Kagan and Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning can be very advantageous, and Kagan lists the many pros, which include increased academic achievement across content areas, among grades and students. So what's to lose? Kagan qualifies his argument by including some "pitfalls", including the risk of poorly formed cooperative groups, the question of creating will among students, the issue of dependence and dealing with the avoidance of failure.

Within a foreign language classroom setting, the advantages of cooperative learning are certainly relevant. Consider, for example, Kagan's point of increased participation with cooperative groups. I can see how properly structured cooperative groups, where every student has a role to ensure individual accountability, can allow all students the opportunity to interact and produce output. The points that Kagan makes that resonate most with me are two advantages: social orientation and learning orientation. Cooperative learning can lead to a new way of perceiving assignments and thus learning, as well as one's role in achieving a shared goal.