Many consider Vygotsky the father of ‘social learning.’ Vygotsky was an education rebel in many ways. Lecture-based pedagogical approaches cannot adequately prepare students in professional … There are several features that can help these groups work well: The instructor defines the learning objectives for the activity and assigns students to groups. Despite this, the pedagogy is popular in classrooms across districts and grade levels, creating a need for tips and information that teachers can act upon. Cooperative learning structures have been in and out of favor in American education since the early 1900s, when they were introduced by the American education reformer John Dewey. In formal cooperative learning students work together for one or more class periods to complete a joint task or assignment (Johnson et al., 2014). Learn more about reasons to use cooperative learning How to Use Cooperative Learning. In the 1940s, education reformers like John Dewey began to analyze the benefits of students working together in the classroom. Finding a resource that explores cooperative learning is easy, but many ignore strategies for delivering the teaching approach. Peer learning, or peer instruction, is a type of collaborative learning that involves students working in pairs or small groups to discuss concepts or find solutions to problems. Cooperative learning became a commonly used form of active pedagogy in the 1980’s, and continues to be a valuable tool for learning in academic institutions today (Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 2007), as it provides benefits for both students and instructors (Shimazoe and Aldrich, Cooperative learning processes prepare students to assess outcomes linked to accreditation. Collaborative learning can occur peer-to-peer or in larger groups. Beyond Research: Why Cooperative Learning Matters in the 21st Century. Apart from the academic and social gains cooperative learning has offered for generations, we now find ourselves in an era where it may be more essential than ever before. Cooperative learning is now an accepted and often the preferred instructional procedure at all levels of education. If cooperative learning is the best method, then the teacher should choose from the three main types of cooperative learning. Cooperative learning is presently used in schools and universities in every part of the world, in every subject area, and with every age student. Formal cooperative learning groups. Cooperative learning is a classroom instruction presentation model that involves students working together to meet their learning goals in learning teams or groups. As a generic and diversified pedagogy, cooperative learning (CL) reaches out to the field of intercultural education with an offer to establish a reciprocal relationship. Nolinske T(1), Millis B. Cooperative learning exercises can be as simple as a five minute in class exercise or as complex as a project which crosses class periods. The differences between collaborative learning and cooperative learning can be interchangeable for educators, however, collaborative learning encourages students to make individual progress in tandem with others. Cooperative learning as an approach to pedagogy. Author information: (1)Department of Education, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Collaborative learning teams are said to attain higher level thinking and preserve information for longer times than students working individually.