UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION I

(LPP 1113)

ASSIGNMENT 1

(TEACHING METHODS)

THREE CHOOSEN TEACHING METHODS ARE:

i) COOPERATIVE LEARNING

ii) CONTRUCTIVISME

iii) COGNITIVE LEARNING

1.0 INTRODUCTION

New Curriculum For Primary School or Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Rendah (KBSR) have
their own aims in developing student’s function thoroughly. It was exist to develop and generate
balance and harmony human from many aspects such as intellect, soul, and emotion and physical
for them to get a better lifestyle. To get into these reasons, teacher should have a great skill on
choosing teaching and learning method. It is important to get the good and greater skill that
appropriate and suitable with student’s enthusiasm and ability.

Student’s knowledge is not limited only from information senses that exist freely in the
environment, absorb into the student’s mind within the sense experience. But knowledge is get
from build in by themselves or by the student within the experience and abstraction.

According to Wikipedia and other research, teaching methods are can be described as a
sequence of best methods use in teaching. Teaching method can best articulated by answering
the questions, "What is the purpose of education?" and "What are the best ways of achieving
these purposes?". For much of prehistory, educational methods were largely informal, and
consisted of children which is student, imitating or modeling their behavior on that of their elders
which is teacher, learning through observation and play. A teacher creates the course materials to
be taught and then enforces it. Pedagogy is usually the different way a teacher can teach. It is the
art or science of being a teacher, generally referring to strategies of instruction or style of
instruction. Resources that help teachers teach better are typically a lesson plan, or practical skill
involving learning and thinking skills.

There are varieties of strategies and methods are used in teaching to ensure that all
students have equal opportunities to learn. The teaching methods includes Direct
Teaching/Instruction, Individual Teaching, Team Teaching, Cognitive Learning Model/Theory,
Interactive Teaching, Facilitative Teaching, Constructivism, Cooperative Learning, Reciprocal
Teaching, Problem Solving Teaching and many other. But for this, we only discuss on three
teaching method which is Constructivism, Cooperative Learning and Cognitive Learning
Model/Theory.
2.0 CONTENT

2.1 COOPERATIVE LEARNING

According to Wikipedia, cooperative learning was proposed in response to traditional

curriculum-driven education. In cooperative learning environments, students interact in
purposely structured heterogeneous groups to support the learning of oneself and others in the
same group. Cooperative learning seeks to foster some benefits from the freedom of individual
learning and other benefits from collaborative learning. Cooperative learning thrives in virtual
learning environments that emphasize individual freedom within online learning communities.

The cooperative learning (CL) refers to students working in teams on an assignment or

project under conditions in which certain criteria are satisfied. It was including that the team
members be held individually accountable for the complete content of the assignment or project.
Many students who have worked in a team in a laboratory- or project-based course do not have
fond memories of the experience. Some recall one or two team members doing all the work and
the others simply going along for the ride but getting the same grade.

Others remember dominant students, whose intense desire for a good grade led them to
stifle their teammates’ efforts to contribute. Still others recall arrangements in which the work
was divided up and the completed parts were stapled together and turned in, with each team
member knowing little or nothing about what any of the others did. Whatever else these students
learned from their team experiences, they learned to avoid team projects whenever possible.

Cooperative learning is an approach to group work that minimizes the occurrence of

those unpleasant situations and maximizes the learning and satisfaction that result from working
on a high-performance team. A large and rapidly growing body of research confirms the
effectiveness of cooperative learning in higher education. Relative to students taught
traditionally, for example, with instructor-centered lectures, individual assignments, and
competitive grading, greater persistence through graduation, better high-level reasoning and
critical thinking skills, deeper understanding of learned material, greater time on task and less
disruptive behavior in class, lower levels of anxiety and stress, greater intrinsic motivation to
learn and achieve, greater ability to view situations from others’ perspectives, more positive and
supportive relationships with peers, more positive attitudes toward subject areas, and higher self-
esteem.

2.11 What is Cooperative Learning?

Several definitions of cooperative learning have been formulated. The one most widely
used in higher education is probably that of David and Roger Johnson of the University of
Minnesota. According to the Johnson & Johnson model, cooperative learning is instruction that
involves students working in teams to accomplish a common goal, under conditions that include
the following elements:

1. Positive interdependence
Team members are obliged to rely on one another to achieve the goal. If any team
members fail to do their part, everyone suffers consequences.

2. Individual and group accountability

Keeping the size of the group small. The smaller the size of the group, the greater the
individual accountability may be. All students in a group are held accountable for doing
their share of the work and for mastery of all of the material to be learned.

