well you need both obviously. some people take extremes and feel that cooperative learning is liberal because they have seen too many feel-good kumbaya examples.
Quick question, and I’m not trying to trip you up or make you look stupid or anything, but assuming you went to college, what did you study? I’m asking because most of the other people I’ve known who studied engineering or hard science subjects, view group projects a socialist wast eof time. You learn very fast that half the people on your team intend to do nothing for their grade, and have to work twice as hard yourself. You learn to view everyone else’s work wiht suspicion. One case of hideous plagiarism will do that to you. You learn how to document what you did so after the presentation you can go to the professor and explain what you did and what the others didn’t do. You learn to insist that you be allowed to proofread the final documents before turning them in because other students can’t spell or use commas correctly.
Time management was a much more valuable skill than teamwork.
Cooperation isn´t learned in school. What is learned in¨”team projects” in government schools is how to slack off and let someone else do all the work.
It is in normal neighborhood play that children learn how to cooperate. It is sad but children today have less and less unstructured, Lesly supervised time for free play with other children, or unstructured time alone merely to day dream. They are too often in day care, in school, or in organized team sports or other after school activities.
One of the major reasons homeschoolers are enjoying so much success is that they have ample time for unstructured play.