The Influence, The Importance of Time Management and Cooperative Learning - Research Proposal Example

 The influence, the importance of time management and Cooperative learning (Learning through group, pair work in classrooms). Upon me as a teacher to be and the learners of EFL Outline: A) Introduction: general overview. B) General discussion; 1) Literature overview; 2) Cooperative learning 3) Time Management. . 4) Personal Reflection: Own experience C) Conclusion. Abstract: This paper seeks to present two different but important issues in learning process. It explores the importance of the cooperative learning (group work) and the importance of time management. Though both of the issues are completely different, they share the same goal which is helping the learners to achieve the best results in their academic careers. The paper will also reflect upon the researcher’s experience in the field of cooperative learning and time management as well as their influence upon the writer as a future teacher. Introduction: Many researches emphasize on the importance of group work in the classrooms. Both educational and psychological studies agree on the existence of individual differences among students even though they may be in the same age group or live in the same environment where they share the same culture. In such a particular case where there are different students with different backgrounds, we cannot use the same methods in teaching. However, learning should deal with diverse individuals and groups of students rather than dealing with them as one group. It is against this backdrop that modern educational theories tend to focus on the role of the student and make it the center of the educational process while the teachers would act as regulators or facilitators that guide the learners. This can materialize through working in groups which may include individuals with the same age or different ages or individuals with the same abilities. Cooperative learning exists when students work together to accomplish shared learning goals (Johnson & Johnson, 1999, Cited in May, 2000). It is very important for the students to work together in order to share and exchange the ideas with others. Students will feel that the same team is responsible for the feedback and communication with others and become more realistic than teaching through the book and focus on homework. There are a lot of researchers who support group work like (Johnson & Johnson, 1991, Robert Slavin, 1995). They posit that group work is more effective in teaching than other conventional methods of teaching. According to Johnson & Johnson (1999), cooperative learning is a relationship in a group of students that requires positive interdependence (a sense of sink or swim together), individual accountability (each of us has to contribute and learn), interpersonal skills (communication, trust, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution), face-to-face interaction and processing (reflecting on how well the team is functioning and how to function even better). They also mention that there are five essential elements in cooperative learning: 1. Positive interdependence: students have to bear in their mind that the success of one person within a group is the success of the group and the group will never succeed unless they work together partners. 2. Promotive interaction, preferably face-to-face: students have to help, support, and encourage each other. They also have to share ideas and effort with each other. 3. Individual and group accountability: each member of the group must contribute and participate during the class session. 4. Teaching students the required interpersonal and small group skills: “social skills must be taught to students just as purposefully and precisely as academic skills. Leadership, decision-making, trust-building, communication, and conflict-management skills empower students to manage both teamwork and task work successfully” (Johnson & Johnson, 1991). 5. Group processing: students have to device and find out ways to achieve the best results by setting goals and maintaining effective working relationships. On the other hand, it is also important to understand the importance of time management. It is also a known fact that time management also plays an important role in the life of learners, both young and adults. “People who use these techniques routinely are the highest achievers in all walks of life,” (Mind Tools Ltd, 1995). Most of the learners do understand the concept of time management. Starting from the 4th grade students should learn how to manage their time by using different strategies or steps. Through my experience as a student, I realized the importance of time management and these are some of the steps that influenced me on how I started managing my time: Preparing a list of the important things to do. Divide the work from the most important to the less important. Divide the work in a manner not to feel bored. Making an organized form to write things I am willing to do. Persevering to do everything in the list every single day. Keeping dairies. Personal goal setting. Advantages of time management: Helps the students to finish the work on time. Helps them to gain more time. Reduces anxiety Motivates the students to work and study no matter what the task is. Helps them to focus on specific things. It can be noted that each one of us has got his/her own way to learn. However, the most important thing is to know how to devote these methods to be a better learner. Time management may have a positive impact and great advantages upon the students’ academic life if properly implemented. Developing time management skills is a journey that needs practice and other guidance along the way (Study guide and strategies, 1996). As the well known adage goes, “time is money,” this saying always reminds us about the aspect of Time management. Unfortunately, most of the students do not understand the concept of time management. However, individuals must know that they are the ones who should direct time and organize it carefully. Literature review: Cooperative learning: Cooperative learning is considered as one of the most important method in the learning process. It is regarded as the situation where the students work together as small