Teamwork Activities: The Key to Raising Cooperative and Smart Students
Modern education has paved the way for many different perspectives on educating the young generations. Compared to the old methods such as traditional teaching or behavioral conditioning-based teachings the modern view has improved tremendously in terms of increasing the students’ cognitive and social skills that will help them achieve their future goals, ambitions and fulfill their destinies. There is, however, one type of activity that has been more effective than the others so much that nowadays it’s considered a sin for a teacher not to include this type of activity in their lesson plans. We are, of course, talking about teamwork activities. Teamwork on its own has so many positive effects on students that incorporating it to lessons with activities has become the norm. That’s why every teacher and student should know about the benefits of teamwork, the different activities and how to use them effectively
The Benefits of Teamwork: Flagship of Improvement
In order to unlock the full potential of any student, it’s crucial that they take part in activities that will boost them in many areas. That’s why the benefits of teamwork reflection are the epitome of improvement as they mark almost every tick that can be said
about student improvement. For example, one of the benefits of teamwork is that it helps students improve their communicative skills as they have to talk to each other effectively towards a shared goal. Also, students learn that achieving goals through cooperative work is more effective and easier, thus improving their productivity and their views on cooperativeness. But the benefits of teamwork doesn’t end there. Since groups create the need for leaders, the students also get a chance to improve their leadership skills which they can enjoy in their adult work life the future. Having all of these said, we can still talk about some more cognitive and social benefits of teamwork such as improved interpersonal skills, conflict resolution, problem-solving, critical thinking and so much more. All of these improvements are possible through teamwork activities’ nature that enables multiple areas of improvement and learning together. That’s why it is crucial to implement them into lessons.
What Are Some of the Best Teamwork Activities?
Knowing that group activities are crucial for students’ development and have tremendous benefits throughout the board, it is no surprise that almost every teacher wants to implement them into their lesson plans and their teaching philosoğhies. That’s why it is important to know what activities are considered ‘good teamwork activities’ and which are the best amongst them. To start off with, some teamwork activities can be game-like in their nature. For example activities such as pipeline or scavenger hunts are more game-like. This scares some teachers as they think playing games in class is not something they should do. But on the contrary, it is one of the best options out there. Games that benefit from teamwork that is oriented towards a shared goal are really beneficial to the students as we have mentioned before. The key is to merge these teamwork activities with the goals you have set before for the lesson. After all, if done without a purpose, even teamwork activities can be meaningless. That is why a teacher or an educator should think about their lesson goals before choosing the type of activity they want to implement. The answer to this question will lead to the right type of games, activities or challenges that students work together and enjoy while improving tremendously. As an example, if the lesson goal is oriented towards informing students about a subject, then a teacher can prepare a trivia game that will check their previous learnings about the topic and will get their ideas. One key component is that the teacher should design these activities without creating an environment that is too competitive. Competitiveness can create negative feelings in the classroom and can hinder the development of the interpersonal skills we have talked about before.
Effectively Selecting And Designing Activities
Lastly, we have to mention some of the finer details of selecting or preparing these activities in order to incorporate them into the lessons. Like previously mentioned, the first key component here is the goals of the lesson. Some lessons tend to have a more speaking oriented nature. For example, in an English class where the lesson is oriented towards speaking it would be wiser to design teamwork activities in which the students have to debate or discuss different topics in order to succeed in their goal. They might, for example, try to create a scenario together and later on can act out the scenario they have come up with. This way they can both improve their speaking skills and also get all of the benefits of teamwork as well. As you see, the topic should be the determiner of the activity. One other thing to consider is the students’ characteristics. Some classes have a tendency to be more silent and less willing to cooperate. In classes like these it would be smart to incorporate activities that can be done through physical communication such as gestures or mimics. As each class differs, every activity’s main focus should also change with it, as no student and no class is the same. Therefore, if a teacher thinks about the main goals of the lesson she or he is going to teach, and then considers the type of characteristics the students of that class have, then he or she can design or find the best activities that will suit their classes.
