Activity 1: Skills and Best Practices

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is a strategy which involves students in established, sustained learning groups or teams. The group work is an integral part of, not an adjunct to, the achievement of the learning goals of the class. Cooperative learning fosters individual accountability in a context of group interdependence in which students discover information and teach that material to their group and, perhaps, to the class as a whole. The teacher's role changes as Alison King (1993) says "from sage on the stage to guide on the side." Although they learn in groups, the students are evaluated individually on the learning they have achieved.

http://www.oic.id.ucsb.edu

There are many factors that separate cooperative learning groups from the traditional small group activities designed simply to have students interact in groups.

• Cooperative learning is structured
• Cooperative learning creates a classroom community
• Cooperative learning is a sustained approach
• Cooperative learning requires and enhances student communication skills
• Cooperative learning balances interdependence with individual accountability
• Cooperative learning responds to classroom diversity

Use of Surveys

How to Conduct and Utilize Oral Interviews

Oral history is the process of collecting an individual's spoken memories of his or her life, of the people he or she has known, and the events which he or she witnessed or participated in. Oral history is another primary source technique historians use to help them interpret the past. Oral histories can be used to supplement written records, complement secondary sources (what has been written by historical scholars), and to provide information that would exist in no other form.

http://www.nebraskastudies.org

This site also provides suggestions for:

• Preparing for the Interview
• Selecting Individuals to be Interviewed
• Scheduling the Interview
• Research Prior to the Interview
• Being Comfortable with any Equipment Connected with the Inverview
• Dressing for the Interview
• Conducting the Interview
• Post-Interview Suggestions
• Evaluating the Interview