3. Face-to-face promotive interaction

Although some of the group work may be parceled out and done individually, some must
be done interactively, with group members providing one another with feedback,
challenging reasoning and conclusions, and perhaps most importantly, teaching and
encouraging one another.

4. Appropriate use of collaborative skills

Students are encouraged and helped to develop and practice trust-building, leadership,
decision-making, communication, and conflict management skills.

5. Group processing
 Team members set group goals, discuss how well they are achieving their goals and
maintaining effective working relationships, periodically assess what they are doing well
as a team, and identify changes they will make to function more effectively in the future.

Cooperative learning is not simply a synonym for students working in groups. A learning
exercise only qualifies as cooperative learning to the extent that the five listed elements are
present.

According to Shlomo Sharan (1994), there are many types of cooperative learning
methods. It includes the student teams-achievement divisions (STAD), team assisted
individualization and cooperative integrated reading and composition, the jigsaw method,
learning together, structuring academic controversy, complex instruction (higher-order thinking
in heterogeneous classrooms), group investigating in the cooperative classroom and the structural
approach(six keys to cooperative learning).

2.13 Cooperative Learning Structures

As been discussing before, cooperative learning is students working in teams on an

assignment or project under conditions in which certain criteria are satisfied. Cooperative
learning can be used in for any type of assignment that can be given to students in classes,
laboratories, or project-based courses. Some of the structures that have been used, with some
recommendations for how they may be effectively implemented are such as problem sets, jigsaw,
laboratories and projects and others. In this study, we will discuss and have been research only
on laboratories and projects.

Laboratories and projects seldom may be carried out by teams, except that again the team
grades should be adjusted for individual performance. The problem with team labs and projects
as they are normally conducted is that there is no individual accountability at all. The result is the
familiar situation in which some team members do the bulk of the work, others contribute little
and understand little or nothing about the project, everyone gets the same grade, and resentment
abounds.
 Adjusting the team project grades for individual performance goes a long way toward
correcting these injustices. In addition, it is good practice to include some individual testing on
every aspect of the project and have the results count toward the final course grade. If this is
done, hitchhikers who understand either nothing or only the little they did personally will be
penalized and perhaps induced to play a more active role in subsequent work.

2.13 Why use Cooperative Learning?

Research has shown that cooperative learning techniques:

• promote student learning and academic achievement
• increase student retention
• enhance student satisfaction with their learning experience
• help students develop skills in oral communication
• develop students' social skills
• promote student self-esteem
• help to promote positive race relations

There are several reasons why cooperative learning works as well as it does. The idea that
students learn more by doing something active than by simply watching and listening has long
been known to both cognitive psychologists and effective teachers and cooperative learning is by
its nature an active method.

Beyond that, cooperation enhances learning in several ways. Weak students working
individually are likely to give up when they get stuck, working cooperatively, they keep going.
Strong students faced with the task of explaining and clarifying material to weaker students often
find gaps in their own understanding and fill them in. Students working alone may tend to delay
completing assignments or skip them altogether, but when they know that others are counting on
them, they are motivated to do the work in a timely manner.

The proven benefits of cooperative learning notwithstanding, instructors who attempt it

frequently encounter resistance and sometimes open hostility from the students. Bright students
complain about begin held back by their slower teammates, weak or unassertive students
complain about being discounted or ignored in group sessions, and resentments build when some
team members fail to pull their weight. Knowledgeable and patient instructors find ways to deal
with these problems, but others become discouraged and revert to the traditional teacher-centered
instructional paradigm, which is a loss both for them and for their students.

On the other hand, based on Judy Willis (2007), cooperative group activities, unlike
whole class discussions or independent work, it provides the most opportunities for students to
express their ideas, questions, conclusions, and associations verbally. In group work, that amount
of time increases dramatically. The researcher found that students experienced a greater level of
understanding of concepts and ideas when they talked, explained, and argued about them with
their group, instead of just passively listening to a lecture or reading a text. Therefore, the best
cooperative learning will give a good affect in teaching, student’s learning towards the student’s
achievement.

Cooperative-learning methods have proven effective in increasing motivation for learning

and self-esteem, redirecting attributions for success and failure, fostering positive feelings
toward classmates, and increasing performance on tests of comprehension, reasoning, and
problem solving. Accordingly, readers may want to try one or more of the cooperative-learning
methods. To familiarize with these methods, we will briefly describe the Learning Together
method by a book written by Shlomo Sharan (1994).

The Learning Together approach to cooperative learning should include all of the following
elements:

1. Three types of cooperative learning procedures should be used in an integrative

ways. There are formal cooperative learning, informal cooperative learning and
cooperative based groups.

