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2.4 Elements of Cooperative Learning 
As we could see clearly from the above literature, active participation instead of 
passive listening in class distinguished cooperative learning from traditional lecturing.
Sharan (1980) referred to this as decentralization of authority and classroom focus.
However, it did not imply that the teachers switch their roles with their students: the 
students as active participant and teachers become passive recipients. It was very 
important for the teacher to plan and structure the strategy in the classroom. That 
was, the teachers besides mastering the content knowledge of the discipline they teach, 

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they should also know and put into practice the main features that lead to the success 
of cooperative learning (Cosio, 1998).
In general, there were five major factors that define cooperative learning and to 
make cooperative learning successful: (1) positive interdependence, (2) individual 
accountability, (3) quality of group processing, (4) teaching of cooperative skills, and 
(5) teaching of social skills. Each of these five elements would be discussed in the 
following sections.
2.4.1 Positive Interdependence 
Positive interdependence was creating the sense that “we sink or swim together” 
(Johnson et al). It was a sense of working together for a common goal and caring 
about each other’s learning. Within cooperative learning situations, students have 
two responsibilities: 1) learn the assigned material, and 2) ensure that all members of 
the group learn the assigned material. The technical term for that dual responsibility 
was positive interdependence (Sharan, 1980). When positive interdependence was 
clearly understood, it establishes that: (1) Each group member’s efforts were required 
and indispensable for group success (no “free-riders”); (2) Each group member had a 
unique contribution to make to the joint effort because of his or her resources and/or 
role and task responsibilities (Johnson & Johnson, 1994). 
There were a number of ways of structuring positive interdependence within a 
learning group: 
l Positive goal interdependence: Students perceive that they could 
achieve their learning goals if and only if all the members of their 
group also attain their goals. The group was united around a 
common goal—a concrete reason for being. Positive goal 
interdependence might be structured by informing group members 
they were responsible for: (1) all members scoring above a specified 

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criterion when tested individually, (2) the overall group score being 
above a specified criterion, (3) one product successfully completed 
by the group (Johnson & Johnson, 1994). 
l Role interdependence was structured when each member was 
assigned complementary and interconnected roles (such as reader, 
recorder, checker of understanding, encourager of participation, and 
elaborator of knowledge) that specify responsibilities that the group 
needs in order to complete the joint task. 
l Resource interdependence was structured when each member had 
only a portion of the information, materials, or resources necessary 
for the task to be completed and members’ resources have to be 
combined in order for the group to achieve its goal. 
There were a number of ways of structuring positive interdependence. One 
way was to have a single group product; another was to assign roles for each student; 
providing a group reward also fosters positive interdependence. Without positive 
interdependence, students sometimes fall into the trap of “hitchhiking,” where they let 
one student did all the work for them, or of being “off task” (Cohen, 1994b). 
2.4.2 Individual Accountability 
Individual accountability was the element, which provided for each student 
believing that it was important for him/her to learn the material. Each team member 
feels in charge of their own and their teammates’ learning and makes an active 
contribution to the group. Thus there was no ‘hitchhiking’ or ‘freeloading’ for 
anyone in a team—everyone contributes (Kagan, 1990).
The teacher must have a way of determining what each individual had learned, as 
well as what the group had accomplished. There were a number of ways of 
accomplishing individual accountability; random selection of student papers if each 

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student was doing work within the group, random oral quizzes of students, or written 
quizzes or examinations at the culmination of the work (Kagan, 1989). 
2.4.3 Quality of Group Interaction Process 
To provide abundant verbal, face-to-face interaction, where learners explain, 
argue, elaborate, and link current material with what they have learned previously was 
important in cooperative learning. Face-to-face verbal interaction referred to the 
physical set up of the group. Students needed to be clustered together in a tight 
group, facing each other, in order to have the kind of interchange necessary to 
accomplish the task. Johnson and Johnson (1989) proposed that groups should begin 
small, when students were just beginning to work together ad develop their skills.
The quality of interaction would depend on a number of factors such as: the 
grade and frequency in which the students cooperated among themselves in their 
academic tasks, giving feedback between each other in their learning activities, 
sharing learning experiences and life experiences, and supporting and engaging 
among themselves in their feelings and educational expectations. Under this 
perspective, Johnson & Johnson (1990) and Slavin (1987) stated that placing students 
in groups to work together, even under the name of cooperative learning or task 
structure, did not ensure that they would engage in the kinds of positive interactions 
that promote learning.
In addition, a positive classroom environment was also associated with the 
quality of group interaction. The implementation of an appropriate interaction 
process constitutes a major component that helped to improve the student outcome in 
many academic and behavioral problems, and helped to establish a greater academic 
environment in the classroom (Aschettino, 1993). 
2.4.4 Teaching Interpersonal and Small Group Skills 
The teaching of cooperative skills was essential. Placing socially unskilled 

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students in a group and telling them to cooperate did not guarantee that they have the 
ability to do so effectively (Johnson & Johnson, 1994). Students must learn the task 
and maintenance skills for the groups to run smoothly. Students might not 
intuitively know those social skills; therefore, they must be taught explicitly how to 
cooperate with others. Johnson et al (1990) suggest that the interpersonal and small 
group skills could be taught through a number of means; first of all, setting a social 
skills goal along with the academic goal lets students know it’s important to the 
teacher. Secondly, it could be established through role playing, modeling, and 
discussing the components of particular social skills (Cohen & Tellez, 1994). 
The teacher’s role in this teaching method was not that of someone who 
measures the capacities of the students in terms of a final product but in terms of the 
process. That was, someone who acted a friend, as a coordinator, as a director who 
guided his/her actors how to perform, and as an advisor in the academic tasks and in 
the psychosocial and cognitive development of the students (Cowei, Smith, Boulton, 
& Laver, 1994). 
2.4.5 Teaching of the Social Skills 
It was very important for students to have sufficient social skills, involving an 
explicit teaching of appropriate leadership, communication, trust and conflict 
resolution skills so that they could cooperate effectively. Schultz (1999) stated that 
social skills should be explicitly taught to the students so that students could work 
among themselves, not only in terms of cooperation but also without hostility and 
without the teacher’s authority. Under this logic, the scholar said that each student 
was motivated internally by need for freedom, love, and fun (Schultz, 1999). 
Johnson and Johnson (1990) also stated that students must be taught these skills 
and be motivated to use them. If group members lack the interpersonal and 
small-group skills to cooperate effectively, cooperative learning would not be 

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productive (Johnson & Johnson, 1990, p. 26).