Biology Instructional Philosophy - Cooperative Learning Groups propose more ideas and potential solutions than do individuals. Social groups collaborate to make sense from experiences. Conversation, presentations, writing and concept mapping prompt student groups to make their implicit ideas explicit and clarify their understanding. Well-structured, challenging tasks lead to group engagement and active learning. On average, an hour of hands-on activity requires at least two hours of additional processing time, analysis, reflection, and interpretation.
Group dynamics vary.
Some groups are highly productive and others less so. Opportunities for rearranging group membership should be provided. Peer evaluations of each individual's contributions to a group effort seem to be highly reliable, based upon agreement among members.