What and Why?

 

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Working with other people is so much more interesting than doing activities on my own, but sometimes it is hard. You have to be patient and sometimes compromise. 

Group conversation can force individuals to express ideas more clearly, answer questions, and provide evidence for their assertions - all activities that students rarely engage in when listening to lectures or studying alone. (Linda C. Hodges, 2017)

When asked about group work, many students tend to complain about the “freeloader” or difficulty with communication. This Wordle shows replies from a class at the beginning of the semester where they were asked how they felt about working in teams on a long term project – not very positive!! Students plunged into team work without developing the necessary skills is similar to giving them content problems without giving them the concepts to successfully answer the question.
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This Wordle shows replies from a class at the end of the semester where students have built their team skills and successfully worked in teams to help expand their views. They realize their final project is better than it would have been working on their own. This DDIG will help you think through your course design, organization, and skill development to change your students’ perceptions of team work from one of dread to one of excitement of learning with and from others.

WHAT IS COLLABORATIVE LEARNING?

Collaborative Learning encompasses a wide variety of activities and is defined in many different ways. Most would agree that collaborative learning is “an educational approach to teaching that involves groups of learners working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product” (Laal & Laal 2012). This means many things to many people. That is why in this DDIG we have highlighted 3 main levels of collaborative learning to help you design your course: pairs, groups, and teams. Because collaborative learning is a continuum of interaction from short exchanges to semester long team projects, from simple to complex, from low stakes to high stakes, there is an expansive amount of literature about collaborative learning without it always being stated what type of collaborative learning they are referring to.

There are some common agreements about what collaborative learning is and what it isn’t.

What collaborative learning can be

What collaborative learning usually isn’t

Involves groups of learners usually between 2 – 6 members

Having a class discussion

The group solves a problem through discussion and/or research

Just having members talk to each other with no product

The members practice and improve important skills

Just helping others in the group that haven’t finished the task

Members listen to different perspectives and articulate and defend ideas.

Teaching a peer something they do not understand

The group is seen as more than the sum of its parts

Members working on separate parts of a paper or presentation and stitching the parts together

 

WHY IS COLLABORATIVE IMPORTANT?

The concept of collaborative learning has been widely researched and advocated. Proponents of collaborative learning claim many advantages
  • increases interest among the participants
  • promotes critical thinking
  • achieves at higher levels of thought
  • retains information longer than learners who work as individuals.
Employers Links to an external site. have stressed that being able to work with diverse teams is a very important skill they want job applicants to have developed. Links to an external site.

 

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For students to work well together, they need to practice skills in a collaborative setting to build competencies. The next page explains these competencies and each module has competency buttons that link to activities to practice the skills.

Reading for more informationLearn about competencies