1.3. Results
Kenneth Bruffee (1996) claims the idea of CL came into being thanks to the efforts of British teachers and
researchers in the 1950s and 1960s. After studying the interaction of medical students with their teaching physician,
M.L.J. Abercrombie concluded that the medical students who learned to make a diagnosis as a group reached to a
good medical judgment, faster than individuals working alone. Bruffee also states that his first encounter with the
belief of CL was when he encountered the findings of a group of researchers who thought that CL stemmed from an
attack against authoritarian teaching styles (p. 85). During the 1970s, college professors became increasingly
alarmed that students seemed to be having difficulty with the transition into writing at the college-level. Researchers
looking into this problem decided that the help being offered to students was too similar to classroom learning. They
needed not an extension of but an alternative to traditional classroom teaching (p. 86).
CL occurs when small groups of students help each other to learn. CL is sometimes misunderstood. It is not
having students talk to each other, either face-to-face or in a computer conference, while they do their individual
assignments. It is not having them do the task individually and then have those who finish first help those who have
not yet finished. And it is certainly not having one or a few students do all the work, while the others append their
names to the report (Klemm, W.R., 1994). Woods and Chen (2010) cited Johnsons (1994) that; in order for a CL
effort to be more productive than competitive or individualistic methods, five conditions must be met, as:
Positive interdependence;
Promotive interaction;
Individual and group accountability;
Social skills, and;
Group processing.
Johnsons (1989) and Pantiz (1999) list over 50 benefits for CL. The list below sets out the advantages to four
major categories as in following:
Social benefits;
CL helps to develop a social support system for learners;
CL leads to build diversity understanding among students and staff;
CL establishes a positive atmosphere for modelling and practicing cooperation, and;
CL develops learning communities.
Psychological benefits;
Student-centered instruction increases students' self esteem;
Cooperation reduces anxiety, and;
CL develops positive attitudes towards teachers.
Academic benefits;
CL Promotes critical thinking skills
Involves students actively in the learning process