An example will clarify: In our initial experiment, we entered a fifth grade classroom of a newly desegregated school. In this classroom, the children were studying biographies of famous Americans. The upcoming lesson happened to be a biography of Joseph Pulitzer, the famous journalist.
First, we constructed a biography of Joseph Pulitzer consisting of six
paragraphs.
Each major aspect of Pulitzer's life was contained in a seperate paragraph. We mimeiographed our biography of Pulitzer, cut each copy of the biography into six one paragraph sections, and gave every child in each of the six person learning groups one paragraph about Pultzer's life.
Thus, each learning group had within it the entire biography but each individual child had no more than one sixth of the story. Like a jigsaw puzzle, each child had one piece of the puzzle, and each child was dependent on the other children in the group for the completion of the big picture.
- In order to learn about Pulitzer, each child had to master a paragraph and teach it to the others.
- Students took their paragraphs and went off by themselves where they could learn them.
- A short time later, the students came back into session with their six person groups.
- They were informed that they had a certain amount of time to communicate their knowledge to one another.
- They were also informed that, at the end of the time (or soon thereafter), they were going to be tested on their knowledge.
When thrown on their own resources, the children eventually learned to teach and to listen to one another. The children gradually learned that none of them could do well without the aid of each person in the group -- and that each member had a unique and essential contribution to make.
Let me illustrate with an actual example, typical of the way the children stumbled toward the learning of the cooperative process. In one of our groups there was a Mexican American boy, whom we will call Carlos. Carlos was not very articulate in English, his second language. He had learned over the years how to keep quiet in class because frequently, when he had spoken up in the past, he was ridiculed.
Let us go back to our six person group. Carlos, who had to report on Pultzer's young manhood, was having a very hard time. He stammered, hesitated, and fidgeted. The other kids in the circle were not very helpful. They had grown accustomed to a competitive process and responded out of this old, overlearned habit. They knew what to do when a kid stumbles -- especially a kid whom they believed to be stupid. They ridiculed him, put him down, and teased him. During our experiment, it was Mary who was observed to say: "Aw, you don't know it; your dumb, you're stupid. You don't know what you're doing."
In our initial experiment, the groups were being loosely monitered by a research assistant who was floating from group to group. When this incident occurred, our assistant made one brief intervention: "OK, you can do that if you want to. It might be fun for you, but it's not going to help you learn about Pultzer's young manhood. The exam will take place in an hour." Notice how the reinforcement contingencies have shifted. No longer does Mary gain much from putting Carlos down -- in fact, she now stands to lose a great deal.
After a few days and several similar experiences, it began to dawn on the students in Carlos's group that the only way they could learn about Pultzer's young manhood was by paying attention to what Carlos had to say. Gradually, they began to develop into pretty good interviewers. Instead of ignoring or ridiculing Carlos when he was having a little trouble communicating what he knew, they began asking probing questions -- the kind of questions that made it easier for Carlos to communicate what was in his head.
Carlos began to respond to this treatment by becoming more relaxed; with increased relaxation came an improvement in his ability to communicate. After a couple of weeks, the other children concluded Carlos was a lot smarter than they had thought he was. They began to see things in him they had never seen before. They began to like him.
Carlos began to enjoy school more and began to see the Anglo students in his group not as tormentors but as helpful and responsible people. Moreover, as he began to feel increasingly comfortable in class and started to gain more confidence in himself, his academic performance began to improve. The vicious cycle had been reversed; the elements that had been causing a downward spiral were changed -- the spiral now began to move upward.
The Social Animal - Elliot Aronson - 8th Edition 1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0716733129/http://www.jigsaw.org/steps.htm
