Group, Collaborative and Cooperative

Group, Collaborative and Cooperative Learning Spaces

These types of learning combine to create the space where students work together. Collaborative learning is, in my opinion, the best one out of the three types as students can better achieve educational outcomes (academic shared goals) whilst also building on their social goals. In collaborative learning students work in cohesion with other members brainstorming ideas and assisting each other allowing, if done correctly, equal participation. Cooperative learning is where students learn off each other in small groups where they assist each other to learn academic materials – this type utilises active learning. For co-operative learning to be effective two elements must be present - group goals and individual accountability (Slavin 2009; Rohrbeck et al., 2003; Webb, 2008). Finally group learning is considered the least preferable as participation of students is unequal – they have a mutual goal but there is less structure and guidance.

Teacher:

Strengths:

Teacher can give clear goals to students to work to.
All students, if set out properly, will participate equally.
Can set a mutual goal – meaning there are clear outcomes that can be assessed.
More student control- less structure and guidance on behalf of the teacher.
Students can learn off each other
Large range of topics can be covered

Challenges:

Less control over the work students do.
Participation may not be equal- teachers need to ensure that students with loud, controlling or powerful attributes do not take control over the work.
If groups do not work well it could result in little or no work being done.

How can we address these challenges

You need to give students some control, if you find this is not working add some light scaffolding for students to use to guide them.
Observe students as much as possible. Roles within a group are always a good way to divide the workload among the students.
Ensure that groups are carefully selected, make sure you do not place students that you know clash together. Also be careful not to put friends together all the time, they could isolate from the others in the group or talk so much and not get work done. Be very wary of the dynamics in your class.

Student:

Strengths:

One clear goal for students to achieve
Builds on social goals
One mutual goal to work towards- clear objective to complete.
Students can learn off one another – for example become experts in one topic each and then share. Or some students may know a subject better than others and can peer mentor another student.
Utilizes active learning in the classroom.

“Development of higher-level thinking, oral communication, self-management, and leadership skills. Promotion of student-faculty interaction. Increase in student retention, self-esteem, and responsibility. Exposure to and an increase in understanding of diverse perspectives. Preparation for real life social and employment situations" (Cornell University 2016).

Challenges:

Some students may do more or less than other students in the group.
If there are arguments student learning could be impacted negatively.
If students pick groups it could mean some students will feel left out.
When the group has to do something over learning something the participation of the less able students may result in interference rather than assistance with the task (Slavin 2010 page 170).
Dominate personalities tend to take over.

How can we address these challenges

Look at roles within a group (like stated in the teacher section).
Avoid the clashes in groups.
This is hard, avoid it, chose the groups yourself especially if you know that your class has social issues.
Ensure that you emphasise that everyone has to participate equally. Set some students as mentors to help the less able students along.
Avoid putting the dominate personalities in the leader role every week, let other people take that role through assigning roles.

Useful Examples to help you to incoperate this learning space:

Does 'Group Work' Work? : Is It the Best Way for Children to Learn?

A collaborative learning space

Collaborative Learning Builds Deeper Understanding

Remake your class series:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I would begin incorporating collaborative work situations through making the classroom space open and flexible to suit group work activities. At the beginning I would have group work quite scaffolded - assign roles, groups and topics - and then as they get better at group work gradually remove the scaffolding.

Resources:

Cornell University (2016) Collaborative Learning: Group Work retrieved from https://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/engaging-students/collaborative-learning.html

Rohrbeck, C.A., M. Ginsburg-Block, J.W. Fantuzzo and T.R. Miller (2003), “Peer-Assisted Learning Interventions with Elementary School Students: A Meta-Analytic Review”, Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 95, No. 2, pp. 240-257

Slavin, R.E. (2009), “Cooperative Learning”, in G. McCulloch and D. Crook (eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education, Routledge, Abington, UK.

Slavin, R. (2010). Co-operative learning: what makes group-work work? (pp. 161 - 178). In The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice, OECD Publishing.File

Webb, N. (2008), “Co-operative Learning”, in T.L. Good (ed.), 21st Century Education: A Reference Handbook, Sage, Thousand Oaks, C