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© WERDELIN 2013
werdelin E D U C A T I O N
facilitating 21st century skills through Cooperative Learning
‘‘The first thing we need is for Ofsted to come in and recognise ... the impact on learning and the progress the children are making when they use ... Cooperative Learning.’’
- Deborah Gillespie, Deputy Head, Stalham Academy
See this and other videos & article
The Sutton Trust on Pupil Premium
Cooperative Learning & the UK market
The wide scope of stakeholders
More than any other current didactic method, Cooperative Learning ties in with the global wave of decentralized networking, which on one side is pushed by neo-liberal globalization and, adversely, provides a tool to create and empower communities in a way not seen since the inception of 18th century "modern education."
‘‘...Cooperative Learning is useful in any situations, even at the workplace.’’
- Mika Okamura, PGCE, School of Education and Lifelong Learning, UEA
However, the relentless pressure on schools to produce immediate measurable results, hand in hand with the lack of UK experience and research into Cooperative Learning compared to Scandinavia and the US, creates a completely unfounded fear of "experimenting", ironically keeping struggling schools from implementing what is probably the most cost-effective, flexible and comprehensive didactic method available today in relation to learning outcomes.
‘‘Cooperative Learning has had an immediate quantifiable impact on learning at our school”
- Andrew Howard, Head, Stalham Academy Skills & Mastery CL course, 2014
Institute of Education:
Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment
Islam in RE
PGCE student programme
The Department is a world-leading centre for history, RE and citizenship education and hosts top-rated initial teacher education programmes and a wide range of continuing professional development opportunities.
‘‘CLIPs were good, I'll use lots of them. Challenged my brain...’’
- Lucy Sargeant,
PGCE student, IoE
The course Islam in RE: Religious Literacy & Controversy through Enquiry is presented to PGCE students as it facilitates the best practice outlined in Ofsted’s RE report Realising the Potential and the Cooperative Learning classroom management techniques demonstrated may be utilised immediately with no change to materials or lesson plans and are transferable to other religions and topics.
‘‘...consistently interactive and engaging.’’
- Kamran Shaheen,
PGCE student, IoE
University of
East Anglia:
School of Language and Communication Studies
One-to-one coaching in tertiary language teaching
Recognizing that Cooperative Learning is uniquely suited for language teaching and moving higher level thinking skills into target languages in a natural way, the School of Language and Communication Studies has been the first department at the UEA to engage with this method.
‘‘... the experience was hugely beneficial... Jakob was very helpful and made sure to respond to all the syllabus imperatives and the concerns I had.’’
- Language teacher, School of Language and Communication Studies, UEA
Also, the foundation of CL in social constructivism evinces the School’s focus on communication skills and inter-cultural sensitivity, as negotiation of meaning forms an integral part of the method.
In our first post session survey, 86% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they had an overall positive experience and 71% agree their institution would generally benefit from adopting cooperative learning.
Stalham Academy, Norfolk
Skills & Mastery in a Norfolk academy
On May 1st 2014 the former Stalham Junior School converted to Stalham Academy under the sponsorship of Rightforsuccess Academy Trust whose mission statement includes "Improving the Ofsted rating of underperforming schools to at least good in the short term and outstanding thereafter."
Under the auspices of the new head, a lot of work has been done to create effective collaborative classrooms to boost attainment and progress.
The CL course #4 Skills & Mastery course is tailored to this aim.
The high, instantly measurable impact of Cooperative Learning at Stalham Academy after only 2 hours of twilight session CPD belies the notion that Cooperative Learning is only suitable for soft "talking" exercises.
‘‘Thank you for this evening! We are all buzzing from your approach ... re learning and assessment for learning!”
- D. Gillespie, Deputy Head, Stalham Academy Skills & Mastery CL course, 2014
and
‘‘...many institutions or educators claim to be putting student-centred learning into practice, but in reality they are not.’’
Lea, S. J., D. Stephenson, and J. Troy (2003)
Higher Education Students’ Attitudes to Student Centred Learning: Beyond ‘educational bulimia’
Studies in Higher Education 28(3), 321–334 (Taylor & Francis Online)