Article Review

The Structural Approach to Cooperating Learning

The articles “The Structural Approach to Cooperating Learning” talks about the differences between structures and cooperative learning. Structures differ in their usefulness in the academic, cognitive, and social domains, as well as in their usefulness in different steps of lesson. One of the most common structures teachers use is a competitive structure called Whole-Class Question-Answer.

There are a number of different structures, as well as variations among them. This variety is necessary because the structures have different functions or domains of usefulness. The following are the different structures,

	Whole-Class Questions-Answer: The teacher asks a question. Students who wish to respond raise their hands, the teacher calls on one student. The student attempts to state the correct answer.
	Numbered Heads Together: The teacher has students number off within groups, so that each student has a number: 1, 2, 3, or 4
	Group Discussion vs. Three-Step Interview:

Group Discussion: The teacher asks a low-consensus question and students talk it over in groups.

Three-Step Interview: Students form two pairs within their teams of four and conduct a one-way interview in pairs. Students reverse roles; interviewers become the interviewees. Students round robin; each student takes a turn sharing information learned in the interview.

Educating Hispanic Students: Effective Instructional Practices

In the article “Educating Hispanic Students: Effective Instructional Practices”

The authors talks about Hispanic students attending pubic schools. Research has shown that Hispanic students have the lowest level of education and the highest dropout rate of any student group.

Research shows that education needs to be meaningful and responsive to students’ needs, as well as linguistically and culturally appropriate. Instruction must specially address the concerns of Hispanic students who come from different cultures and who are often trying to learn a new language. CREDE researchers suggest five research –based practices.

	Culturally-Responsive Teaching: Incorporates the everyday concerns of students, such as important family and community issues, into the curriculum.
	Cooperative Learning: Is the idea of using small groups in which students have specific roles in order to accomplish specific tasks and activities.
	Instructional Conversations: Is an extended discourse between the teacher and students in areas that have educational values as well as relevance for the students.
	Cognitively-Guided Instruction: Emphasizes learning strategies that enhance students’ metacognitive development. It focuses on the direct teaching and modeling of cognitive learning strategies and giving students opportunities to practice them.
	Technology-Enriched Instruction: Incorporates more active student learning and is more student-centered. Technology can be especially helpful for Hispanic students learning English language.

The above mentioned effective instructional practice can facilitate teaching and learning because they respect the students desire to learn and the collective knowledge students bring to the classroom.

E-mail me Christiana Udebor at christieudebor@yahoo.com

Last updated 12/06/2007