TASKs for democracy

Co-operative roles rotate and change so that every single learner can improve his/her competences in every
role. When the targeted competences have been mastered by the learners there is no more need for these
specific roles – the teacher can move towards other competences, assigning new roles which will help the
learners to develop new competences. In Elizabeth Cohen’s (1994) view teachers delegate authority by assigning
co-operative roles so that learners can learn how to be accountable for being on-task, for keeping their
groupmates on-task, and for improving their own learning competences. Co-operative roles are extremely
important in order to prevent discrimination. Research studies show how desegregation and forming heterogeneous
classrooms are a necessary but not sufficient condition to dislodge discriminatory tendencies in
everyday classroom practice. By using interconnected, complementary and partner-oriented roles, teachers
can provide a framework for competence-based development.
Having co-operative roles within the micro-group is an opportunity to instruct the whole class according
to the roles allocated. In our example of a jigsaw activity about different animals, during different stages
of the activity, the teacher can give different tasks to each member: tracers can find characteristics and
pictures of the animals in the books provided; encouragers can find resemblances and differences among
the selected animals; recorders can draw a picture of the four selected animals; time managers can draw
a map to display where the selected animals live. In this example the teacher has launched four different
activities, activating four different thinking skills, simultaneously evoking four different competences
(naturalist, linguistic, visual, intra and interpersonal).
Critical and reflective promotion and documentation
“How can teachers follow the learning process, and monitor the progress
of every single participant?”
Critical and reflective promotion, provided step-by-step, is another basic principle formulated by Arató and
Varga (2008). The first step is the presentation of the results of the work done in the micro-groups. The continuous
promotion of the micro-groups – also called a “base group” by Johnson and Johnson (1999) – should be
present in the mind of teachers during the planning process to ensure the establishment of the basic principles
of co-operative learning. The members of the micro-group will have an overview of the individual efforts of
each member: the achievements, needs and attitudes of classmates during the learning process. Co-operative
structures, roles, and the fact that all actors involved understand co-operative principles support interactions
among the group members, improving congruence 4 and empathy.
Self-actualisation, the expression of interest, and the sharing of emotional impressions can induce conflicts
within base groups. These conflicts are an important part of the learning process because they help explore
the different dimensions of personal (self-esteem, motivation, mindfulness, reliability, etc.), social (empathy,
tolerance, acceptance, patience, etc.) and cognitive (higher-level thinking, meta-cognitive skills, etc.) competences.
Teachers can observe the behaviour of the learners directly and immediately and intervene when
necessary to further develop their personal and social competences.
Documentation plays an important role in a co-operative learning process in order to achieve all individuals’
learning goals and meet their needs. Step-by-step documentation helps one to follow learners’ activity and
progress, and how they cope with the situations that the learning sequence stimulates. The visual representation
of the learning activities (texts, pictures, diagrams, maps, figures, illustrations, etc.) makes each stage of
the learning process visible for the teacher as well. With such detailed documentation it is easy to recognise
where and when a teacher should re-plan, redesign, restructure, or interrupt the learning process, identifying
new needs and objectives and intervening when necessary.
In a roundtable structure, for example, writers help their group mates by recording their words and
findings about each animal as clearly as possible, because this is important for the future use of the final
poster or document.
4. “Congruence” is a concept coined by Carl Rogers (1995) to describe the relationship of a counsellor with a patient that we adapt
here to educational discourse: the more one is himself or herself in the relationship, putting up no front or facade, the greater
the likelihood that the person we interact with will change and grow in a constructive manner.
TASKs for democracy Page 28