Methods and Techniques of Instruction Individualization and Differentiation. Learning through Cooperation or Group Work

Abstract

Living in a society that undergoes a continuous transition in which the explosion of information is developing side by side with the technological explosion in the area of transmitting information, it’s much more important to teach the students learning, critical and constructive thinking, and solving those really important problems. To what extent can this form of group-based learning organization contribute to individual development? The answer consists in the way group learning - is homogeneous or heterogeneous when objectives are clear, the methodology is adapted to the work task, and there are performance criteria that target the group, in its integrity, as well as the individual, with its differentiating peculiarities. Learning through cooperation, in teams or in groups is „a way of efficiently studying a complex theme, theoretical or practical, in a team or in a group, combining individual effort and intelligence with those of the group”. This method is based on the fact that man is a social being, that his existence and development are achieved by combining individual efforts with the group efforts to which he belongs too, through cooperation. Cooperation stimulates reciprocal control between students and competition. Every group member can freely express their opinion, gaining self-trust, and becoming useful to the whole group. Each individual has the opportunity to be in the shoes of others and to compare himself to them.