Presentation of the Initiative:
Conversations at the SEDE
A cooperative language acquisition experience – Cooperative Learning
Cooperative Learning is a useful, interesting tool both for the
achievement of optimum academic results and for its use as a way to
develop social skills.
The
strategy behind Cooperative Learning promotes collaboration among
students, its purposes being to enable students to help each other to
achieve their respective aims and to provide them with support when
they request/need it.
Several definitions of Cooperative
Learning exist. Basically, it relates to a student-centred approach
which uses small groups (generally four to six people, deliberately
selected by types). This allows students to work together and succeed
in their efforts to optimise or maximise both their own learning level
and that of the other group members.
The teacher’s role in
Cooperative Learning is that of a mediator in the generation of
knowledge who, apart from monitoring group work, supervises it actively
(not ‘directively’) during the process of knowledge
creation and transformation via social interaction.
Cooperative Learning as a strategy to exploit the great potential of knowledge and make the most of seniors experience
- One
can expect seniors to have accumulated a great deal of knowledge and
experience which is very often ready to be shared with and transmitted
to others.
- Carrying out a Cooperative
Learning activity among seniors only requires including in the working
group some people with the ability to deal with learning. One of them
will act as a mediator.
- On the one
hand, UPUA students own a great language-learning potential and, on the
other hand, they strongly feel the need to improve their command of
second languages. In other words, we find ourselves in an ideal
situation to implement a Cooperative Learning experience within the
field of language acquisition.
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