Collaborative and cooperative learning approaches encourage student interaction to improve their learning experience, giving students an opportunity to engage in discussion, take responsibility for their own learning, and thus become critical thinkers [1]. These strategies are also useful as a means to develop a number of transferrable skills and values such as team work, communication skills, social interaction skills, problem solving, conflict resolution and respect for others.

In this paper, we describe a teaching strategy used in a Programming course delivered at the third level of the Computer Science degree at the University of Valencia (Spain). In this course, cooperative and competitive learning strategies are combined to increase student motivation and contribute to the development of essential transferrable skills.

During the lecture sessions, a number of activities related to the learning objectives of the module are offered e.g. programming an application or giving a presentation on a topic related to the module. These are assigned a deadline and a number of course points, which are communicated in advance. Only one group of students may voluntarily take responsibility for each activity, and the scores achieved are accumulated throughout the semester. Once the activity has been completed, students have to present the results during a class session. To encourage team work, the activity may be performed in groups of up to five members, and the individual scores achieved are independent of the number of students who performed the activity. At the end of the semester, students are ranked by the course points achieved and mark guarantees are given to the first few ranked students. If a student who has achieved a mark guarantee obtains a lower mark in the semester examination, the former replaces the latter.

A potential problem with this approach is the uneven participation of the group members which sometimes may occur. To manage this situation and force an even contribution of all members, the presence of passive students is strongly penalized and has an effect on the entire group. At the end of the presentation, the lecturer and/or other students in class may address questions about the activity to any particular member of the group (all members should be present). If that student does not answer it correctly, the entire group loses the score. Because of the competitive component in the scheme, other students are encouraged to ask questions.

With this strategy, active learners who prefer learning by doing can find an additional motivation, at the same time as other more reflective learners are not jeopardized. In this paper, the approach is presented in detail and its major advantages and pitfalls are carefully analyzed.


[1] Totten, S., Sills, T., Digby, A., & Russ, P. (1991). Cooperative learning: A guide to research. New York: Garland.