groups in order to achieve specific goals. According to many researches, cooperative learning helps the students to be aware of the importance of group work and each one feels that they are responsible for their learning, success and others’ learning and success. One of the successful teaching methods in small groups is Cooperative learning where students with varying ability levels utilize a number of learning activities to better their knowledge about a subject. While implementing cooperative learning in a classroom, every member of the group is accountable to learn and help others in the team to learn and thereby create an environment of achievement. Students who form a part of cooperative learning group continue to engage in an assignment till all members of the group understand and complete the assignment. Cooperative learning is a mutually beneficial method of group study that enables students to benefit from each other’s efforts, recognize the requirements of others, understand that the performance of a group is caused by the performance of oneself and the team jointly celebrates the success and takes pride in the success of the group. Cooperative learning can be used to promote the learning of students and improve academic achievement, improve student satisfaction, increase retention of students, assist students to better their skills in communication (oral), promote self esteem among students, and develop social relations skills and to promote positive attitude in race relations. (TTYP) turn to your partner is a study made by (Johnson & Johnson, 1991) which explains that the learners’ brain should be engaged. Therefore, cooperation doesn’t refer to only the physical interaction between the students but it also refers to the mental interaction among the students. The study shows that TTYP strategy helps all learners to engage their brains by giving each the opportunity to count his or her own response, listen to a partner and engage in deeper thinking about the concept. Another study made by (Cooper& Robinson, 1991) suggests the impact of Small-group instruction upon the students in three different ways namely, achievement, persistence (attrition) and attitudes. According to the study, “When peers work together there is a great deal of modeling, cognitive disequilibrium, feedback and perspective taking that emerge as students explain and receive explanations from their colleagues”. According to (Shevin, 1990), cooperation will help the students to support and encourage other students. They will have to help each other because they know that there will be a goal that needs to be accomplished where they will do things together. Brecke (1990) suggests that members of the team (the students) will provide mutual encouragement and assistance to each other. However, the question is what if the students look at the cooperative learning from another perspective? They may feel that other students are challenging them or better than them and it is here when the role of the teacher comes in. Actually, the teachers play a very important role to make the cooperative learning process successful. They are responsible for organizing the students together. First of all, they must know their students very well. Teachers must consider the different learning skills, cultural background, personalities, and even gender when arranging cooperative groups. They must help the students to learn from their peers and become less dependent on the teacher for help. Cooperative learning is effective in class room only in specific circumstance and gives more productive results than individual efforts. Circumstances that yield better results in cooperative learning are (a) Positive interdependence – the effort of all the group members is essential for the success of the group (b) Face to face communication (c) group and individual accountability (d) small group and interpersonal skills - conflict management, leadership, trust building and decision making and (e) group processing. A teacher can take advantage of Cooperative learning methods to delegate learning activity among students and gain better achievement levels through group study. This also gives more time for the teacher to deal with students who are weak in studies (Cooperative Learning 2009) . Cooperative learning is helpful for teachers while evaluating a class and communicating the results of the evaluation. Teachers can take the help of students while using labor intensive quality and performance assessment. Simplified assessment methods can be used in cooperative learning which cannot be used when students conduct individual study. Teachers can critically assess the skills, learning ability, ability to communicate and interpersonal skills and the efficiency to give out good quality work while assessing student in cooperative learning. Teachers can assess the students and students can assess their peers through cooperative learning and students can mutually support needy peers in a better way. When using cooperative learning assessment, it ought to become an integral part of the regular classroom life that seeks to promote better achievement. Overally, the quality of education will improve with lesser burden for the teacher and the learning process will become simple. The assessment of other classmates’ work helps students to strive towards better quality work, assess peers work and understand the feedback in a better way. Cooperative learning offers the opportunity for the teacher to understand individual as well as group outcomes. Individual evaluation is more relevant than group evaluation though both have their own significance (Cooperative Learning and Assessment 2009). Educationists strongly opine that a strong psycho-social base is essential to give insignificance to competition at school. This can be substantiated using the cooperative learning method. Teachers can overcome problems like poor academic assistance by initiating small group study where students can help themselves. Cooperative learning can also overcome the problem of unequal participation in classrooms. With the implementation of cooperative learning, the class teacher can enhance the interacting skills of students and model pro social behavior. A teacher has a key role to play in cooperative learning. The