Teachers in Cooperative Learning Group Activities-Encouraging Students' Collaborative Learning through Better Class Management-

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to seek possible improvements to my teaching skills by analyzing my teaching activities in the spring practicum whose purpose was to overcome the issue of an "unbalanced amount of utterances among students cased by a teacher's overmuch interventions which prevent their interactions." Reflecting on two practicums conducted in fall 2013 and winter 2014, I realized that I had intervened too much in students' interactions while teaching. Personal goals were set to overcome this issue by conducting classes with a focus on group activities in the spring practicum. However, there were less spontaneous student interactions than expected. To improve my teaching skills for future classes, I have attempted to clarify the problems by applying "Cooperative Learning" theory. The theory is based on a learner-centered educational philosophy focusing on group activities. I suggest that it is possible to provide more effective group activities by focusing on observing students' activities. In this case, teachers should be required to design a well-organized course consisting of essential factors of "Cooperative Learning" theory.