Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Cooperative Learning in the Lebanese Environment
We have always been trained and have read a lot about the importance of cooperative learning in creating a healthy learning atmosphere at schools where students not only learn their academic skills but also are prepared to real life situations where they will need to work in teams and share their ideas and products. One of the important aspects of cooperative learning is sharing rather than competing. I have been noticing lately that many students, when given the privilidge of being independent in the classroom, tend to abuse this privilge. And so I am wondering: If students are raised in their families where no freedom of choice or freedom of expression are encouraged and appreciated, and if those same students are bombarded with the politicians' and party leaders' stiff stands where no one is willing to compromise and accept others' views, how are we to teach students the importance of being collaborative and sharing? Aren't we contradicting their realities? Doesn't this contradiction created confusion and chaos in the students' behavior? Can teachers work on values in isolation of the society? Should we come up with an adapted method for our society rather than take what is not made for us?
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2 comments:
Because that is the situation of our students -not being encouraged or taught to share their ideas and opinions ,in a general social atmosphere that also oppresses and discourages their freedom of expression - we should give them that chance at school .They should at least be aware of the principle of sharing and working collaboratively and the fruitful results it can give.Students should be trained to do this ,but my question is how willing are teachers and how much ability do they have to teach these kind of values to students ?
As someone said:" everything old now was new at a point, and what is new now will be old later" so if we work on our students now and make them accept others and work together, it may seem unaccepted and hard now but surely it will make difference in the future. We just need to be patients and consist on what we want to change we will see the change later.
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