10 Top Cooperative Learning Strategies (and some tech tools that could come in handy)

Dr Spencer Kagan is a renowned educator who changed the way the world viewed teaching.  He is mainly known for his work on cooperative learning strategies (often referred to as Kagan learning structures).

Instead of didactic teaching, in which a teacher stands at the front and tells information to whole class, Kagan thought that there were more effective methods.

Watch this excellent video clip, for a useful overview of the Kagan approach:

By adopting Kagan’s approach, research has shown that it greatly improves:

• Team-building
• Social skills
• Communication skills
• Knowledge building
• Decision making
• Processing information
• Thinking skills
• Presenting information

---

Below are my favourite cooperative learning strategies:

Some others I have used are:

• Pairs Squared (pair the learners, then pair up the pairs!)
• Show not tell (pupils have to use drawings and diagrams to explain an answer)
• Swapsies (pairs work on problems individually – they swap every minute to help solve or check…