Cooperative Learning in Mathematics

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Journal of Mathematics Education June 2011, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 75-88 © Education for All A Case Study of Cooperative Learning in Mathematics: Middle School Course Design Hua Cheng Xianyang Normal University, China Cooperative learning in mathematics (CLM) course design places emphasis on analysis and problem solving of complicated issues and knowledge that is of the nature of extensive coverage of the interconnected reasoning path. The key to CLM lies in its “cooperativeness”. CLM design should align its contents properly with students’ epistemic baselines. Teachers’ activities in CLM should be focused mainly on promoting students’ active involvement, while highlighting both students’ in-class and out-of-class cooperation. In order to achieve the expected results, CLM should also be applied in combination with other teaching methods. Key words: cooperative learning of mathematics course; class teaching; thinking participation. Cooperative learning, which is hailed as the “most important and most successful teaching method reform in the last decade” (Ellis & Fouts,1997) and as one of the teaching methods that the new curriculum reform advocates, is increasingly winning favor in primary and secondary schools in China. While cooperative learning theory is better understood and relevant research contents are further enriched, the focus of the domestic researcher shifts from theoretical introduction of international state-of-the-art in this area to a further step of exploratory study by applying this theory to its local context and practice in China, while emphasis is increasingly drawn on its influence on subject construction (Liu, 2009). “Full-time compulsory education mathematics curriculum standards (trial version),” highlights: “students should be encouraged to discover the unknown independently and be willing to cooperate”. Educational value varies
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