Co-operative learning
As part of the 2007 Sharing and Collaborative Learning Programme (SCLP), the WrITE Project held a workshop on How to facilitate student motivation: co-operative structures in materials design on 3 February 2007.In the workshop, participating teachers learnt various co-operative learning structures and responded positively.After the event, two of the participants, Ms Chan and Mrs Law from Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Yow Kam Yuen College (TWGHYKYC), indicated that they were interested in trying out the strategies presented at their school.
Before implementing co-operative learning, the English teachers (including Ms Chan and Mrs Law) from TWGHYKYC sought professional advice from the WrITE Project in a meeting held on 13 February 2007.In the meeting, Professor Barley Mak, Director of the WrITE Project and co-leader of the English domain of the KSC Project, and Ms Betty Liu (representative of the WrITE Project) were briefed on the teaching and learning context of the school. After discussion, it was decided that one language skill - writing - would be the focus in the trial lessons.To cater for the diversity of students’ language ability, two Secondary 4 classes were selected.One was a more capable class, while the other was a weaker one, and they were taught by Ms Chan and Mrs Law respectively.After the meeting, Ms Chan and Mrs Law jointly planned the writing lesson.Subsequent advice on the lesson plan was provided by the WrITE Project consultancy team before implementation.
The writing topic for the trial lessons was "Write a letter to persuade your friend to become a volunteer".The objectives of the lessons were: (i) to assist students in generating ideas about the topic, and (ii) to let students understand letter structure.The lesson plan was implemented in these two classes on 12 and 14 March 2007 respectively.Ms Betty Liu conducted two lesson observations and provided feedback to the two teachers.
Feedback from the participants
Further advice by the WrITE Project
Deliverables and outcomes
TWGHYKYC is one of the participating schools in the Building up Knowledge Sharing Communities for Teacher Professional Development: University, School and HKedCity Partnership Project (KSC Project) managed by Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
As part of the 2007 Sharing and Collaborative Learning Programme (SCLP), the WrITE Project held a workshop on How to facilitate student motivation: co-operative structures in materials design on 3 February 2007.In the workshop, participating teachers learnt various co-operative learning structures and responded positively.After the event, two of the participants, Ms Chan and Mrs Law from Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Yow Kam Yuen College (TWGHYKYC), indicated that they were interested in trying out the strategies presented at their school.
Before implementing co-operative learning, the English teachers (including Ms Chan and Mrs Law) from TWGHYKYC sought professional advice from the WrITE Project in a meeting held on 13 February 2007.In the meeting, Professor Barley Mak, Director of the WrITE Project and co-leader of the English domain of the KSC Project, and Ms Betty Liu (representative of the WrITE Project) were briefed on the teaching and learning context of the school. After discussion, it was decided that one language skill - writing - would be the focus in the trial lessons.To cater for the diversity of students’ language ability, two Secondary 4 classes were selected.One was a more capable class, while the other was a weaker one, and they were taught by Ms Chan and Mrs Law respectively.After the meeting, Ms Chan and Mrs Law jointly planned the writing lesson.Subsequent advice on the lesson plan was provided by the WrITE Project consultancy team before implementation.
The writing topic for the trial lessons was "Write a letter to persuade your friend to become a volunteer".The objectives of the lessons were: (i) to assist students in generating ideas about the topic, and (ii) to let students understand letter structure.The lesson plan was implemented in these two classes on 12 and 14 March 2007 respectively.Ms Betty Liu conducted two lesson observations and provided feedback to the two teachers.
Feedback from the participants
- A sharing and reflection meeting was conducted on 20 March 2007 after the two lessons.The lesson observers who are teachers from the English panel and the WrITE Project consultancy team members reflected that the students benefited as they participated more actively in the learning process through their assigned roles. Students could improve their performance as they had got the ideas and information to write the letter in the correct format after the group activities.
- The two teachers also made some reflection. They felt that clearer instructions of roles and steps, better training for students on group work, note-taking and presentation skills would be useful. They did, however, point out certain constraints in adopting co-operative learning including inadequate time for preparation and evaluation, poor motivation and English standards of the students, and time management during the lessons. Despite these problems, they were willing to try this new teaching approach with their senior students.For further improvement, they would use more time to prepare for the lesson, conduct joint lesson planning with other teachers, and continue to explore better applications of co-operative learning.
Further advice by the WrITE Project
- To enhance the effectiveness of the co-operative learning approach, the WrITE Project consultancy team provided further advice to the teachers including (i) the co-operative learning tasks should be structured and have long term learning objectives; (ii) teachers should explain the tasks to students in details; (iii) teachers’ expectations and students’ learning standards should be set; (iv) language input and scaffolding are important in the lessons; and (v) feedback to students about their performance should be solid.
Deliverables and outcomes
- On 30 June 2007, the KSC Project held an experiential sharing seminar for different subject domains covered in the project. In the event, the two responsible teachers, Ms Chan and Mrs Law from TWGHYKYC summarized and shared with participants their experiences of applying co-operative learning at their school.
- In addition to the experience sharing seminar, the adoption of co-operative learning for writing at the TWGHKYC has become one of the cases in the English Domain section of a book titled 教師專業社群的知識建構與分享, which was published by the KSC Project for knowledge dissemination.
TWGHYKYC is one of the participating schools in the Building up Knowledge Sharing Communities for Teacher Professional Development: University, School and HKedCity Partnership Project (KSC Project) managed by Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.