2. Each cooperative lesson or activity should include the essential components that
make cooperation work, namely, positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive
interaction, individual accountability, social skills, and group processing.

3. The repetitive, routine lessons as well as classroom routines should be

cooperative.
4. The organizational structure of schools should be changed from a competitive or
individualistic mass-production structure to a cooperative team structure.

Essential Elements

Positive Interdependence
Face-to-face Promotive Interaction
Individual Accountability
Social Skills
Group Processing

Teacher’s Role

Formal Groups
Instructional Objectives
Preinstructional Decisions
Explain Task and Cooperation
Monitoring and Intervening
Evaluating and Processing
Informal Groups
Introductory Discussions
Interspersed Discussions
Closure Discussion
Base Groups

Specific Cooperative Generic Cooperative

Learning Lessons Learning Structures

Routine Use of Cooperative Learning

Figure 1.0 : Cooperative Learning

 Cooperative learning may be used in various ways as been viewed in figure above. They
include formal cooperative learning, informal cooperative learning, cooperative based groups
and cooperative structures. Formal cooperative learning is students working together, for one
class period to several weeks, to achieve shared learning goals and to complete specific tasks and
assignments. These assignments include decision making, completing a curriculum unit, writing
a report, conducting a survey or experiment, reading a chapter or reference book and learning
vocabulary. Any course requirement or assignment may be reformulated to be cooperative. In
formal cooperative learning groups, teachers do the following:

1. Specify the objectives for the lessons.

In every lesson there should be an academic objective specifying the concepts and
strategies to be learned and a social skills objective specifying the interpersonal or
small-group skill to be used and mastered during the lesson.

2. Make a number of preinstructional decisions.

A teacher has to decide on the size of groups, the method of assigning students to
groups, the roles students will be assigned, the materials needed to conduct the
lessons, and the way the room will be arranged.

3. Explain the task and the positive interdependence.

A teacher clearly defines the assignment, teaches the required concepts and strategies,
specifies the positive interdependence and individual accountability, gives the criteria
for success and explains the expected social skills to be engaged in.

4. Monitor student’s learning and intervene within the groups to provide task
assistance or to increased student’s interpersonal and group skills.
A teacher systematically observes and collects data on each group as it works. When
it is needed, the teacher intervenes to assist students in completing the task accurately
and in working together effectively.

5. Evaluate student’s learning and help students process how well their groups
functioned.
 Student’s learning is carefully assessed and their performances are evaluated.
Members of the learning groups then process how effectively they have been working
together.

As the groups are working, teachers can promote the desired cooperative behavior by
modeling how students can periodically check in with each other to answer these questions
during the activity. At the conclusion of each day’s group time, group members assigned to
record feedback for the group reveal their observation data in their small groups. This is followed
by teacher feedback to the whole class, including public praise to students who have done well in
the context of group work. Successful compromise and inclusiveness, rather than speed at
solving the problem or completing the project, is acknowledged. Classrooms where students are
engaged in well planned cooperative work are more joyful places in which management issues
diminish and students develop social and learning skills.

2.2 CONTRUCTIVISM

A constructivist model of learning has been proposed as an alternative to the transmission

model implicit in all behaviorist and some cognitive approaches (Brown, Collins, & Duguid,
1989). Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on
our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us
generates our own “rules” and “mental models,” which we use to make sense of our experiences.
Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new
experiences. There are a number of competing constructivisms but the underlying principle is
that two kinds of knowledge are created by two kinds of learning. One kind is inert, easily
forgotten, and untransferable beyond its initial context of learning because it was "pre-emptively
encoded" by an expert for transmission to a learner. The other kind is memorable and
transferable to novel contexts because learners have encoded it for themselves out of raw data, or
at least raised it from a lower to a higher level of organization, by forming and testing hypotheses
as professional scientists do.
 As a philosophy of learning, constructivism can be traced to the eighteenth century and
the work of the philosopher Giambattista Vico, who maintained that humans can understand only
what they have themselves constructed. A great many philosophers and educationalists have
worked with these ideas, but the first major contemporaries to develop a clear idea of what
constructivism consists in were Jean Piaget and John Dewey, to name but a few. Part of the
discussion that ensues grapples with the major tenets of their philosophies, with a view to
shedding light on constructivism and its vital contribution to learning. As a revealing gloss on
this issue, it could be said that constructivism takes an interdisciplinary perspective, in as much
as it draws upon a diversity of psychological, sociological, philosophical, and critical educational
theories. In view of this, constructivism is an overarching theory that does not intend to demolish
but to reconstruct past and present teaching and learning theories, its concern lying in shedding
light on the learner as an important agent in the learning process, rather than in wresting the
power from the teacher.

