Collaborative learning

Hi Education Bloggers

Throughout this blog I will be talking to you about collaborative learning in education.

So, what is collaborative learning? Collaborative learning is an educational approach to teaching and learning that involves groups of students working together to solve a problem, complete a task or to create a product. Each child is individually accountable for their work and the work of the group is also assessed.

‘’Learning is an active process whereby students assimilate the information and relate this new knowledge to a framework of prior knowledge’’ (Smith, McGregor).

‘’Learning requires a challenge that opens the door for the learner to actively engage his/her peers, and to process and synthesize information rather than simply memorize and regurgitate it’’ (Smith, McGregor).

‘’Learners benefit when exposed to diverse viewpoints from people with varied backgrounds’’ (Smith, McGregor).

‘’Learning flourishes in a social environment where conversation between learners takes place. During this intellectual gymnastics, the learner creates a framework and meaning to the discourse’’ (Smith, McGregor).

‘’In the collaborative learning environment, the learners are challenged both socially and emotionally as they listen to different perspectives, and are required to articulate and defend their ideas. In so doing, the learners begin to create their own unique conceptual frameworks and not rely solely on an expert's or a text's framework. Thus, in a collaborative learning setting, learners have the opportunity to converse with peers, present and defend ideas, exchange diverse beliefs, question other conceptual frameworks, and be actively engaged’’ (Smith, McGregor).

All the above is what Smith and McGregor both see as the approaches to collaborative learning within education. There is ‘one to one’ collaborative learning and then collaborative learning within ‘small groups’.

I interviewed a teacher who works in a primary school in the local area and asked her ‘how can collaborative learning impact education’ and she was able to give me an interesting response with also an issue that is going on within her classroom with two individual children.

‘’I think collaborative learning is very effective, in all ages of a primary school. Collaborative activates are very good for EAL (English as an additional language) learners as well. I have two twin boys in my class who could not talk English at all, they were both completely silent children but now because of collaborative learning they will interact with the other children within the class and they will be able to answer or ask different things. Collaboration encourages speaking and listening as well and particularly exploratory talk which is really important for language development such as role play areas or talking partners or carpet time. Sometimes children can feel more confident when discussing with other children especially mixed ability. There’s probably so many different opinions on collaborative learning but I think it works really well with EAL, individual learning needs and different abilities’’ (Morey 2017).

I found a few strengths and weaknesses of collaborative learning within education and this helped me to understand the pros and cons of collaborative learning in the classroom.

Cooperative learning is an effective teaching strategy where small teams mixed with different levels of ability use a variety of learning activities to help them improve their understanding of a specific subject. Each child is responsible for the information that they learn but also helping their team mates to learn the information also, this then creates a positive atmosphere of achievement (Consumer Guide, no date)

Cooperative learning is similar to collaborative learning in several different ways.

·         Each student is in control and responsible of their own learning.

·         They both help to prepare students for the world of work.

·         Rely on active student participation rather than lecture based teaching.

·         Team building skills and encourage social interaction.

·         Enhances deeper cognitive skills.

·         Create sharing learning experiences.

·         Helps to embrace student diversity.

There are also a few different ways how cooperative and collaborative learning are different.

·         Each individual organises their efforts between themselves.

·         Students are able to access their own individual group performances.

·         Success depends on individual strengths.

Woods and Chen (2010) believe that in order for collaborative learning to be more effective than competitive methods, five methods must be met. The child must show clear perceived independence, considerable promotive interaction, clear individual accountability and personal responsibility to achieve any goals, frequent use of relevant interpersonal and small group skills and regular group processing of current functioning to improve the group’s effectiveness.

What do you guys think of the statement below?

 ‘’The findings regarding small group cooperative learning are generally positive, especially in studies comparing this teaching strategy with more traditional approaches such as whole class teaching. These generally positive effects have been found both with cognitive or academic achievement and various affective and other non-cognitive factors’’ (Barry, K. and King, L., 2002. p. 237)

Strengths of Collaborative Learning

·         Social benefits: - Collaborative learning helps to develop a social supports system for learns and it also helps to build diversity understanding among students and staff. Collaborative learning also establishes a positive atmosphere for modelling and practicing cooperation and also develops learning communities (Laal, 2012).

·         Psychological benefits: - student centred instruction increases students’ self-esteem as well as reduces anxiety and also helps to develop positive attitudes towards teachers. (Laal, 2012).

·         Academic benefits: - Collaborative learning helps to promote critical thinking skills and involves students actively throughout the learning process. Collaborative learning also show that classroom results are improved and that models appropriate student problem solving techniques. Larger teaching lectures can be personalised, and it is especially helpful in motivating students in a specific curriculum. It also helps to collaborate teaching techniques utilize a variety of assessments. (Laal, 2012).

This will be the end of my blog for today, I hope you have all enjoyed reading it. Please leave some comments in the box down below and let me know what you thought about it.

Talk to you all soon Education Bloggers.

Reference list

Barry, K. and King, L., 2002. Beginning Teaching and Beyond. 3^rd ed. Australia: Social Science Press.

Consumer Guide (No Date) available at: https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/cooplear.html accessed:9^th December 2017

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

MacGregor, J. (1990). "Collaborative learning: Shared inquiry as a process of reform" In Svinicki, M. D. (Ed.), The changing face of college teaching, New Directions for Teaching and Learning No. 42.

More information (No Date) available at: http://archive.wceruw.org/cl1/cl/moreinfo/MI2A.htm accessed: 9^th December 2017
Morey, K (2017) Current Primary school teacher.

Smith, B. L., and MacGregor, J. T. (1992). "What is collaborative learning?" In Goodsell, A. S., Maher, M. R., and Tinto, V. (Eds.), Collaborative Learning: A Sourcebook for Higher Education. National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, & Assessment, Syracuse University.

Woods, D.M. & Chen, K.C. (2010). Evaluation techniques for cooperative learning. International Journal of Management & Information Systems, 14(1), pp.1-6