A Review of Cooperative learning and related theories

Abstract

One of the legacies inherited to the scientists of the twentieth century from Charles Darwin has been the thesis of the inherent naturalness of human striving for superiority. Adopted by the "Social Darwinists", this qualified biological observation became a credo of those arguing for instinctive competition in human kind in all social and economic interactions. That is why our present educational system is mainly based on competition and this is reflected in almost every aspect of it. Students have to compete with their fellow students, right from the stage of admission to nursery class up to the highest level. Excessive competition robs of childhood from children and youth from the young adolescents. Competition is against the spirit of creativity also because it favors convergent thinking in place of giving children a chance to develop divergent ideas. We humans have been as successful as a species because of our ability to apply our intelligence to cooperate with others to accomplish group goals. It is difficult to think of adult activities in which the ability to cooperate with others is not important. Human society is composed of overlapping cooperative groups: families, neighborhoods, work-groups, political parties, clubs, teams etc. Because schools socialize children to assume adult roles, and because cooperation is so much a part of adult life, one might expect that cooperative activity would be emphasized in schools. However, this is far from truth.