“…cooperative teams achieve at higher levels of thought and retain information longer than students who work quietly as individuals”

My theology teacher did many effective things to force us to think about and study the material for ourselves. For instance, we were given a group work assignment once a week. This group work allowed us to discuss what we were learning with each other, and gave us the opportunity to hear their point of view and opinions. Anuradha A. Gokhale argues how beneficial group work is in her article “Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking”. She says, “According to Johnson and Johnson, there is persuasive evidence that cooperative teams achieve at higher levels of thought and retain information longer than students who work quietly as individuals” (1). She goes further and states that “the shared learning gives students an opportunity to engage in discussion, take responsibility for their own learning, and thus become critical thinkers” (1).

Based on my experience with the group work done in my theology class, this information holds true. These assignments asked us questions based off of the material and concepts we learned that week. They often asked us for each of our beliefs, forcing us to discuss with each other our thoughts. I found it interesting to hear what my peers believed. It amazed me that there were so many different beliefs among a group of Christians. This really opened my eyes to how much I did not know and how much I had to think about. To page 6