Constructivism has recently become interesting to educational technologists, partly

because of the ways that information technology is impacting on life, learning, and work (Duffy
& Jonassen, 1991), and partly because it offers a new approach to instructional design as interest
declines in the instructional systems technology model. Constructivism is basically a theory
which is based on observation and scientific study about how people learn. It says that people
construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and
reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with
our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the
new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do
this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know.

Within the constructivist paradigm, the accent is on the learner rather than the teacher. It
is the learner who interacts with his or her environment and thus gains an understanding of its
features and characteristics. The learner constructs his own conceptualisations and finds his own
solutions to problems, mastering autonomy and independence. According to constructivism,
learning is the result of individual mental construction, whereby the learner learns by dint of
matching new against given information and establishing meaningful connections, rather than by
internalising mere factoids to be regurgitated later on. In constructivist thinking, learning is
inescapably affected by the context and the beliefs and attitudes of the learner. Here, learners are
given more latitude in becoming effective problem solvers, identifying and evaluating problems,
as well as deciphering ways in which to transfer their learning to these problems.

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of
different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to
use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and
then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing.
The teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the
activity to address them and then build on them.

Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity is helping
them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in the
constructivist classroom ideally become "expert learners." This gives them ever-broadening tools
to keep learning. With a well-planned classroom environment, the students learn HOW TO
LEARN.

There are several guiding principles of constructivism when we want to apply in teaching
and learning. First is learning is a search for meaning. Therefore, learning must start with the
issues around which students are actively trying to construct meaning. The second of guiding
principles is meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts. And parts must be
understood in the context of wholes. Therefore, the learning process focuses on primary
concepts, not isolated facts.

After that, in order to teach well, we must understand the mental models that students
use to perceive the world and the assumptions they make to support those model and the last is
the purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just
memorize the “right” answers and regurgitate someone else’s meaning. Since education is
inherently interdisciplinary, the only valuable way to measure learning is to make the assessment
part of the learning process, ensuring it provides students with information on the quality of their
learning. You might look at it as a spiral. When they continuously reflect o their experiences,
students find their ideas gaining in complexity and power, and they develop increasingly strong
abilities to integrate new information. One of the teacher’s main roles becomes to encourage this
learning and reflection process. For example: Groups of students in a science class are discussing
a problem in physic. Though the teacher knows the “answer” to the problem, she focuses on
helping students restate their question in useful ways. She prompts each student to reflect on and
examine his or her current knowledge. When one of the students comes up with the relevant
concept, the teacher seizes upon it, and indicates to the group that this might be a fruitful avenue
for them to explore. They design and perform relevant experiments. Afterward, the students and
teacher talk about what they have learned, and how their observations and experiments helped
(or did not help) them to better understand the concept.

Contrary to criticisms by some (conservative/traditional) educators, constructivism does

not dismiss the active role of the teacher or the value of expert knowledge. Constructivism
modifies that role, so that teachers help students to construct knowledge rather than to reproduce
a series of facts. The constructivist teacher provides tools such as problem-solving and inquiry-
based learning activities with which students formulate and test their ideas, draw conclusions and
inferences, and pool and convey their knowledge in a collaborative learning environment.
Constructivism transforms the student from a passive recipient of information to an active
participant in the learning process. Always guided by the teacher, students construct their
knowledge actively rather than just mechanically ingesting knowledge from the teacher or the
textbook.

Constructivism is also often misconstrued as a learning theory that compels students to

"reinvent the wheel." In fact, constructivism taps into and triggers the student's innate curiosity
about the world and how things work. Students do not reinvent the wheel but, rather, attempt to
understand how it turns, how it functions. They become engaged by applying their existing
knowledge and real-world experience, learning to hypothesize, testing their theories, and
ultimately drawing conclusions from their findings.

The study of human cognition has many specific applications for educational practice and
technology use. The following are five general educational applications of constructive theory
that should be considered when designing instruction.
 First, if learning depends on how information is mentally processed, then students’
cognitive processes should be major concern to educators. Students’ learning difficulties can
often be attributed to ineffective or inappropriate cognitive processes. For example, learning
disabled children process information less effectively than no disabled children. Teachers must
become aware of not only of what students learn, but also of how they attempt to learn it.

