Cooperative Learning

Last week in class, we did a number of activities as an introduction to cooperative learning. It was fun, but I was struggling with how I would want to incorporate it into my classroom. I think it would be really great in classrooms with especially dynamic abilities and motivations but envisioning a classroom of high achievers, I wonder how well/how useful cooperative learning strategies are. I know that during our first activity with the squares, I felt useless. Yes, I had to move my colors and no one else could, thus making me important, but I was not quick enough to envision the squares and so I was only following orders. It was frustrating for me because I wanted to contribute my fair share but couldn't and thus felt bad for being a "useless" group member. I think knowing how to work together is really important. People need to learn how to accept the help of others and know how to ask for it as well. I think people need to know how to step back and let other people have their chance. But that second part I think is the hardest part for people. We live in a society where being number one is highly valued. It's expected that we always strive to be the best one with the best ideas and the best results. Being a fairly passive person, I will often give other people the chance to do what I could easily do myself. But in the world of school, where I constantly worry about what my peers think and what my professors will think and how that will affect peoples' perception of me (and perhaps my grades), I'm constantly worried about proving myself to be smart, a hard worker, someone who can stand on their own and is capable. But with the activity we had and the cooperative learning strategy involved, I just felt incapable and useless, like a pawn for the smarter people in the group. And so I do not know if this is a result of me not knowing how cooperative learning functions or if it is a result of a perception that cooperative learning is not always best.