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Cooperative learning can be traced back in the 1930s and 40’s. On the basis of the philosophy of ‘four heads are better than one”,philosophers and psychologists such as Kurt Lewin, and Morton Deutsh influenced the cooperative learning theory practiced today.But it was not until the 1970s (Sachs, 2003) that the specific applications to the classroom begun.Also,in 1994 D.W.Johnson&R.T.Johnson published the 5 elements essential for effective group learning cognitive skills. Wang (2001) considers that CL exerts great influence on students’ scores and affective aspects.
Over the past few years, CL has become a widely used method in China,which was firstly introduced in the late 1980s when some scholars like Ding Bangping（1988）, Sheng Qunli（2004）, Wen Pengnian(2002) had done a lot of work towards it. In the early 1990s, an experiment named “cooperative education” had been firstly put into use in Shanghai. Then, the early 21st century,the heyday of the development of CL , witnessed the function of CL in EFL class and a widely application of CL.Both the State Council resolution on Reform and newly revised National English Curriculum Standards(2011) emphasize the importance of cooperative abilities that can promote interaction and joint development of the students, and to make teaching benefit teachers as well (Wang Tan, 2002).The effectiveness of cooperative learning in promoting students’ cognitive abilities and cultivating cooperative spirits are proved.
However, there is a big gap between the requirements and the real situation.The application of CL always degenerates into forms. Thus, the application of CL in China is always less impressive.Though a great deal of researches have been done and solutions have been offered,there are no specific and targeted solutions for all lessons and the real situations.Thus,the paper tries to probe into a case study of CL in middle school with the purpose of finding out problems in application and proposing some targeted suggestions in different lessons.
II. Literature review
In this part, the definition , the characteristics and the types of CL are described , and strategies for implementing CL are ariived at .Also , the theoretical basis of the research is as follow : .
2.1. Definition of CL
What is CL? Scholars in different field have different words towards it and some of representative definition are quoted below.
Cooperative learning has been defined as a process “in which students work in a small group to help each other learn academic content”(Slavin,1995).As for Slavin, CL is an instructional method for students to work
together to success cooperatively and get rewards according to their performances in group tasks.
Cooperative learning is also defined as students working cooperatively to “attain group goals that cannot be obtained by working alone or competitively”. (Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1986:12).To achieve the shared goal,students are actively involved in working in groups to accomplish the shared activities with mutual help and inpidual accountability.
Wang thinks that cooperative learning is a system of teaching strategy which promotes the students to cooperate in heterogeneous teams for a common goal and is rewarded according to the success of the team (Wang Tan, 2001:7-8). And the aim of cooperative learning can be pided into academic objectives and cooperative objectives. CL can benefit both low-and high-achievers who work together on academic tasks (Arends, 2004).
From the definitions mentioned above,we can come to the conclusion that CL is considered as a range of strategies in which students work together to complete shared goals ,which is beneficial not only to themselves but also to group members.