The workforce of the future depends on even greater teamwork and interdependence then perhaps the workforce of today. Working in an interdependent manner suggests that people must learn to work co-operatively. Working co-operatively means that workers may see that they to work together for the common good of all. It means that they would have to work with those they like and also those that they don’t like. What becomes more important is the group goals. Individual goals would be met through these group goals. Such workers must be prepared well before they enter the workforce. Expecting people who have been conditioned to only work for themselves all their lives to suddenly work as a team is very unrealistic. This is where schools must do their part to teach the value of working and learning together.

Schools can help in this respect by making co-operative learning one of the core strategies for learning within the school environment. Instead of the usual group work where there is little structure for individuals to play their part in the roles and tasks  given to the group, in a co-operative learning strategies, a clear structure based on the principles of positive interdependence is created to ensure the individuals in a group must all do their part to achieve the group learning goals.

There are five ways in which positive interdependence can be structured into a group. They are:

a) Positive goal interdependence;

b) Positive reward interdependence;

c) Positive resource interdependence;

d) Positive role interdependence; and

e) Positive task interdependence

By positive goal interdependence we mean that the final product must be the a joint effort that requires a degree of consensus by each individual member. No one is allowed to submit an individual learning product at the the end of the task. Only a group product is permitted and members must come to agreement what that group product would be.

Positive reward interdependence means that group members know that the reward for their work is dependent on the eprformance of the group. For example, group performance will affect individual members scores. While a portion fo the scores is credited individually, another portion of their individual score will reflect the overall performance of the group. The message is that even if they did well individually, they must ensure the whole groups performs before they all get the best rewards.

Positive role interdependence requires specific team roles to be defined for each member of the team. One can be a team manager, while another keeps track of what has been done as the recorder while another ensures meetings are focused events and so on.

Positive resource interdependence is concern with the delegation of specific and differentiated learning materials to each member of the group. This is to ensure that no one member can dominate in completing the given tasks. Each resource will be part of a complete jigsaw which everyone is responsible for. Each piece of that jigsaw has to be completed by the specific member and only after its completeion can all the pieces be put together to complete the picture.

Positive task interdependence means that each member would have to complete his given task in order for the group to complete the group task. The group task would depend on specific contributions of the group members. The final goal is unattainable if even one member does not contribute to the outcome by neglecting the task that has been given to him.

Through structuring positive interdependence in a group setting. students would be forced to work co-operatively rather than individualistically as is the norm in many classrooms today. This would help changed the classroom environment from a drive for individual success to one of group success. This working together in a  school setting will help students to become the team player at their workplace or their larger community in the years to come.

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