Comments on: Choices http://moshublog.com/2006/12/24/choices/ The combined blog: about WordPress, the Canadian Prairies and myself Thu, 17 May 2012 14:26:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: InvisibleMinority http://moshublog.com/2006/12/24/choices/comment-page-1/#comment-14996 InvisibleMinority Wed, 03 Jan 2007 02:21:50 +0000 http://moshublog.com/2006/12/24/choices/#comment-14996 That's a very interesting site and a very exciting technique. But I agree: in an overly competitive setting like a sport event, this approach is quite unlikely. I'd consider the story I quoted from the email more on the fiction side. Although a nice fiction. To be honest I've found more food for thought in the "footnote" - when and how do we select people from our address book to pass one different stories, jokes, chain-letters etc. Thanks for the link to the jigsaw learning! That’s a very interesting site and a very exciting technique. But I agree: in an overly competitive setting like a sport event, this approach is quite unlikely. I’d consider the story I quoted from the email more on the fiction side. Although a nice fiction. To be honest I’ve found more food for thought in the “footnote” - when and how do we select people from our address book to pass one different stories, jokes, chain-letters etc.

Thanks for the link to the jigsaw learning!

]]> By: Stefan http://moshublog.com/2006/12/24/choices/comment-page-1/#comment-14995 Stefan Mon, 01 Jan 2007 11:24:57 +0000 http://moshublog.com/2006/12/24/choices/#comment-14995 The example is rather exceptional bordering on wonder -if it is not pure fiction. It is unlikely that in such a competitive setting people switch their behavior all of a sudden into supportive, cooperative and humanitarian. There is however a method which really can work real wonders in this respect: cooperative learning. The advantages and benefits of cooperative learning for the whole society are very clear and not only theoretically. They are applied in some American schools as far as I know and they are widely applied in corporate training. But most schools still keep on breeding wild competition at least here in Central Europe where I live and where learning style itself is predominantly competitive. One concrete application of cooperative learning is the so-called "jigsaw learning" http://www.jigsaw.org/ I especially recommend Elliot Aronson's study from which they quote a chapter and I quote one and a half paragraph: My colleagues and I have accomplished these minor miracles in two main ways: The first involves teaching youngsters specific ways to gain greater control over their own impulses and how to get along with others so they can resolve interpersonal conflicts amicably. This will be described in Chapter 5. The second way involves the simple device of structuring the classroom experience so that it promotes cooperation rather than competition and, in the process, motivating students to listen respectfully to one another, help one another, and begin to care about one another. They learn all this while they are in the process of learning history, geography, biology, and all the traditional academic subjects-and learning them as well or better than they would in more traditional classrooms. This approach will be described in Chapter 6. Unlike the first strategy, the second does not require any new curricular material; it simply involves teaching traditional material in a nontraditional structure, where children pull together rather than compete against one another. My research and the research of my colleagues has demonstrated over and over again that, after working closely with one another in a cooperative way, students begin to see positive qualities in their classmates they hadn't seen before. Within a few weeks of these experiences, artificial barriers of exclusion begin to recede, and a general atmosphere of compassion, respect, and inclusion eventually prevails. Moreover, these positive outcomes are not accomplished at the expense of academics. On the contrary, in these classrooms the academic performance of most youngsters is enhanced-that is, youngsters score higher on achievement tests than they do in traditional, more competitive classrooms. The example is rather exceptional bordering on wonder -if it is not pure fiction. It is unlikely that in such a competitive setting people switch their behavior all of a sudden into supportive, cooperative and humanitarian.

There is however a method which really can work real wonders in this respect: cooperative learning.
The advantages and benefits of cooperative learning for the whole society are very clear and not only theoretically. They are applied in some American schools as far as I know and they are widely applied in corporate training. But most schools still keep on breeding wild competition at least here in Central Europe where I live and where learning style itself is predominantly competitive.

One concrete application of cooperative learning is the so-called “jigsaw learning”
http://www.jigsaw.org/

I especially recommend Elliot Aronson’s study from which they quote a chapter and I quote one and a half paragraph:

My colleagues and I have accomplished these minor miracles in two main ways: The first involves teaching youngsters specific ways to gain greater control over their own impulses and how to get along with others so they can resolve interpersonal conflicts amicably. This will be described in Chapter 5. The second way involves the simple device of structuring the classroom experience so that it promotes cooperation rather than competition and, in the process, motivating students to listen respectfully to one another, help one another, and begin to care about one another. They learn all this while they are in the process of learning history, geography, biology, and all the traditional academic subjects-and learning them as well or better than they would in more traditional classrooms. This approach will be described in Chapter 6.

Unlike the first strategy, the second does not require any new curricular material; it simply involves teaching traditional material in a nontraditional structure, where children pull together rather than compete against one another. My research and the research of my colleagues has demonstrated over and over again that, after working closely with one another in a cooperative way, students begin to see positive qualities in their classmates they hadn’t seen before. Within a few weeks of these experiences, artificial barriers of exclusion begin to recede, and a general atmosphere of compassion, respect, and inclusion eventually prevails. Moreover, these positive outcomes are not accomplished at the expense of academics. On the contrary, in these classrooms the academic performance of most youngsters is enhanced-that is, youngsters score higher on achievement tests than they do in traditional, more competitive classrooms.

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