teacher should act as a facilitator, guide, model, supervisor, contingency manager and supporter to the students in the group. The teacher should ponder points for students to improve their capacity and effectively interact to bring out fruitful outcomes. The teacher should also initiate conversation, teach methods of courtesy, sharing, help seeking and help giving and guide students to show empathy towards other members in the group. Research indicates that cooperative learning brings positive effect on peer empathy and emotions, improves tolerance levels, better respect for diversity, improved self confidence, better social acceptance and improved school attendance. This method of teaching has positive outcomes such as the increase in the achievement levels of pupils and makes them more humanized by gaining pro social capabilities (A framework of cooperative learning 2009). Certain disadvantages of cooperative learning are: aggressive students may dominate and take over, gifted students may show superiority, loners will find it difficult to share answers and some students do not give positive result with this method of learning. Further, the teacher should pre plan the activities of the group and decide the knowledge and skill to be taught to the students. The teacher should also guide the students to learn in groups (Kizlik, B 2009). Time Management Teaching is a time consuming process and time is an insufficient factor in school as in any other aspects of life. Managing the time of teachers and students is an equally challenging factor in a class room. Time management relates to all aspects of teaching like organizing the classroom, organizing the day, deciding the time to be taken to teach subjects, maintaining time consuming behavior problems of students, and recording the progress of students. Effective utilization of time in school starts with efficient organization and management of the classroom. A teacher can manage time efficiently in a classroom by planning, reducing paperwork, preparation of routines, schedules and time table that eliminate waste of time and confusion, allocate independent assignment, use learning centers, prepare seatwork that allows the teacher to work in small groups and maintain an environment in classroom that enables student to have a smooth transition from one activity to another. Beginners and veteran teachers can increase their teaching time with efficient use of time by assessing factors that consume time and thereby teachers can increase their teaching time. A teacher can be a good classroom manager by delegating work to volunteers, aides and students and save the extra time for other valuable student related work (Time Management 2009). Importance of time management Time management enables a teacher to recognize the amount of time required to complete important tasks on a regular basis. Prioritization of activities is made simple and allocation of time for optional activities can be made through effective time management. This gives an opportunity to avoid unimportant tasks of lesser significance that consume more time and engage the teacher fruitlessly. Effective time management simplifies the schedules of the teacher and gives more freedom to accomplish the objectives of teaching with reduced stress. Well planned teaching schedule rescues the students from a poorly organized day at school. A teacher can keep the daily teaching routine under control by discussing time management issues with colleagues (Making time for success 2009). Further, teachers are responsible for the success of students. The effective utilization of class time reduces the anxiety of teachers and enhances the performance of students. Teachers will have some extra time at the end of the class to reflect and review the topic learned during the class on a well organized day (Time Management 2008). The significance of a teacher’s lesson time management should not be underestimated. Lesson time planning is of great significance because a class sometimes comprises little buggers who may take away a considerable amount of time if the class is not well timed and planned and may start playing and ultimately the teacher will lose control of the situation in the class (Lesson Plan Time Management for Teachers 2009). Teacher time management gives an opportunity to increase the student’s time on task that will result in better student achievement. Engaging students on a task in the classroom is a difficult duty for the teacher because teachers should be careful to allocate more time for academic tasks and engage the students in a fruitful manner. Teachers should have knowledge about managing time for a number of activities and divide the given time with achievement groups and help the students to focus on a given task (Stallings, J. 1980 p.11-16). Influence of Time management on teachers Teachers who participate in professional development programs will have sufficient time to obtain, practice and learn new skills and concepts in teaching and can find time to cooperate and interact with colleagues (Abdal-Haqq 1996). Proper utilization of time gives opportunity for students to put full effort into learning with specified time spent on instruction, engagement in task, and increase in the working time and finally resulting in better achievements (Wong, H.K & Wong, R.T Slide No.10). While evaluating the time of a teacher, it is found that a day is fully booked and therefore the teacher should make time to be available for parents and students after the classroom hours to address issues. An effective method that can be used by teachers to make time is to save time by implementing group activities whenever possible. Since a teacher has to respond to all the requests of students, certain activities like making telephone calls, answering emails, discussions, reading publications and articles and filing papers may be set aside as group activities at the end or beginning of the day (Landers, D 2007). Personal reflection: the influence of cooperative learning and time management: (own experience, how the researcher is going to make use of them in his future career?). The writer believes that cooperative learning (working in groups) has got a great effect upon students and teachers. During the whole of his life, he did not have