Don’t Hate, Cooperate

Nathaniel Gomez, Staff Writer

There are many benefits of having cooperation in a classroom. For example it gives the teacher a better chance to teach the lesson. It helps the teacher because the class is not being distracted and are staying on task.

One benefit that cooperation in a classroom has is that there will be teamwork to solve difficult problems. There will also be bonding between the students because they are spending time together throughout the period. This can build friendships and self-esteem because they are solving problems together which will make them more confident. In math class especially when I solve a problem with my partners we get really excited and ultimately boost our confidence. The process allows us to change our mindset and have more confidence going into the next problem.

Cooperation can also develop social skills because the students are constantly sharing their answers with their classmates and talking about how to improve the answer.

When I work with people I don’t really know and we begin talking, we find some common interests which usually lead us to friendship. Another thing is that there are more students that are on task and are not being disruptive giving the other students an easier time to learn. This can give students multiple perspectives on situations which is a positive thing because there is not only one view, but instead multiple views on things. The students also have a common goal when working on a problem which is good because they are combining their efforts towards the problem.

One of the main reasons why cooperation in a classroom is good is because students start to show leadership skills and others will see how to be a leader in similar situations. I still don’t have all the requirements to be a leader but whenever there is a challenge and I have a chance to lead I usually take over the leadership spot. Higher level thinking skills will be a benefit of cooperation because the students are determined to find the answer and won’t stop until they solve it.

Students become more responsible for learning when they are cooperative in the class. The one thing that I am proud of is accountability because this also goes a long way with responsibility.

This is one of the most important things that I have learned so far. One thing that is very critical in the process of cooperation is its ability to teach students to freely criticize other people’s ideas. This is informing another student that their ideas have room for improvement but at the same time it does drag a person down. The student will learn a lot more when they are cooperative, rather than while they are being disruptive.

Not only will the student be able to take in more information but the teacher will also be able to give the information that they have about the topic. I know from experience that when the students do their job and cooperate the teacher can do their job which is show ways of giving their knowledge to the student.