Cooperative learning refers to a teaching strategy whereby learners work in small groups to help each other to learn. The role of the teacher shifts from a person who presents information to a person who facilitates learning in an environment  that encourages learners to take responsibility for their own learning.

key elements of co-operative learning include the following:

• each group should be made up of  learners who have different strengths and abilities
• shared goals and rewards build up positive interdependence
• management systems (rules) are introduced to increase group learning
• learners are taught skills necessary to cooperate and teach one another
• the rules of each activity match the goals of the activity. Such goals could be simple such as team building, exchanging information, mastering content, or developing social skills.

Here are some examples of activities which learners can do by co-operating in groups:

• They can be placed in groups to discuss content that has been presented and then quiz each other on it
• They can summarise text for each other
• They can test each other's comprehension skills
• They can edit work done by other members of the group
• They can make presentations to each other on different aspects of their academic work
• They can investigate topics using discussion in their groups and co-operative inquiry
• They can plan projects together which they can then present to their class.

In order for cooperative learning to work well the educator must plan well, just as you would for a conventional lesson in which you would present all the information yourself.  You must be sure of the content that you want the learners to learn, the outcomes you want to achieve and the skills that learners are going to develop.

Assessment should be structured around these outcomes so that before the lesson starts learners know what they will be assessed on. These could include:

• the way they work together
• how much content they understand
• how well they have constructed a report 
• how accurate their findings were 
• all of the above!

If you would like to read teachers' reflections on the size of the groups and the roles that they assign when using co-operative learning, then this link to a Website for teachers' in the USA .   Click on tales.