Did You Know
Dr Spencer Kagan developed the structural approach to cooperative learning over 60 years ago. At the time, it was ground-breaking as it was so different to the traditional model.
Kagan is Structured
Kagan structures student interactions & engagement, classroom management, class culture, social skills development & the front-end of the NZC - Values, Key Competencies & Effective Pedagogy. We leave nothing to chance and micro-manage pretty much everything to ensure consistency and reliability. We believe every student has the right to quality teaching no matter what school, level, context or location.
The structural approach means interactions between students follow a set of repeatable steps. Giving each of these structures a name makes it easy for teachers to use structures as they only need to say, RallyRobin, and the students know they’ll be working in pairs, taking turns to make a verbal list. The structure ensures each student has the same amount of turns, increasing oral language development, participation, engagement, and equity. Social skills are embedded in each structure with students greeting, responding, praising and thanking each other every time. This builds respect and an appreciation for other ideas. We also mix up the pairs so students aren’t working with their friends or people like themselves. We can do this because we engage in regular Classbuilding and Teambuilding to give students the skills and confidence to work with others they wouldn’t normally work with. This also helps with developing resilience and leadership skills.
Consider this…
There’s a reason for the current focus on structure such as Structured Literacy and Structured Maths. The opposite of structured is unstructured which means outcomes are really a wish. To ensure a desired result, student learning can’t be left to chance, and there must be respect to ensuring fidelity to research. Not adapting and modifying proven interventions to where they no longer resemble the original.
The same can be said of Kagan.
Kagan Cooperative Learning will work, but like any intervention, you can’t just pick out certain parts, leave others, and hope for the same results. This is why attending a workshop with a certified Kagan trainer is imperative to correct and ongoing implementation. Ongoing training, coaching and planning support help to further embed new PLD and a crucial element to our process.
If you’d like to know more about our process, please contact us.
EFFECTIVE PEDAGOGY