Teachers who employ cooperative learning methods promote learning because these collaborative experiences engage students in an interactive approach to processing information, resulting in greater retention of subject matter, improved attitudes toward learning, and enhanced interpersonal relations among group members. Initially, the teacher carefully designs meaningful tasks that require active participation of each student in the group toward a common end. The teacher also provides students with on-going feedback and assessment of the group's progress. The selection of a particular model or design is influenced by the desired outcomes for instruction, the subject area, and the social skills of the students . There are five basic principles fundamental to cooperative learning.
Teams encourage discussion of ideas and oral summarization.
Peer assistance clarifies concepts for both helper and the student being helped. Cooperative teams help students learn to value individual differences and promote more elaborate thinking. It can be built into a reward structure by assigning team points based on team averages, on members reaching a predetermined criterion, or on team improvement rather than outright grades. Processing can be individual, team-wide, or at the whole collaborative class level. The smallest group is two.