THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING GROUPS AMONG PRE-SERVICE STUDENT TEACHERS IN A CLASSROOM

Several studies confirm that it is the teachers’ responsibility to facilitate learning within the classroom. Though learning is believed to be intrinsically motivated, the learners’ emotional and cognitive aspects of learning need to be taken into consideration. Today’s pre-service student teachers are expected to present a number of teaching competencies that depend on effective teaching and learning. The constructivist approach to learning articulates that, learners should be able to construct and internalize new concepts, ideas and knowledge based on their own present and past knowledge. Cooperative learning seems to provide a better standing in terms of equipping pre-service student teachers with the means to strongly facilitate learning in the classrooms. The cooperative learning encourage student teachers to work together to achieve common goals hence they become involved in face-to-face interactions. Rewards and explicit instructions to build successful cooperative learning groups are pivotal. This paper needs to outline the cooperative ways in which pre-service student teachers were enabled to successfully facilitate teaching and learning activities in the classroom. The paper will also provide detailed report on the carefully observed benefits and the purposes of providing practical exposure for the pre-service student teachers to acquire the necessary teaching skills while learning from their cooperative groups.