Copyright Karen Clement, June 2004. Submitted 11:10pm CST, 587 words.

The classroom is not the only arena for learning. In fact, proponents of situated learning feel that learning in the classroom is the foundation for learning in the “real world” (Woolfolk, Winne & Perry, 2003). With the recent emphasis on continuing education in the workplace, it is not surprising that expert teachers–in the form of corporate instructors, Human Resources professionals, and management–are in high demand in the private sector.

Unlike a classroom, where students primarily focus on their own achievement, a modern-day work environment must achieve corporate goals through high degrees of collaboration. Implementations of cooperative learning would benefit both company and staff, with benefits manifesting in many ways: profits, employee empowerment, and efficiency are a few.

In the classroom and the workplace, cooperative learning exists when participation and learning occurs for each member of a group (Woolfolk et al, 2003). This learning is shaped by the degree of collaboration; the higher the collaboration, the greater or more positive the learning experience. There are five elements that generally exist in an atmosphere of cooperative learning: positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual accountability, collaborative and cooperative skills, and group processing (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, cited in St. Edward’s University, 2003; Woolfolk et al, 2003). For a concrete application, this paper will discuss the following training program that I am facilitating at work in July.

Don’s Photo is a mid-sized corporation that manages eight retail locations and photofinishing labs throughout the Prairies. Due to high turnover in 2004, the six-person Digital Lab lost two expert staff and will be losing one more (myself). Consequent issues generated include: a highly understaffed environment; scarcity of free time for non-primary tasks; employees that lack confidence in their mastery of their primary workstations; employees that are not fully enculturated into a team-based environment. With only two expert employees remaining in the department, my secondary role as trainer has been stunted by the need to fulfill my primary role as a production worker. Another task has fallen to the Digital staff–training a new employee in the three weeks before my departure.

The existing team of four, over a series of group meetings with me as facilitator, formed a collaborative training program that accounts for the constraints listed above. Each team member will be responsible for the cognitive apprenticeship (Woolfolk et al, 2003) of the new employee on the workstation(s) under their jurisdiction. This ensures individual accountability and allows junior team members to learn by teaching (Woolfolk et al, 2003). Since each workstation is interdependent and can be operated by more than one team member, the team can switch training roles when time or workload frustrates the original schedule. Constant monitoring of progress is done over the day through normal channels of interaction, and if need be, in short full-team meetings at the beginning of the workday.

My responsibility is to ensure full participation and learning for all involved in the program. As the training expert, I must be a proper model for scaffolding and coaching (Woolfolk et al, 2003). As a motivator, I must instill confidence in my team member’s collaborative and cognitive skills. Finally, I must introduce cognitive conflict (Woolfolk et al, 2003) during team discussions to help change the departmental culture–from a team dependent on my decision-making into a team that is more autonomous and confident of their decision-making abilities. If we can stay on track with this ambitious but progressive training program, the impact that this year’s high turnover will have on the Digital Lab will be effectively mitigated.

REFERENCES

St. Edward’s University (2003). Cooperative Learning. Retrieved on June 30, 2004 from http://www.stedwards.edu/cte/resources/cooperative.htm.

Woolfolk, A. E., Winne, P. H., & Perry, N. E. (2003). Educational psychology (2nd. Canadian ed.). Scarborough: Allyn and Bacon Canada.