How to resolve conflict. The next c

How to resolve conflict. The next chapter outlines an extensive system for resolving conflict. The skills of conflict resolution will be essential to moving the relationships in the class past the common reactivity and unconsciousness. The cooperative learning activity offers both unique challenges as conflict is more likely when students are asked to work together. Yet it offers unique opportunities in that the conflict that arises in the artificial context of the cooperative learning exercise may be less emotionally loaded, and thus offer a venue for students to practice those skills in a situation in which the emotional stakes are not as high as they can get in the real world. Successful conflict resolution will include a few fundamental ingredients. First, students will need to be aware of their level of emotion. Second, they will need practice using I-messages instead of personal attacks. Third, students should increasingly see the need and value of being in the habit of thinking win-win rather than win-lose when conflict arises.



How to communicate concerns and opinions. Part of effective communication will include finding a constructive way to express one’s concerns or opinions. Very few students of any age have learned to do this effectively. The typical unconscious behavior for most students who are unhappy with group decisions is to: 1) withdraw and hold their resentment inside; 2) make a non-constructive negative judgment about the idea (e.g., “that idea is stupid.”); or 3) make a statement that makes the idea personal (e.g., “You guys always want to do that kind of thing.”). To express their concerns with more positive effective, students need to learn to use a combination of the skill of using I-messages and maintaining the focus on the quality of the ideas rather than the person who came up with the ideas. I-messages make the statement that any idea by definition comes from an individual’s personal perspective. Most students state their subjective opinions as objective facts. The result is that too often the intent is missed and the statement fosters defensiveness. It will be useful to help students learn to begin to phrase opinions with I-message language (e.g., I think, I feel, my idea, this is only my opinion, etc.).



How to make decisions. It may seem like common sense, but making decisions as a collective is often a problematic task. One of the first things that the class should recognize is that in a group of four there may be times when one or more students are not going to like the direction the group takes. We will need to help our very young students to be prepared for the times when their ideas are not chosen. We might ask the question proactively “So when each group is engaging in the process or picking a topic, what are we going to do if our topic is not chosen? Are we going to take it personally, quit and pout, or are we going to let it evaporate and stay 100% invested in the effort, and do what is best for the group as a whole?” Even if this question sounds a little pedantic and patronizing, it will be a helpful point on the emotional compass. In fact, it is validating the difficulty of the act of letting go of the disappointment that the idea was not used.



We will want to offer the students a concrete process for making quick democratic decisions. We might suggest that the leader or manager of the group open the floor for some period of discussion and when all sides have been heard, call for a vote. We can also walk the students through the process of developing a compromise position. One possible process for doing this would be again that the leader open the floor to all ideas and then ask if it would be okay to combine them in a way that includes more students’ desires. The result may be three choices: that of student A, that of student B, and a compromise synthesizing the two. But the leader or manager should maintain the role of mediator and not decision maker. Those in leadership roles should limit their decisions to issues of efficiency and procedure. Decisions related to the essential elements of the task should be made democratically.



How to perform a role. While again this may seem like common sense, few students know what constitutes the successful execution of their role. Giving a student a title is not sufficient preparation for their job. It will be helpful to create a written job description for the common roles that you find yourself using during cooperative learning. A written explanation is useful on many levels. First, it provides the clarity that only words can. Second, it helps the student who would rather read the information privately than have to ask. Third, it gives the members of the group a tool for cases in which they need to remind a member of their group what it means to perform his/her role. Four, it saves us a great deal of verbal explanation over time. However, we will also want to take opportunities to clarify what it means to do each role effectively. An effective means will be our own positive recognitions. In our process of offering feedback we can stop the group and mention a behavior that we have just seen to clarify quality. For example, imagine that we notice a student who is in the role of the recorder, who takes the opportunity to read back to the group what they have written once in a while, and we recognize that it is effective action. It may not have been something we have included in the written job description (it will next time now that we have seen it), but we want others to be aware of it to improve the quality of the other groups as well. We might say something such as “I noticed that in this group, Javier has taken the opportunity to read back to the group what he is writing as the recorder. Do you feel like that is helpful? (We ask Javier’s group, who responds affirmatively). That may be an effective technique for recorders in any group to try.” Recall our guiding principle related to making positive recognitions public and negative recognitions private.



