Collaborative Learning in Education

Hello Bloggers!

Second blog post of the night! I will be discussing how collaborative learning can potentially impact on primary education.

Collaborative learning is a technique that teachers use to get pupils to work together in a positive way to impact on their learning (Study.com, 2017). This technique can be used between 2 pupils or larger groups, and it benefits the pupils because social interaction between pupils is very important and they are able to teach each other and share ideas; allowing them to develop on their communication and team working skills. Dillenbourg (1999, p.1) believes that there is no distinct definition of what collaborative learning is because this term is used so widely across the world. However, he did state that “the broadest (but unsatisfactory) definition of 'collaborative learning' is that it is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together” (Dillenbourg 1999). He then goes on to talk about how this element of his definition can be interpreted in diverse ways; such as, how ‘two or more’ can mean, from 2 people, to a society of 1000’s of people, and how ‘together’ can be interpreted as “different forms of interaction” (Dillenbourg 1999, p.13), such as; face to face, or using technology. 

There are lots of different situations in which collaboration can be used to impact learning. I am going to explain two. The first form of collaborative learning is called ‘one to one’, and this is where the teacher may use pair work during a lesson. For example; pupil A struggles with remembering methods to times big numbers, the teacher will pair them up with Pupil B who is strong in this area and is able to help pupil A when needed.

The second form of collaborative learning is ‘small group’ work. For example; the teacher may put the pupils in groups depending on their understanding of the topic she is teaching. Therefore, she can focus on the weaknesses of each group and change her teaching style to cater for them.

There are Social, Psychological, and Academic benefits to using collaboration to enhance the learning of pupils. Firstly, Collaborative learning helps you to develop a social support system for learners (Laal et al, 2012, p.487), allowing pupils to form positive relationships with peers.

Working within small groups also allows the pupils to begin to understand diversity more as they may be working with peers from diverse backgrounds, this way; they are learning about each other, given the opportunity to ask questions, and learn about the differences they may have.

By using collaborative learning, self-esteem is increased within the pupil as the task is centred around them and they are encouraged to communicate and share ideas. It is also proven that collaborative learning develops “positive attitudes towards teachers” (Laal, 2012).

Collaborative learning also promotes pupils critical thinking skills. Critical thinking involves "analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of the concepts” (Gokhale, A, 1995). Gokhale (1995), carried out a study to see how effective collaborative learning was when developing the pupils critical thinking skills. She found that those pupils that studied through collaborative learning were significantly more successful in the task than those who studied alone. This study is supported by Vygotsky (1978) who suggested that when pupils are asked to work collaboratively, they perform at a higher intellectual level. The pupils said that working collaboratively helped them to have a better understanding of the activity they had to complete and “stimulated their thinking process” (Gokhale, A, 1995).

Laal (2012) also suggested that, by sharing information and ideas, pupils are learning actively rather than just sitting down and listening to the teacher; and this can improve results within the classroom.

During one day last week at university, I experienced collaborative learning with St Nicholas Primary School, Year 6 pupils. Each student worked with a pair of children, and together we had to create a short video based on anything we wanted, using the green screen and technology. My group decided to create a video that was based around what we knew about Wales. We used the iPad to create our video using the app ‘Do Ink’. To start the video, we used a picture of the Welsh Flag, and used this as the background. Pupil A stood in front of the green screen, pointed to the flag and said, “We are from Wales, and this is our Welsh Flag!” Pupil B then decided she wanted to include Welsh Cakes in her part of the video. We placed a picture of Welsh Cakes as the background on the green screen and she shouted, “In Wales, one of our traditions is too eat Welsh Cakes!” Together for the final part of the video, the pupils decided they wanted to talk about the X Factor contestant Lloyd Macey. We used the app ‘Chatter Pix’ to bring Lloyd Macey to life! Pupil B pretended to be an X factor judge and commented on Lloyds “singing” (Pupil A pretended to be Lloyd and sang a song in a deep, man’s voice). All the pupils really enjoyed making their own green screen videos as they had the freedom to use their imagination and create the video based on anything they wanted to. They got very excited to share their own videos with everyone else at the end of the session.

Here are some images from today’s session and an example of the CHATTERPIX we made:

Education Bloggers; can you think of any potential downfalls to the use of collaborative learning? Think about when you worked with the pupils from St. Nicholas Primary School; were there any obstacles that prevented you from completing the task efficiently?

Reference List

Dillenbourg, P (1999) Collaborative Learning: Cognitive and Computational Approaches. United Kingdom: Emerald Group Pub.

Gokhale, A (1995) ‘Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking’, Journal of Technology Education, 7(1) pp. none stated.

Laal, M and Ghodsi, S (2012) ‘Benefits of collaborative learning’ Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences, vol. 31, pp.487-490.  DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091

Study.com (2017) ‘What Is Collaborative Learning? - Benefits, Theory & Definition’ Available at:http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-collaborative-learning-benefits-theory-definition.html [Accessed: 17^th November 2017]

Vygotsky, L (1978) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.