the opportunity to work with peers in the class. In his city, Salalah, teachers never use this method inside classes, neither in primary schools nor universities. In class, we usually sat individually, each one of us in his/her seat not allowed to move or to talk to each other. They did not know that cooperation among students will help them to feel that they are not only responsible for themselves but they are also responsible for the others. It helps the students to develop the cooperative spirit among themselves, share ideas with others and respect their opinions. Therefore, teachers should look at the positive impact of Cooperation. He also did not know that cooperation can lead to success and what makes him say that is his own experience with the cooperative learning not in the school but at home. This happened before he came to UK and before he knew that most of the schools in UK are using the Cooperative learning in most of the classes. The author remembers that his youngest brother was always complaining about studying alone not having anyone to share ideas with. He used to excel in all other subjects such as Arabic, Science, and Maths for instance. However, whenever the researcher checked his grades, he wondered why he had low grades in English? He speaks it very well but the grades at school were not impressive? Then the writer took the first step by asking him about the problem and he told him that he does not like to work alone all the time as he needs someone to share ideas with. Then we started working together. We worked together and discussed quite a number of things and that was three weeks before his final exam. He used to attain very low scores in English of not more than 50%. When we started working together, there was a great change noticed which could not be believed. For the first time, he got the highest grade in the class which was 85 %. Since then, we started to work together as a group which included my brother, my nieces and myself. According to them, they learn better through group work because it is not only about reading from the book but it was also fun getting to know more about each other’s ideas. On the other hand, we had the opportunity to visit some of the schools in UK and when the researcher saw the participation of the students and their interaction with the teacher, he assured himself that he also had to emulate the same. It was a very important change in his way of thinking about cooperative learning. However, teachers should realize that they have got the most important influence upon students’ learning process. The following table is retrieved from my assignment on School observation module (teacher interaction with the students) just to show how important a teacher’s role inside the class is. Note: most of the classes were using the cooperative learning method. Positive reinforcement Teacher ( First School) Student’s Behavior Consequence teacher was very excited trying to encourage the students to ask questions gave students some information about the subject before the class start Using the motivation method when he told the children that if they read the book he will reward them. Encouraging them to discuss the subject together. paying attention to everyone. Students get excited too Wanted to ask and participate Have more info regarding the subject. excited to read and get the reward working together feeling good about the teacher More participation Say whatever they want and ask questions. Learn better Team work More participation Teacher ( Second School) Students behavior Consequence very serious talking all the time talking to the students in very serious and strict way Broke one of the most important rules which is being a friend with the students. no one is allowed to speak (or even breath). Serious too Just listening No one is talking Doing nothing but listing because they are not allowed to talk. No one is excited No participation No participation Feeling bored tends to make problems and noise and again no participation. Regarding the importance of time management, the writer always believes that we will have more time once we know how to use it. During his life as a student, none of the teachers ever mentioned that time plays an important role in helping us as students to achieve the best academic progress. We did not know that time could be the main reason why people fail or pass an exam. However, we always knew that time was one of the most important factors in our lives. Whilst he used to plan his time, the problem was that he never followed the schedule. Therefore, during the writer’s early days as a student, time was not that helpful. However, the researcher has since realized how important time is in our lives and can safely say that after a close observation of his sister who is a primary school principal. She started off as a teacher and she became the principal of the school within a very short period. He always wondered how she managed that to be a successful person and leader. Then one day he decided to interview her but she ended up interviewing him. She asked him what dose time meant but could not properly answer her question. To her time was always the main reason behind her success. She knew how to organize it and utilise it in her career as a teacher and now as a principal. However, now the writer has come to think about time in a very different way where he has divided it into different stages and that is how he is going to teach his students and will tell them to do the same. He would need to write this down and give it to the students. The researcher would divide time into three stages or boxes which he would prefer to call the box of (things to do). First stage (Box) will include (the very important things to do) like study for the test if you have any exams. Students must know how important time is in this stage. If the exam is to be written this week, they cannot say that they will study for the exam the following week. In this case, they have to use the box if they want to pass the exam. Second box: this box is opposite to the first one. It includes (not important things). These are things that one may want to do but they are not very important like using the internet to chat with friends you cannot go out and meet while there are other