How to execute the necessary learning process. Procedures such as inquiry-based learning and jigsaw are difficult procedures to learn. They will require practice. We will want to initially teach these procedures in a low threat context until there is evidence that they have been mastered to a sufficient degree before we want to use them in a high anxiety context (e.g., graded work, public presentation or accountability, limited time frame, etc.).



How to share. Until students show us that they are capable of sharing effectively, we will need to help them practice asking nicely, taking turns, looking for others who might need the thing that they have just finished using or have been using for a long time, conserving limited resources, etc. This is an area that will be a reliable indicator of the quality of the social and communal bonds in the class. If the students demonstrate the ability to share we will know that we are making progress toward becoming more intentional and aware. When we see evidence that they are being selfless and considerate, we point it out to help them recognize that they are making progress toward becoming a functional community.



Teaching Our Cooperative Group Skills

There are many ways to teach these foundational skills, but it may be most effective to teach them within the context of an actual task after explaining them briefly (Slavin, Hurley, & Chamberlain 2003). Remember, avoid teaching a new skill/procedure and new content at the same time. We cannot hold students simultaneously responsible for both. Therefore our first foray into cooperative learning may involve a task that is relatively simple and/or inconsequential. Taking part in a craft project or the processing of some familiar content may be good initial venues.



Before we begin the activity, we might select one or two skills that we judge are the most critical given the needs of our class, and have a brief discussion of what that skill looks like in a group context. It is highly recommended that the students are enlisted in this effort. It will be useful to keep in mind that when we teach skills to be successful within cooperative learning, we are creating a series of concepts: What is an I-message? What is it to be cooperative? What does a good listener do? The skills we teach are built on abstract concepts. If we do not make those abstractions practical, they will remain abstractions and never be translated into behavior. It therefore makes sense to teach them in mini-concept attainment exercises (Gunter, Estes, & Mintz, 2007). These can be as simple as a 20-second question-and-answer, or as involved as a formal concept attainment building activity. In a concept attainment exercise we are asking the student to provide us with examples and non-examples of the concept. For example, we could ask, what are examples and non-examples of “active listening?” If we depicted the exercise it would look like this:



Examples of Active Listening


Non-Examples of Active Listening

Eye contact
Clarifying points
Waiting until they are done
Paraphrasing what you heard
Et cetera




Looking away
Daydreaming
Getting lost in one idea
Making assumptions
Et cetera



Success will come from our ability to translate the concepts fundamental to effective cooperative learning from abstractions into practical recipes and then finally into behavioral habits.



The most powerful tool for helping students grasp the concept within practical behavior is to see it firsthand in themselves or one of their peers. Too often students do not recognize quality behavior unless it is pointed out. It is essential that we are intentional about verbalizing examples of high quality behavior. For instance, if we observed students who had just successfully resolved a conflict, we might share what we observed with the other groups. It is not impo

Results (Vietnamese) 1:

