Examples of Using Cooperative Learning mplex whole system by a sembling the parts into a ethods for Learning Object-Orientated ent unit. There e are two forms of Development A ting parts that are extemaly Because Object-Orientated development involves writing it is to ere in with the components being inside the whole. the term The last principle of Obiect-Oriented development is gseneraliseationGeneraligtioninmvolvestheidentificatioi abs by inheritance and standard text form whe The Synergy Between the Principles of ents inte Cooperativ Learning and Object- is involved in putting stud The accounta ea object can be aspect tha Orientated teams of The study material is designed in such a way that team members need to do in a n the studer interactions be via aggregation or association rative learning in order the team is es another objec As the he e part of the material (piec os who have the ame component,then gef com The c up then puts together all its parts of the"jig needs to interact with other ob saw. cts th his is especially imporant throughout the project nning th through tests and assignments. aluation to make sure tha cooperativ and divide the task into subtopics for investigation.ThevComposition is the third principle of object orientation according to Kafura (2000). It involves building a complex whole system by assembling the parts into a coherent unit. There are two forms of composition in Object-Orientation, namely association and aggregation. Association involves interacting parts that are externaly visible and can be shared among compositions, whereas in aggregation only the whole is visible and accessible with the components being inside the whole. The last principle of Object-Oriented development is generalisation. Generalisation involves the identification and possible organization of common properties of abstraction. This is implemented by inheritance and polymorphism among other methods. The Synergy Between the Principles of Cooperative Learning and Object￾Orientation The first principle of cooperative learning is individual accountability. In Object-Orientation each object can be thought of as individually accountable for the methods and data that are private to it. This is the aspect that enables software reuse. Individual accountability of the separate objects is also evident in the separation principle of Object-Orientation, where objects have both private and public parts. The objects need to interact with other objects or classes as team members need to do in a cooperative learning environment. There is thus interaction through the defined interfaces. These interactions can be via aggregation or association. Interaction within cooperative learning groups can be within the group itself, within subgroups or between group members or subgroups. This face-to-face interaction is the second principle of cooperative learning. Positive interdependence is involved in both the composition and generalisation principles of Object￾Orientation. When one object interacts within another it is dependent on the other object to give valid results. This is especially true if the object inherits the properties of another object. As the components are put together to form a system, each component is positively interdependent on the other components. The social skills aspects and group processing principles are not evident in Object-Orientation itself, but are evident in Object-Orientated development. It is essential for developers of Object-Orientated systems to be able to work in a team, develop good interpersonal skills and resolve conflicts. As each object is independent and yet needs to interact with other objects this is especially important throughout the project life cycle. Planning the system involves defining objects and their relationships to one another. When putting the system together there must be a lot of cooperation and evaluation to make sure that all the parts work well together. Examples of Using Cooperative Learning Methods for Learning Object-Orientated Development Because Object-Orientated development involves writing components that can stand alone and then combining those components into a system, it is easy to create cooperative learning projects that adhere to the principles described above. In order to avoid using the terms component / object / class or class library, the term component has been used in the discussion that follows. The general cooperative-learning techniques are in standard text form with the Object-Orientated /component-based applications of those in italics. The first example of cooperative learning methods is the Jigsaw method (Johnson, Johnson and Smith 1991), where the teacher is involved in putting students into situations where they must depend on one another. This would be suitable for a lower-level class. • The teams are heterogeneous with regard to ability level, sex and race. Students are given training in team building and communications as well as group leadership. This would need to be done for Object￾Orientated teams. • The study material is designed in such a way that each student can be given a piece without having to understand the rest of the material. Although each student is given only part of the material, each is evaluated on the whole unit. This could be done by dividing the components between the students with different aspects that need to be applied being expected in each component. • The student learns his or her own material and is then responsible for teaching that material to the rest of the students. Each team member is expected to be expert in his or her particular “part of the puzzle.” In order to become expert the team members become members of a second group made up of the members from the other teams who have been assigned the same part of the material (piece of the puzzle). Team members from different groups who have the same component, then get together to determine how to write that component with its data and its methods. They write the component as a group and then go back to their original groups and teach them how they have done this. • The group then puts together all its parts of the “jig saw.” The group then puts together all the components and does integration testing. • The students are evaluated individually, not as a group. Further evaluation of the students would be done through tests and assignments. Group Investigation is another example of a specific method of cooperative learning that would work well in Object-Orientated development with a higher-level student group as the students themselves have to do the design and divide up the work. It is similar to the Jigsaw method, except that the students plan the learning task and divide the task into subtopics for investigation. They