important things to do. Third box: This is the most important stage and can be called the box of successful people. It includes very important things but we do not want to finish them in a hurry like studying. We all know that studying is important but one can either study today or tomorrow, it does not matter but the most important thing is to remember to study whenever necessary. Most of the successful people will spend their time in this stage or box which the researcher has decided to call it box of things to do. However, the question is how to apply this operation in your life? The only way to do it is through weekly preparation and planning for example trying to spend 15 minutes on Friday thinking about doing some important things but not in a hurry just like in the third box. In summary, the concept of time management is often miss-understood by many students and even teachers. They believe that time directs us not that we should direct it. Why I have written about these two specific topics: The writer has written this paper for a number of reasons: he has always wanted to make a difference as a student and as a teacher. Now after having this great opportunity of being a student in one of the greatest institutions in UK University of Birmingham, he also wanted to share all the good things that he have collected and learned over this year through observing the teachers and the students. Writing this paper is also a way of expressing his true gratitude to all the teachers who have been so generous with their time and the information to learn more and to help the teachers to be better teachers and the students to be better students. He has enjoyed writing this assignment and the module was one of his favorite modules. He did not know that he will learn lots of things about himself and about others. It is the writer’s hope that this paper will help both teachers and students in his country to realize finally how important is the process of learning and teaching. Conclusion The amount of time efficiently spent by the teacher depends on the amount of time taken by the students to meet their learning needs. The changing and challenging educational environment has an effect on the learning capabilities of children which in turn has an effect on the teachers to enrich the academic excellence of students with more effort in terms of attendance, attention, courtesy and responsibility. The inclusion of special need students in regular schools demands more time from teachers and therefore time management becomes an integral part of teaching. Time management also rates the efficiency of a teacher’s performance within the restricted classroom time at school. Teachers can be more creative when they have more time for collaborating and planning and this can be earned only with a well planned day. While evaluating the advantage of time management, it is equally important to realise the disadvantages of poor time management by teachers since it may lead to poor creativity and the teacher may teach only the fundamentals of the curriculum. Poor management of time may require teachers to carry home work to be done during weekends and evening resulting in the lack of time to be spent with family. Too much of hard time will lead the teacher to frustration and exhaustion and the change and creativity to be effected in school will be compromised. A teacher need not rush with subjects if time is well managed and can find additional time to deal with pressure from parents and student characteristics. The implementation of recognized teacher aid kits like the readymade Teacher's Time Management Survival Kit designed by Steven R. Mamchak and Susan P.Mamchak would help the teacher in tracking the home work and make up work (on absence from class) by placing the responsibility on the students (Parson, S. 2004). A teacher can rely on cooperative learning because it gives opportunities for students to learn and teach each other in real world circumstances. Teamwork has gained much importance because it is valued for its managerial competence in the corporate world. Students tend to be well organized when they learn to solve problems by themselves. The main objective of cooperative learning is to make the students actively involved in the learning process that reduces the burden of the teacher to grab the attention of students each time an assignment has to be done. When there is more involvement of students along with peers, students feel less pressurized to complete an assignment. However, cooperative learning should be strategically implemented. Cooperative learning method has proved to outperform individualistic and competitive structures socially and academically irrespective of the grade or content level. Teachers can teach in a more positive environment when there is well defined cooperation from students. It requires a teacher to invest patience and time to implement cooperative learning in a classroom. A teacher can be successful in using cooperative learning if the students can be held collectively and individually accountable by maintaining the expected level of performance (Learn About Cooperative Learning). Therefore, cooperative learning and time management can influence the creativity and success of a teacher if managed strategically. Reference: 1) A framework of cooperative learning Available: http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=147597. Accessed on March 12, 2009 2) Abdal-Haqq, I. 1996 Making Time for Teacher Professional Development Available: 3)http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED400259&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED400259. Accessed on March 12, 2009 4) Cooperative Learning Available: http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm. Accessed on March 12, 2009 5) Cooperative Learning and Assessment Available: http://www.co-operation.org/pages/assess.html. 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(1999), the Cooperative learning center, The University of Minnesota. 18) Mind Tools Ltd, (1995), Time management, How to manage time and maximize effectiveness. Retrieved from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_HTE.htm 19) Study guide and strategies. 1996, Time management. Retrieved from: http://www.studygs.net/timman.htm Read More