Làm thế nào để giải quyết xung đột. Chương kế tiếp vạch ra một hệ thống rộng lớn để giải quyết xung đột. Kỹ năng giải quyết xung đột sẽ cần thiết để di chuyển các mối quan hệ trong lớp qua phản ứng phổ biến và bất tỉnh. Hợp tác học tập các hoạt động cung cấp cả hai thách thức độc đáo như xung đột là nhiều khả năng khi sinh viên được yêu cầu làm việc cùng nhau. Được nêu ra, nó cung cấp cơ hội duy nhất trong đó cuộc xung đột đó phát sinh trong bối cảnh hợp tác học tập thể dục nhân tạo có thể là ít hơn tình cảm được nạp, và do đó cung cấp một địa điểm cho các sinh viên để thực hành các kỹ năng trong một tình huống mà trong đó các cổ phần tình cảm là không cao như họ có thể nhận được trong thế giới thực. Giải quyết xung đột thành công sẽ bao gồm một vài thành phần cơ bản. Trước tiên, sinh viên sẽ cần phải nhận thức được mức độ cảm xúc. Thứ hai, họ sẽ cần thực hành bằng cách sử dụng tôi thư thay vì tấn công cá nhân. Thứ ba, sinh viên sẽ ngày càng thấy sự cần thiết và giá trị của đang trong thói quen suy nghĩ chiến thắng-thắng chứ không phải chiến thắng-mất khi xung đột phát sinh. How to communicate concerns and opinions. Part of effective communication will include finding a constructive way to express one’s concerns or opinions. Very few students of any age have learned to do this effectively. The typical unconscious behavior for most students who are unhappy with group decisions is to: 1) withdraw and hold their resentment inside; 2) make a non-constructive negative judgment about the idea (e.g., “that idea is stupid.”); or 3) make a statement that makes the idea personal (e.g., “You guys always want to do that kind of thing.”). To express their concerns with more positive effective, students need to learn to use a combination of the skill of using I-messages and maintaining the focus on the quality of the ideas rather than the person who came up with the ideas. I-messages make the statement that any idea by definition comes from an individual’s personal perspective. Most students state their subjective opinions as objective facts. The result is that too often the intent is missed and the statement fosters defensiveness. It will be useful to help students learn to begin to phrase opinions with I-message language (e.g., I think, I feel, my idea, this is only my opinion, etc.). Làm thế nào để đưa ra quyết định. Nó có vẻ như ý thức phổ biến, nhưng quyết định như một tập thể thường là một nhiệm vụ có vấn đề. Một trong những điều đầu tiên mà các lớp học nên nhận ra là rằng trong một nhóm bốn có thể có lần khi một hoặc nhiều học sinh không sẽ thích hướng nhóm mất. Chúng ta sẽ phải giúp chúng tôi học sinh rất trẻ được chuẩn bị cho những lần khi ý tưởng của họ không được lựa chọn. Chúng tôi có thể đặt câu hỏi chủ động "vì vậy khi mỗi nhóm được tham gia vào quá trình hoặc chọn một chủ đề, chúng tôi phải làm gì nếu chủ đề của chúng tôi được chọn không? Chúng tôi sẽ dùng nó cá nhân, bỏ thuốc lá và bỉu môi, hoặc chúng tôi sẽ để cho nó bay hơi và ở 100% vốn đầu tư trong những nỗ lực, và làm những gì là tốt nhất cho nhóm như một toàn thể?" Ngay cả khi câu hỏi này âm thanh một chút pedantic và kẻ cả, nó sẽ là một điểm hữu ích trên La bàn tình cảm. Trong thực tế, nó xác nhận những khó khăn trong việc cho phép đi của những thất vọng rằng ý tưởng không được sử dụng. Chúng tôi sẽ muốn cung cấp cho các sinh viên một quá trình cụ thể cho việc ra quyết định nhanh chóng dân chủ. Chúng tôi có thể gợi ý rằng các nhà lãnh đạo hoặc người quản lý của nhóm mở sàn nhà cho một số thời gian của cuộc thảo luận và khi tất cả các bên đã được nghe nói, kêu gọi một cuộc bỏ phiếu. Chúng tôi cũng có thể đi bộ học sinh thông qua quá trình phát triển một vị trí thỏa hiệp. Một quá trình có thể làm điều này sẽ là một lần nữa rằng lãnh đạo mở sàn nhà để tất cả những ý tưởng và sau đó yêu cầu nếu nó sẽ được okay để kết hợp chúng trong một cách mà bao gồm nhiều sinh viên mong muốn. Kết quả có thể là ba lựa chọn: của sinh viên một, của sinh viên B, và một thỏa hiệp hợp hai. Nhưng các nhà lãnh đạo hoặc người quản lý nên duy trì vai trò của hòa giải viên và không ra quyết định. Những người trong vai trò lãnh đạo nên giới hạn của họ quyết định vấn đề của hiệu quả và thủ tục. Quyết định liên quan đến các yếu tố cần thiết của việc phải được thực hiện dân chủ. How to perform a role. While again this may seem like common sense, few students know what constitutes the successful execution of their role. Giving a student a title is not sufficient preparation for their job. It will be helpful to create a written job description for the common roles that you find yourself using during cooperative learning. A written explanation is useful on many levels. First, it provides the clarity that only words can. Second, it helps the student who would rather read the information privately than have to ask. Third, it gives the members of the group a tool for cases in which they need to remind a member of their group what it means to perform his/her role. Four, it saves us a great deal of verbal explanation over time. However, we will