactive learning with his connections between methods and age group appropriateness. Having worked both elementary and secondary levels and having experimented with the capacities and behaviors of these students in relation to cooperative and collaborative learning methods gives me personal insights to the valid points he makes. Cooperative learning best suits the foundational level of students in the early grades, giving them opportunity to solve known problems with predictable outcomes. Collaborative learning best suits older students or at least experienced students who have a capacity to tackle problems with unpredictable, open-ended outcomes.
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Rafe Esquith describes cooperative activities in his fifth grade classroom in a book entitled "Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire". He gives problem solving activities and then allows groups to try different solutions to problems, learning by trial and error. The natural instinct for most teachers is to intervene and correct mistakes instead of allowing groups to learn from failures.
I use collaborative activities at times in high school. Students tend to ask "when are you going to tell us the answer?" Or "is this the right answer?" Some are frustrated when they are told there is no one right answer.
MANY are frustrated when told there is no single right answer! I don't blame them--every time I take a class with a constructivist methodology, I get frustrated and disgusted! I like to know where I am supposed to be going before I take off on a tangent that may not produce anything. I think integrating both may be more difficult face 2 face and more natural in an OLC! Is that a paradox??
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