What is Collaborative Learning?

Collaborative learning is:

• Students working in pairs or groups (usually picked randomly)
• Students and teachers negotiating the rules that govern them
• Students and teachers negotiating what is taught (as far as possible) and how it is taught

It is not permissive, it is not authoritarian, it is democratic.

Students collaborating - Random Pairs

Students are more motivated, learn (and retain knowledge) more effectively and develop more skills for life, if they work together.

Although pupils should have a say in how they learn, group work should be a central feature - Glasser's learning teams idea. This is not a problem because most pupils, once they get used to the idea, enjoy this kind of working. It teaches students how to work together, encourages talk (which increases understanding) and prepares pupils for the work place.

It is essential that the pupils are not usually given the choice about who to work with. (This may seem to contradict the democratic principle, but this is very important if group and pair work is to be effective, and needs to be thought of as a nonnegotiable 'curriculum rule'.) This is to avoid pupils being excluded through not being picked, which damages self-esteem, and to mix up the class so that pupils broaden their horizons, work and learn with a wider variety of people, and get to teach their own skills to these people. This increases learning and builds self-esteem.

A very effective way of doing this is to pick the groups randomly. Until students learn effective group-work skills, pairs are less threatening.

It DOES WORK, but you need to stick with it. See the study I wrote for a glimpse of how effective it can be, and the book Changing Behaviour for more information.

Students collaborating - Slavin's Learning Teams

A summary of Robert Slavin's Cooperative Learning Methods
From Slavin, R. E. (1990) Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research and Practice Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon

All cooperative learning methods share the idea that students work together to learn and are responsible for their team-mates' learning as well as their own. These methods emphasise the use of team goals and team success which can be achieved only if all members of the team learn the objectives being taught.

Tasks are not something to do together as a team but to learn together as a team.

These three criteria must be met if cooperative learning is to work effectively:

1. Team rewards. Teams may earn rewards if they achieve above a certain designated criterion. Teams do not compete against each other - all or none of the teams may gain the team reward.

2. Individual accountability. The team's success depends on the individual learning of all team members. 

3. Equal opportunities for success. Students contribute to their teams by improving on their past performance - each individual in the team can contribute equally to their team's success or failure, regardless of their ability.

It is not enough to simply tell students to work together; they must have a reason to take one another's achievement seriously.

Three ideas from Robert Slavin's work which have been proven to work in a whole variety of schools and subjects.

STAD - Student Teams-Achievement Divisions Students are assigned to four-member learning teams mixed in ability, sex and ethnicity. The teacher teaches the lesson and then the students work within their teams to make sure that all team members have mastered the lesson. All students take individual quizzes on the material, at which time they may not help one another. Students' quiz scores are compared to their own past averages, and points are awarded based on the degree to which students meet or exceed their earlier performance. These points are summed to form team scores, and prizes given if scores meet certain criteria. This whole process usually takes three to five periods.

TGT - Teams-Games-Tournaments The teaching and learning process is the same as for STAD, but the assessment process is different. There are weekly tournaments at which students compete with others to contribute points to their team scores. Students compete at three-person "tournament" tables against others with similar past records in the subject. A "bumping" procedure - where students' table assignments are changed weekly depending on their performance in each tournament - keeps things fair. The winner at each table wins 6 points for their team, regardless of that table's ability level.

TAI - Team Assisted Individualisation Four-member mixed-ability learning teams, as above. But students work through work at their own pace and at their own level. Team-mates check each other's answers and help one another with any problems. End of unit tests are taken without team-mate help. Each week, the teacher totals the number of units completed (and/or test scores) and gives team rewards to those teams that exceed a certain score. The teacher can spend most of the class time presenting lessons to small groups of students drawn from various teams who are working at the same point.

NOTE - these all seem really complicated but they do work. It's not really necessary to have a fancy system comparing past averages, but you do need to have some kind of quick test so you can rearrange the groups for the next topic. When I used it with 9-2 (Maths), I gave them a quick test at the end of each lesson, and then used the scores to form the next groups - each group had a high, two middle, and a low scoring student in it. Students who had done well or who had improved got green slips. The group worked harder and more quietly than before, and learnt more.

Students and teachers collaborating

Schools should not be a battleground where teachers and students feel themselves to be in opposition. It often seems like this because students are not listened to, or feel they are not being listened to.

Have a look at the Classroom Charters Page.

Teachers and fellow professionals collaborating

This should be easy and commonplace, but it isn't!

There isn't a page about this (yet), but this site is a start. Also, have a look at some of Gerda Hanko's work.

I'm interested in hearing from people, whether you agree with these ideas or not. I have made changes to these pages in response to suggestions made to me - thanks to those of you who have written to me. So, if you can spare the time to e-mail me I'd love to hear from you.

Building self-esteem

Self-esteem is essential for effective learning, and collaborative learning helps build self-esteem in students. Have a look  at any page for more information about how collaboration can raise self-esteem, and at the Self-Esteem Page for more specific information.

Pairs Study

Quite a while ago I wrote an essay that brought a lot of this together. It's available in HTML form by clicking here.

ianhedleywork@yahoo.co.uk