also want to take opportunities to clarify what it means to do each role effectively. An effective means will be our own positive recognitions. In our process of offering feedback we can stop the group and mention a behavior that we have just seen to clarify quality. For example, imagine that we notice a student who is in the role of the recorder, who takes the opportunity to read back to the group what they have written once in a while, and we recognize that it is effective action. It may not have been something we have included in the written job description (it will next time now that we have seen it), but we want others to be aware of it to improve the quality of the other groups as well. We might say something such as “I noticed that in this group, Javier has taken the opportunity to read back to the group what he is writing as the recorder. Do you feel like that is helpful? (We ask Javier’s group, who responds affirmatively). That may be an effective technique for recorders in any group to try.” Recall our guiding principle related to making positive recognitions public and negative recognitions private. Làm thế nào để thực hiện quá trình học tập cần thiết. Các thủ tục như học tập dựa trên yêu cầu thông tin và ghép hình có thủ tục khó khăn để tìm hiểu. Họ sẽ yêu cầu thực hành. Chúng tôi sẽ muốn ban đầu dạy những quy trình này trong một bối cảnh mối đe dọa thấp cho đến khi có bằng chứng rằng họ đã được nắm đến một mức độ đủ trước khi chúng tôi muốn sử dụng chúng trong một bối cảnh lo âu cao (ví dụ như, xếp loại công việc, trình bày công cộng hoặc trách nhiệm, khung thời gian giới hạn, vv). Làm thế nào để chia sẻ. Cho đến khi học sinh cho chúng ta thấy rằng họ có khả năng chia sẻ có hiệu quả, chúng tôi sẽ cần phải giúp đỡ họ thực hành yêu cầu độc đáo, chăm chỉ, tìm kiếm những người có thể cần những điều khác mà họ có chỉ cần hoàn thành bằng cách sử dụng hoặc đã sử dụng trong một thời gian dài, bảo tồn nguồn lực hạn chế, vv. Đây là một khu vực sẽ là một chỉ báo đáng tin cậy của chất lượng của các liên kết xã hội và cộng đồng trong lớp. Nếu học sinh chứng minh khả năng chia sẻ chúng ta sẽ biết rằng chúng tôi đang làm cho tiến bộ để trở thành hơn cố ý và nhận thức. Khi chúng tôi nhìn thấy bằng chứng rằng họ đang được vị tha và ân cần, chúng tôi chỉ nó ra để giúp họ nhận ra rằng họ đang làm cho tiến bộ để trở thành một cộng đồng chức năng. Giảng dạy kỹ năng hợp tác xã nhóm của chúng tôiThere are many ways to teach these foundational skills, but it may be most effective to teach them within the context of an actual task after explaining them briefly (Slavin, Hurley, & Chamberlain 2003). Remember, avoid teaching a new skill/procedure and new content at the same time. We cannot hold students simultaneously responsible for both. Therefore our first foray into cooperative learning may involve a task that is relatively simple and/or inconsequential. Taking part in a craft project or the processing of some familiar content may be good initial venues. Before we begin the activity, we might select one or two skills that we judge are the most critical given the needs of our class, and have a brief discussion of what that skill looks like in a group context. It is highly recommended that the students are enlisted in this effort. It will be useful to keep in mind that when we teach skills to be successful within cooperative learning, we are creating a series of concepts: What is an I-message? What is it to be cooperative? What does a good listener do? The skills we teach are built on abstract concepts. If we do not make those abstractions practical, they will remain abstractions and never be translated into behavior. It therefore makes sense to teach them in mini-concept attainment exercises (Gunter, Estes, & Mintz, 2007). These can be as simple as a 20-second question-and-answer, or as involved as a formal concept attainment building activity. In a concept attainment exercise we are asking the student to provide us with examples and non-examples of the concept. For example, we could ask, what are examples and non-examples of “active listening?” If we depicted the exercise it would look like this: Examples of Active Listening Non-Examples of Active Listening Eye contact Clarifying points Waiting until they are done Paraphrasing what you heard Et cetera Looking away Daydreaming Getting lost in one idea Making assumptions Et cetera Success will come from our ability to translate the concepts fundamental to effective cooperative learning from abstractions into practical recipes and then finally into behavioral habits. The most powerful tool for helping students grasp the concept within practical behavior is to see it firsthand in themselves or one of their peers. Too often students do not recognize quality behavior unless it is pointed out. It is essential that we are intentional about verbalizing examples of high quality behavior. For instance, if we observed students who had just successfully resolved a conflict, we might share what we observed with the other groups. It is not impo