Collaborative learning is a situation where two or more people attempt to learn something together. Dillenbourg, P. (1999). Lev Semenovich Vygotsky, (born in 1986), introduced his theory that, human development—child development as well as the development of all human kind—is the result of interactions between people and their social environments. What this states is that the development of a “higher education” is the product of comparing and contrasting ideas of others ultimately to conclude a solution to a problem as a whole or group. Everyone’s input in a collaborative situation will play a role in final solution.
Building self-esteem, enhancing student satisfaction with the learning experience, and promoting a positive attitude toward the subject matter are all benefits of collaborative learning. A higher degree of accomplishment takes place as a group because you essentially are a team. An example of this is a sports team. In a collaborative situation it takes every member to do his or her part in order for a situation to have a greater resolution; as where a sports team needs everybody’s individual talent to win a game. In retrospect, as a group; the contributions of our own talents can make the difference between a “win or Lose situation” it gives you a sense of competition, and knowing that you can win as a group; self esteem in one’s self is accentuated. Johnson and Johnson (1989), Slavin (1967). Another benefit to collaborative learning is based on the members of your group. Every individual in the group demonstrates their own input based on where they were born, what nationality they are so on and so on. The benefit of this is that you get a different perspective on things rather than always knowing what you know. You can take information from other cultures and add or apply it to what you already know.
In a collaborative group from past experience and from how I know myself, playing the role of the information taker and group speaker is my specialty. This role for me had no benefits of learning because often I wouldn’t have to seek information; I was given information to record. Ultimately not seeking information resulted in not learning anything pertaining to the subject at hand. The role of not having to do anything but to record information and speak on behalf of the group effected the group by not having one more person who was seeking information.
In order for effective cooperative learning to occur five essential elements are needed; positive interdependence, face-to-face interactions, individual accountability, social skills and group processing. (Johnson, 1999, p. 70-71). Social skills being the foundation to achieving all other elements required, without this set of skills the individual learner will find it difficult to cooperate with others. Thompson (1996) “social skills are paramount to applying cooperative learning to academic tasks” (p. 84).
By working together there is information sharing, improve safety and quality also collaboration gives knowledge to other professionals. (Littlechild and Smith, 2013).what I have learned through working in partnership with other professionals was creating a poster related to what each professional does. Some of the professionals I did not know how exactly they work together in partnership. Example: I was not aware of how a radiology would work with a social work and the outcome of that was that Radiology develop and maintain collaborative relationship with medical colleagues and participates in regular meetings with other professionals activities to meet the needs of a service users therefore they collaborate with Social Workers. By doing a poster and delivering information I learned a lot from the other team members, shared experiences knowledge and skills with other group members. Group work made me realise how it is very important to work in multi-displinary team, the benefit of it and what others can benefit from. During the poster each of the student was from different professional however we all had the question but each had to look at it in each profession perspectives. This gave an opportunity to everyone to go and search for each professional and communicate with the rest of the group the outcome of the presentation. By doing that, we exchanged ideas learned from each other’s skills and used it into practice. I have learned about sharing information with others, learned about communication and
Roles like the recorder were harder to fill as our group interaction was a onetime meeting and therefore did not require as much to be done. However, this role was still filled as a member of my group took notes and recorded the groups’ ideas and progress throughout the discussion. Also, the role of information giver was not fulfilled by one person and instead everyone seemed to take on a bit of this role. Throughout our discussion multiple people would use facts, examples, and stats to back up their argument and ideas instead of one single person. This was also evident in the role of the harmonizer and encourager no one person stepped up and took on this role and instead everyone took on this role. Everyone seemed to give each other complements and encourage each other and their ideas presented and the role of the harmonizer wasn’t really filled because there wasn’t really any conflict which arose in our
The first thing I noticed about the subject of collaboration is that it is huge—there are as many styles, types, methods, rationales, theories, benefits and drawbacks as there are theorists and scholars. Additionally, almost no one appears to agree on even such simple matters as terminology (Is it collaborative writing or collaborative learning? Is it peer response, review, or editing?), let alone on actual application and practice. As Kenneth Bruffee states in “Collaborative Learning and the ‘Conversation of Mankind,’” an essay many supporters and detractors of collaborative writing hearken back to time and time again, his essay “offers no recipes” because there are no recipes for effectively adding collaborative writing to an English classroom (394). There are merely guidelines for successful collaboration and rationales supporting or denying the usefulness of incorporating collaborative writing. Kenneth Topping, director for the Centre for Paired Learning at Dundee University, supporting the notion that collaboration is without rules or recipe, writes, “Collaborative writing is not a single homogeneous procedure” (1).
