Cooperative or collaborative learning is a team process where
members support and rely on each other to achieve an agreed-upon goal.
The classroom is an excellent place to develop team-building skills you will
need later in life.
Cooperative/collaborative learning is interactive;
as a team member, you:
-
develop and share a common goal
-
contribute your understanding of the problem:
questions; insights and solutions
-
respond to, and work to understand, others' questions,
insights and solutions.
Each member empowers the other to speak and contribute,
and to consider their contributions
-
are accountable to others, and they are accountable to you
-
are dependent on others, and they depend on you
What makes for a good learning team?
-
Team activities begin with training in, and understanding
group processes.
An instructor begins by facilitating discussion and suggesting
alternatives
but does not impose solutions on the team, especially those having
difficulty working together
-
Three to five people
Larger teams have difficulty in keeping everyone involved
-
Teacher-assigned groups
They function better than self-assigned groups
-
Diverse skill levels, backgrounds, experience
-
Each individual brings strengths to a group
-
Each member of the group is responsible to not only
contribute his/her strengths, but also to help others understand the
source of their strengths
-
Any member who is at a disadvantage or not comfortable
with the majority should be encouraged and proactively empowered to
contribute
-
Learning is positively influenced with a diversity of
perspective and experience
increasing options for problem solving
expanding the range of details to consider
-
Commitment of each member to a goal that is defined and
understood by the group
-
Confidential peer ratings are a good way to to assess
who is and who is not contributing
-
Groups have the right to fire a non-cooperative or
non-participating member if all remedies have failed.
(The person fired then has to find another group to accept him/her)
-
Individuals can quit if they believe they are doing
most of the work with little assistance from the others.
(This person can often easily find another group to welcome his/her
contributions)
-
Shared operating principles and responsibilities, defined
and agreed to by each member. These include:
-
Commitment to attend, prepare and be on time for
meetings
-
Have discussions and disagreements focus on issues,
avoiding personal criticism
-
Take responsibility for a share of the tasks and carry
them out on time
You may need to perform tasks that you have little experience, feel
ill-prepared for, or even think others would do better. Accept
the challenge, but be comfortable in stating that you may need help,
training, a mentor, or have to resign and take on different task.
Process:
Refer to the
Group
Project Guide
-
Set up goals, define how often and with what means you
will communicate, evaluate progress, make decisions, and resolve conflict
-
Define resources, especially someone who can provide
direction, supervision, counsel, and even arbitrate
-
Schedule review of your progress and communication
to discuss what is working and what is not working
Teams with problems should be invited or required to meet with
the instructor to discuss possible solutions.
* "Cooperative learning" is often used in K-12
education, and "collaborative learning" in higher education
See also:
"Cooperative
learning in technical courses: procedures, pitfalls, and payoffs", Richard
M. Felder, North Carolina State University & Rebecca Brent, East Carolina
University
Online Collaborative Learning in Higher
Education,
primary
sites
a web site devoted to world's best practice in online
collaborative learning in higher education, and related topics. Tim
Roberts, Faculty of Informatics and Communication, Central
Queensland University, Bundaberg,
Queensland 4670 Australia
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