Cooperative Learning for Young Learners

According to FORBES 500, in the years of 2000, what the occupational world requires employees who have strong interpersonal skills, problem solving capacity and teamwork.
What can we do to help our chidren develop those skills? Especially, as English teachers, what can we do?

One of the ways by applying Cooperative Learning in the teaching. Cooperative Learning refers to a set of instructional methods in which students work in small, mixed-ability learning teams. The students in each team are responsible not only for learning the material being taught, but also for helping their teammates learn. But,
Cooperative Learning for Young Learners, is it possible?

The answer is, of course it is. However, it requires hard works from the teachers' side. Heads On, Hearts On, Hands On. Teachers need to walk the extra miles from generating ideas and strategies, not just doing what the average teachers do. That's Heads on. In designing the activities, teachers need to keep on thinking of the students' learning styles and strategies. Then, during the classroom activities, teachers are taking active role, instructing, monitoring and prompting assistance necessarily.

We tried it out in a one day workhop at Universitas Pakuan Bogor, attended by around 100 teachers. We did work hard, but we also had a very good time together.