As future teacher, I need to be aware that my classroom will be filled with diverse learners. There will be students that need extra attention, accommodations, and modifications in the classroom to reach their academic goals by way of the collaboration of Special Education and general education teacher’s. There will be diverse learners with different issues to overcome that require a knowledgeable teacher who can assist the students to reach particular individualized goals because, as we know, everyone is different I want to be able to reach out and help every single one of my students and by taking courses about learning the needs of exceptional learners, such as Collaboration for Inclusive Schooling, I may learn how to work with and assist students with special needs and provide for them an opportunity to learn.
... that areas of expertise can be exploited, different people are good at different things. Groups can discuss material, and that discussion can improve the quality of the decision. Groups are less likely to suffer from judgmental biases that individuals have when they make decisions. People are more likely to follow through on decisions made by groups that they are connected to. Also, more monumental decisions can be made in groups, because one member will not be singled out for blame, making the entire group responsible.
If you are studying together it is very helpful, and you will get a lot done. Also, with a group mind, if you are doing a project for work/school there is always somebody there to look over your work, just in case you mess up. Then, if you are doing a project with some a lot of calculations, having a group is very helpful. In case you mess up or just do not see a mistake you made on a calculation and correct it, so you do not have to get some points taken off for getting it wrong. There are pros and cons to this subject matter, but I think the cons outweigh the pros.
Bruffe, Kenneth A. “The Art of Collaborative Learning: Making the Most of Knowledgeable Peers.” Composing Knoweledge; Readings for College Writes. Ed. Rolf Norgaatd. Boston:Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2007. 399-407. Print.
“COOPERATIVE LEARNING (CL), THE Instructionaluse of small groups in order toachieve common learning goals via cooperation,has made an almost unprecedented impact in educationduring the last two decades.According toJohnson, and Smith (1995)CL is oneof the most thoroughly researched areas in educationalpsychology. As they assert,We know more about cooperative learning than weknow about lecturing, age grouping, departmentalization,starting reading at age six, or the 50-minuteperiod. We know more about cooperative learning than about almost any other aspect of education.”
According to Gerlach, "Collaborative learning is based on the idea that learning is a naturally social act in which the participants talk among themselves (Gerlach, 1994). It is through the talk that learning occurs."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 create a product. According to Gerlach, "Collaborative learning is based on the idea that learning is a naturally social act in which the participants talk among themselves (Gerlach, 1994). It is through the talk that learning occurs." pair share activity , This learning strategy promotes classroom participation by encouraging a high degree of pupil response, rather than using a basic recitation method in which a teacher poses a question and one student offers a response. Additionally, this strategy provides an opportunity for all students to share their thinking with at least one other student which, in turn,
Together with the teacher and classmates, students are given the opportunity to speculate and question the world around them and the world awaiting them. Within small peer groups, for instance, students are encouraged to discuss, share, and compromise. The teacher is there to encourage this process, rather than to provide prescribed solutions. Similarly, the learning environment is collaborative and democratic, giving opportunities for all to speak their minds and receive feedback from peers as well as the teacher. This continuous loop of feedback, potentially positive or negative, serves as the means of assessment for problem-solving based instruction.
Collaborative learning is an educational approach that involves groups of learners working together to reach a consensus through negotiation to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product (Bruffee, 1993). Learning occurs through active engagement among peers, wherein the main characteristics of collaborative learning are: a common task or activity; small group learning, co-operative behaviour; interdependence; and individual responsibility and accountability (Lejeune, 2003).
Scarnati, J. T. (2001). Cooperative learning: make groupwork work. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 67(Fall), 71-82.
...I believe through the use of critical thinking, communication with students and parents and showing the creative side of learning the collaboration within colleague would be enhanced. I know from my prior experience within the classroom as a substitute that without some collaboration the students are at a disadvantage. One memory stands out the most when collaboration is mention is when I was subbing for a ECE Teacher in a regular learning classroom, while the teacher was giving the rest of the students their assignments I was working one on one with a ECE student that needed the extra help in order to fulfill their task. The teacher and I collaborated on the questions that the student had left to complete before moving on to their homework. Through the use of collaboration the student was able to complete their task and be on the same task as the rest of the class.
The application of collaborative learning strategies is a process in which two or more students work together. Collaborative strategies will be used in planning, translating and reviewing the education process to form student learning through group-oriented activities. This source will also be useful in lesson planning to help explain how collaborative learning strategies in the classroom will help students in the learning process improve by interaction; how positive interdependence of collaborative learning leads to common responsibility; how collaborative learning builds students’ self-esteem, and confidence in students. This application recommends that collaborative learning strategies can be implemented with Jig-saw technique as well as in learning technology which can be accessible to all participants working in cooperative groups (Iqbal, Kousar, and Ajmal, 2011).