TASKs for democracy

Table 2: Guiding questions to evaluate your activities
Basic principles of
co-operative learning
Personally inclusive
parallel interaction
Constructive and encouraging
interdependence
Personal responsibility
and individual
accountability
Equal access and
participation
Conscious competence
development
Critical and reflective
promotion
Open and flexible
learning processes
Basic questions related to the principles
Do several parallel interactions run during the planned learning activities?
Can the number of interactions be increased?
Are all the learners involved personally in all steps of the learning process?
Is it impossible for learners to accomplish their tasks and reach their goals
without each other?
Can the participants and the different micro-groups build on each other’s
work and ideas?
Is this interdependence achieved through goal, task, role, resource and/or
environment interdependence?
Are the learning activities meeting the needs and wishes of the learners?
Can learners personally choose among genuine options regarding different
learning activities, tasks and assignments?
Is the individual task of every learner clear to all?
Can the teacher/facilitator follow clearly what each learner will do/has done
in the learning process?
Are there planned, interconnected, complementary and partner-based cooperative
roles planned in the learning process?
Are the roles appropriate for and related to the targeted competences and
expected learning outcomes?
Is the learning process structured in a way that promotes equal participation
for each learner?
Can every learner join smoothly and participate in an active way in the
activities?
Is the breadth of the learning activities and resources wide enough to
facilitate equal access?
Will every learner have an overview of the individual efforts, achievements,
needs and attitudes of classmates during the learning process?
Can every learner participate to achieve their individual learning goals?
Are the expected outcomes clear for everyone?
Are the areas of competence development articulated clearly (academic
and co-operative goals)?
Are the learning activities appropriate for and related to the competences
and expected learning outcomes?
Will the teacher and the learners have an overview of the individual efforts,
achievements and needs of classmates?
Does the documentation of the learning process help to monitor the progress
of each learner?
Are intra and interpersonal competences developed consciously?
Is the teacher/facilitator prepared to restructure the learning process
when needed?
Is the teacher/facilitator ready to accept the new roles that co-operative
learning structures entail?
Is the teacher/facilitator ready to widen his/her horizon of understanding
of the topic, theme and curricula?
Is the teacher/facilitator ready to open the learning process to new resources
and newly explored developmental needs?
TASKs for democracy Page 30