Learning is a Social Process

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Learning is a Social Process

• By Erin T. Kamuf

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The primary business of school is to train
children in co-operative and mutually helpful
living to foster in them the consciousness of
mutual interdependence. John Dewey
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• Today more that ever, social interaction
  among students in being heavily relied on in
  schools. It is not uncommon to walk into a
  classroom where diverse forms of learning such as
  Cooperative or Collaborative learning are taking
  the place of traditional lecture style formats.
  The layout of the classroom is also changing from
  traditional rows to arranging the classroom to
  meet the needs of the students. Included in the
  following slides is a list of electronic sites
  that will aid teachers, especially those who are
  just entering the field, in meeting the diverse
  needs of their students through how their
  classroom is arranged, managed, and teaching in
  their classroom. These sites are expansions of
  the topic Learning is a Social Process found in
  Bronzo, W.G., Simpson, M.L. (2003). Readers,
  teachers, learners Expanding literacy across
  the content areas (4th Edition). New Jersey
  Merrill Prentice Hall.

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Alternative Modes of Teaching and Learning
This web site gives a basic comparison
between Collaborative Learning and Cooperative
Learning. It goes into the benefits for the
students when using Cooperative and Collaborative
learning. A very nice part about the web site is
that it refers to a lot of research and
references dealing with Cooperative and
Collaborative learning. It also goes into
greater detail about Cooperative learning which
is described by Johnson and Johnson on pages
17-19 of the text book (Bronzo, W.G., Simpson,
M.L. (2003). Readers, teachers, learners
Expanding literacy across the content areas (4th
Edition). New Jersey Merrill Prentice Hall.)
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Jigsaw Learning

• This site is great for implementing
  Jigsaw learning, which is another form of
  Cooperative learning. It is designed to reduce
  prejudices among students and meet the diverse
  needs of the students. Michael Gurians book,
  Boys and Girls Learn Differently!, supports this
  idea that students have diverse needs when
  learning. The site gives an example on how to
  implement the jigsaw technique. It also provides
  a list of several books to help with learning
  about the importance of meeting the diverse needs
  of students to prevent tragedies and encourage
  interaction about students. Jigsaw learning
  creates a pro-social behavior, which is what
  Cooperative learning should do according to the
  text book on page 17 (Bronzo, W.G., Simpson,
  M.L. (2003). Readers, teachers, learners
  Expanding literacy across the content areas (4th
  Edition). New Jersey Merrill Prentice Hall.)
  .

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How to Get Started

• This site is great because it gives a lot
  of basic advice to beginning teachers. There are
  links to setting up middle school classrooms and
  secondary classrooms as well as promoting
  positive social interaction. Harry Wong believes
  that changing the physical layout of the
  classroom to fit the activity is very beneficial
  (Wong, H., Wong, R., (1998). How to be an
  Effective Teacher The First Days of School.
  California Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.).
  This site is good for getting ideas and seeing
  the pros and cons of desk versus tables.
  Changing the classroom layout is also something
  discussed regarding social learning on page 17 of
  the text book (Bronzo, W.G., Simpson, M.L.
  (2003). Readers, teachers, learners Expanding
  literacy across the content areas (4th Edition).
  New Jersey Merrill Prentice Hall.) .

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Cooperative Learning in the Secondary School
Maximizing Language Acquisition, Academic
Achievement, and Social Development

• This site is an excellent source for
  information on Cooperative Learning. It gives a
  brief history of Cooperative Learning in
  reference to Johnson and Johnsons research as
  well as several others. It goes into how
  Cooperative Learning meets the needs of diverse
  students. The site goes into great detail about
  using Cooperative Learning to help students that
  are learning the English language. A sample
  History Unit is included. As a teacher having
  taught History to students learning English as a
  second language, I know first hand the struggles
  they having in understanding a history book.
  The Unit includes the use of Co-op Co-op,
  Roundrobin, Three Step Interview, Group
  Discussions, Roundtable Discussions, and Group
  Processing. An explanation of each of these is
  included at the end of the unit. Meeting the
  needs of students who speak other languages can
  be very challenging, but because learning relies
  so much on being able to interact with other
  students and understand the language, it is very
  important to help integrate these students into
  the student body. The text book states this idea
  best on page 17, To be literate, then is to be
  part of a social context. (Bronzo, W.G.,
  Simpson, M.L. (2003). Readers, teachers,
  learners Expanding literacy across the content
  areas (4th Edition). New Jersey Merrill
  Prentice Hall.) .

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The Social / Situational Orientation to Learning

• This site gives an overview of learning as
  a social process. It gives a brief look at Lave
  and Wengers theory of looking at learning in the
  social setting. They believe that learning takes
  place while participating in society. This
  theory is supported by out text book in chapter
  one which deals with, learning as a social
  process, (Bronzo, W.G., Simpson, M.L. (2003).
  Readers, teachers, learners Expanding literacy
  across the content areas (4th Edition). New
  Jersey Merrill Prentice Hall.) . The site also
  includes a list of references to help in further
  understanding of the theory.

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Other Resources Gardner, H.
(1991). The Unschooled Mind How Children Think
and How Schools Should Teach. USA
BasicBooks. Gurian, M., Henley, P. (2001).
Boys and Girls Learn Differently! San Francisco
Jossey-Bass. Kohn, A. (1998). What To Look
For in a Classroom. San Francisco Jossey-Bass
Publishers. Maeroff, G. (2003). A Classroom of
One How Online Learning is Changing Our Schools
and Colleges. New York Palgrave
Macmillan. Schwebel, M. Raph, J. (1973).
Piaget in the Classroom. New York Basic Books,
Inc., Publishers. Wong, H., Wong, R.,
(1998). How to be an Effective Teacher The
First Days of School. California Harry
K. Wong Publications, Inc. .