Meeting 4

Teaching Student to
Cooperate
What it means To Cooperate

If you ask your student what it means to

cooperate, usually they answer
something like, “it means do what you tell
us.’’ Someone said, “it means, don’t be
always giving you a hard time!”
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Cooperation is a word we teachers use frequently.

To cooperate is to work together toward mutual
goals. Cooperation may involve working together in
one room; it may involve working at opposite ends
of the school. Scientist from different countries
often cooperate without ever seeing each other or
even speaking the same language.
Cooperation and Competition

American classrooms are generally conceded to be

highly competitive places. Our grouping and grading
practices are competitive; even many of our teaching
strategies are competitive. And competitive situations
are very likely to produce conflict.
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Conflict is necessary for growth. Students need to

learn to compete to get along in what we call real life.
For conflict to lead the growth, however, it must be
responded to creatively, in win-win fashion.
Competition by its very nature mandates a win-lose
outcome.
True or false

Decide if you think each statement is true or false.

1.Competition builds character
2.Cooperation gives lazy student a free ride on the
backs of the hard workers.
3.Competition builds confidence and self-esteem.
4.In cooperation situations, student never have to
challenge themselves.
5.Student need to learn to compete in a competitive
society.
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6. Competition is sometimes appropriate in a school
setting.
7. Competition builds a healthy desire to avoid failure.
8. Kids would rather be in cooperative setting.
9. Cooperation forces conformity to the group.
10. Cooperation often leads to greater achievement
than competition.
Compare your answer with the correct
ones:
1. False. No evidence exist to support the claim that
competition builds character.
2. False. Research suggest that student work harder in
groups. Student learn to work in groups. Student can
be tough not to allow freeloading.
3. False. Competition builds confident only if you win;
in competitive situation, most people can not win. In
addition, the pressure is on the winner to keep
winning.
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4. False. Student are more likely to take risks and

extend themselves in a cooperative and
supportive group than in competitive situation
that penalizes losing.
5. True. Children do need to learn how to compete,
but it is virtually impossible to grow up in this
country without learning how to compete. On the
other hand, the vast majority of human
interaction is cooperative. Competition is, in
reality, a very small part of our interaction.
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6. True. There are a few situations in which

competition enhances learning, particularly rote
learning.
7. Competition probably does lead to a desire to
avoid failure. The question is whether failure is so
terrible. Failure in an important part of learning,
but competitive situations equate it with losing.
Thomas Edison had to make five hundred tries
before he succeeded in invention the electric
light. In other words, he “lost” five hundred times.
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8. True. Given a choice, students will most likely choose
a cooperative learning situation, particularly if they
have been in one.
9. False. The only conformity required in a cooperative
situation is the mutuality of goals. Whether or not
conformity becomes a problem depends on how
you teach children to work in group.
10. True. Neither competition nor cooperation
guarantees striving for excellence, but cooperation is
more likely to elicit this.
Fostering cooperation
There are three steps involved in reducing
competition and encouraging cooperation.
1. Change classroom practices and build a sense of
community.
2. Train the children in the skill of cooperation.
3. Use cooperative learning strategies.
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If you want kids to help each other, give them

opportunities to do so. Many teachers have had
great success with peer tutoring programs. Many
children learn better from other children than from
adults.