Cooperative Learning In The Junior High School Biology Classroom Teaching

The State Council issued 'The resolution of the State Council on reform & development of elementary education' on May 29,2001 (by PRC[2001]No.1), in which cooperative learning is mentioned and emphasized. The resolution says ' encourage cooperative learning, promote communication among students, make teaching benefit teachers as well as students.'Cooperative learning adopted by many countries , is a creative and effective teaching theory & strategic system. Famous contemporary American critics Alice and Futz stressed in their new work Study On Educational Reform 'if cooperative learning isn't the biggest educational reform, at lest it is one of the biggest.' From this we can say cooperative learning is a successful teaching method and strategic system, 'drawing lessons from history , drawing lessons from foreign countries' is our basis principle when we absorb domestic and international advanced experience.Cooperative learning is the teaching strategic system which bases on group study in class. It makes students cooperate with each other and learn together through some cooperative progress and method. It regards the total result as the basis for reward and promotes students to make progress in cognition, emotion and skills. Cooperative learning has 5 characteristics: 1. group aim 2. tasks for individuals 3.the same chance for success 4.group competition(inter-group competition, internal competition) 5.task specialization.Under the guide of cooperative learning, we combine experiment with action, combine the characteristics of junior biology, physical and mental growth of junior students with the advantage of traditional education. This study invented the teaching pattern of 3 parts, 8 steps to organize the teaching experiment, which reflects subjective teaching and training of cooperative skills and promotes students to develop in an all-round way. Cooperative learning in biology class of junior middle school should link teaching materials and be carried out suitably. First, teachers should design excellent lessons plan, which is the basis of developing the quality of cooperative learning. Second, the creative lesson plan is the key of developing cooperative learning and it's a big challenge to teachers. In fact, teachers are developing, perfecting and improving themselves when they are talking about the marrow of cooperative learning.Through the study of cooperative learning teachers want to find the common sense between advanced domestic & international teaching theory and Chinese traditional education concept, as well as the uniting point of advanced teaching theory and Chinese educational reform ,in order to seek the biology teaching pattern which fits the domestic facts, to strengthen its serviceability and adaptability, and to contribute their shares for the popularization of the advanced teaching method.