Second, educators must consider students’ levels of cognitive development when

planning topics and methods of instruction. For example, explanations based on concrete
operational logic are unlikely to be effective ways of presenting ideas to preoperational
kindergarteners. Concrete operational elementary school children have difficulties in
understanding abstract ideas that do not tie in with their own experiences. These students will
learn more effectively if the same information is presented through concrete, hands-on
examples. Even high school and college students, who have not completed the formal
operational stage, will need concrete experiences prior to presenting abstract material.

Third, students organise the information they learn. Teachers can help students’ learn by
presenting organised information and by helping students see how one thing relates to another.

Fourth, new information is most likely acquired when people can associate it with things
they have already learned. Therefore, teachers should help students’ learn by showing them how
new ideas relate to old ones. When students are unable to relate new information to anything
with which they are familiar, learning is likely to be slow and ineffective.

Fifth, that student must actively respond if they are to learn. Cognitive is also emphasise
mental activity rather than physical one. If students control their own cognitive process, it is
ultimately the students themselves who decide what information will be learned, and how.

There are some benefit when we applying constructivism as a method for our teaching
and learning. The benefit is children learn more, and enjoy learning more when they are actively
involved, rather than passive listeners. Education works best when it concentrates on thinking
and understanding, rather than on rote memorization. Constructivism concentrates on learning
how to think and understand. Constructivist learning is transferable. In constructivist classrooms,
students create organizing principles that they can take with them to other learning settings.
 Constructivism gives students ownership of what they learn, since learning is based on
students' questions and explorations, and often the students have a hand in designing the
assessments as well. Constructivist assessment engages the students' initiatives and personal
investments in their journals, research reports, physical models, and artistic representations.
Engaging the creative instincts develops students' abilities to express knowledge through a
variety of ways. The students are also more likely to retain and transfer the new knowledge to
real life. By grounding learning activities in an authentic, real-world context, constructivism
stimulates and engages students. Students in constructivist classrooms learn to question things
and to apply their natural curiosity to the world.

Constructivism promotes social and communication skills by creating a classroom

environment that emphasizes collaboration and exchange of ideas. Students must learn how to
articulate their ideas clearly as well as to collaborate on tasks effectively by sharing in group
projects. Students must therefore exchange ideas and so must learn to "negotiate" with others and
to evaluate their contributions in a socially acceptable manner. This is essential to success in the
real world, since they will always be exposed to a variety of experiences in which they will have
to cooperate and navigate among the ideas of others.

2.3 COGNITIVE LEARNING

3.0 CONCLUSION

The field of education has undergone a significant shift in thinking about the nature of
human learning and the conditions that best promote the varied dimensions of human learning.
As in psychology, there has been a paradigm shift in designed instruction; from behaviorism to
cognitive and now to constructivism. Certainly one of the most influential views of learning
during the last two decades of the 20th century is the perspective known as constructivism.
Although by no means an entirely new conceptualization of learner and the process of learner,
constructivist perspectives on learning have become increasingly influential in the past twenty
years and can be said to represent a paradigm shift in the epistemology of knowledge and theory
of learning.
 There are varieties of strategies and methods are used in teaching to ensure that all
students have equal opportunities to learn. Therefore, teacher should have skills on choosing the
best methods in teaching their variety of students with different kind of student’s behavior and
ability. All the three teaching methods that have been discuss before have their own strategies
and techniques in teaching students and give the best benefit to students learning. Therefore, the
best use of cooperative learning, constructivism and cognitive learning will give a good affect in
teaching, student’s learning towards the student’s achievement.
4.0 REFERENCES

Shlomo Sharan (1994), Handbook of Cooperative Learning Methods, Praeger Publisher,

Westport, CT
Richard M. Felder, Rebecca Brent (2007), Cooperative Learning, Department of Chemical
Engineering, N.C. State University.
Judy Willis (2007), Cooperative Learning Is a Brain Turn-On, Santa Barbara Middle School
Journal in California.
Jacqueline and Martin Brooks (1997), The Case for Constructivist Classrooms.
Tom Cobb (2000), Applying constructivism: A test for the learner as scientist. Educational
Technology Research & Development, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada, 47 (3),
15-31
James. M. Applefield, Richard Huber, Mahnaz Moallem (1990), Contructivism In Theory and
Practice : Toward A Better Understanding.The University of North Carolina at
Wilmington Watson School of Education, NC
Duffy, T., & Jonassen, D.H. (1991). Constructivism: New implications for instructional
technology? Educational Technology, 31 (5), 7-12.
Brown, J.S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning.
Educational Researcher, 18 (1), 32-42. Cambridge University.
Cooperative Learning, http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm, 20 August
2009
Instructional Design & Learning Theory Brenda Mergel,
http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm, 15 August
2009