Transcript Collaboration

Collaborative Learning
Ingrid Alderton & David Horsell
26th May 2011
Collaboration - What Is It?
• Collaborative learning is an ‘umbrella term’ for a
variety of educational approaches involving joint
effort by students
• Learning activities vary widely
• Most centre on the student’s exploration or
application of the curriculum
The teacher’s role is to:
• create an environment for students to work
willingly and collaboratively
• provide opportunities & stimulating contexts for
students to work with others
• foster an environment where students feel safe to
share their ideas and understandings.
Research
• David and Roger Johnson popularised the concept of
collaborative learning
• They identified 700 studies relating to cooperative,
competitive and individualistic efforts to learn
Five defining characteristics of cooperative learning:
• Groups work together to accomplish shared goals
• Group members make each other accountable for
producing high quality work and achieving goals
• Group members work together and support each other
to produce joint products
• Group members are taught social skills and work
together to achieve their goals
• Group members monitor and analyse how effectively
they work together in achieving their goals.
Social Skills for Collaboration
The social skills for effective collaborative
working include:
• leadership
• decision-making
• communication
• building trust
• conflict management
• 'disciplined effort'.
Successful Practice
There is still a place for:
• teacher explanation and coaching
• student engagement in independent
learning activities
To establish genuinely cooperative learning
Johnson and Johnson suggest that
teachers need to have cooperative learning
for 60-80% of the time in their classrooms.
Teachers Foster Interdependence
The role of the teacher involves:
• pre-planning and designing work
• forming different kinds of groups for different purposes
• using different methods to compose and recompose
groups
• developing ground rules with students to help them
move from debate and discussion to dialogue
• training peers to teach peers
• using a range of techniques to promote collaborative
working
• provide feedback on:
the process of learning
the product of learning
how well students work together.
How Does Collaborative Learning Support Learning?
• Requires teachers to recognise and explore different ways of
learning
• Collaborative learning activities often provide a lot of visual clues,
allow students to move the thinking around the table, synthesise
information and share with their peers
• Many IEPs/ILPs are skill based and restrict the range of texts
offered to students. Collaborative activities can provide:
- a motivating context
- remind that there is a purpose behind literacy/skill development
- provide the impetus for students to move to more independent
learning
- highlight to other students the learner with difficulties is a fully
participating members of the group
• What about the student who prefers to work alone?
How Does Collaborative Work Help with
Assessment?
• Built in potential for self assessment
• Students are in a better position to reflect on
their learning
• Teachers can keep a continuous record of
student talk and active listening
Working in Small Groups
• Small group work is one way of ensuring active
participation of students
• Group work enables students to move from receiving
knowledge to generating knowledge
• Through talk students are able to personalise
knowledge and scaffold their thinking processes and
understandings
• It is important to change student groupings frequently
• Many teachers group students according to interests
and skills to be developed
• Mixed ability grouping of students supports the
participation of underperforming students
• Scaffolding of participation through, e.g.. oral language
activities and the use of graphic organisers facilitates
equal participation of all students.
Group Size
• Four to five is the optimum size to manage student
learning
• Groups may operate in the regular classroom or in
another room. When a group is withdrawn from a
regular classroom issues of transition are
important
• Underperforming students are often identified for
‘withdrawal support’. If the pedagogy in this group
is significantly different from the pedagogy
operating in the regular class all gains made in the
small group may be lost
• Communication between the two teachers/school
services officer is critical so that links to the
regular class are made frequently.
Cooperative/Collaborative Skills
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Think Pair Share
Placemat and Round Robin
Jigsaw
Numbered Heads
PMI
Graphic Organisers
Effective Listening
Think Pair Share
Think Pair Share is a cognitive rehearsal structure
that can be used to help students:
• recall events
• make a summary
• stimulate thinking
• share responses, feelings and ideas
Think Pair Share
• The teacher sets a problem or asks for a response
to the reading.
• The students think alone for a specified time.
• The students form pairs to discuss the problem or
give responses.
• Some responses may be shared with the class.
Placemat and Round Robin
Placemat and Round Robin
• This activity is designed to allow for each individual’s thinking,
perspective and voice to be heard, recognised and explored.
• Form participants into groups of four.
• Allocate one piece of A3 or butcher’s paper to each group.
• Ask each group to draw the diagram on the paper.
• The outer spaces are for each participant to write their thoughts
about the topic.
• Conduct a Round Robin so that each participant can share their
views.
• The circle in the middle of the paper is to note down (by the
nominated scribe) the common points made by each participant.
• Each group then reports the common points to the whole group.
Round Robin
• Students give their opinions verbally around the circle or group. All
members contribute equally.
Jigsaw
• This activity is characterised by participants within a
cooperative group each becoming expert on different aspects
of one topic of study.
• Before presenting and teaching to the cooperative group,
students form Expert Groups, comprised of individuals from
different cooperative groups who have the same assigned
topic.
• Together, expert partners study their topic and plan effective
ways to teach important information when they return to their
cooperative groups.
• One way of teaching is for the expert group to display their
information on paper.
• Participants return to their cooperative groups and then take
their cooperative group on a Gallery Tour (walk around the
room) to each display.
• Or participants can return to their cooperative groups and
teach all members of their group as they are now the experts.
Numbered Heads
Numbered Heads
• Students are numbered off by the teacher, eg 1-6 or
three or four or more different types of card are
handed around the room and students are grouped
according to the colour of the card. This is useful for
organising cooperative strategies such as jigsaws.
PMI
• A PMI (Plus, Minus, Intriguing) is used for affective
processing to talk about the pluses, minuses and
intriguing points felt about a lesson, concept or issue.
• What I liked
Pluses (+)
• What I didn’t like
Minuses (-)
• What I thought was intriguing
Questions or thoughts
Graphic Organisers
Concept Webs
• Concept webs encourage learners to visually
record their learning
• The process establishes connections and helps
the learner organise ideas and understand
relationships between different concepts,
problems and ideas
• The centre circle contains the main concept,
problem or topic
• Linking ideas or solutions are recorded in the
outer circles through the use of key words
• Lines may be added to link the connecting circles
to each other as well as to the central circle
• Images and colours may also be used to enhance
the concept map.
Concept Map
• Mind mapping
T Charts
T Chart
Cause
Effect
T Chart (problem/solution)
Problem
Solution
T Charts and Effective Listening
• To explore effective listening skills, ask students to
complete a T Chart in table form. The charts may be
displayed and used as a reference point during
classroom activities.
Looks like
Sounds like
Heads nodding
Only one person speaking
Eye contact
Charts
• Y Charts are an extension of T Charts.
• Venn Diagram (comparison)
• Venn diagrams support students to identify similarities
and differences between ideas, concepts or problems.
The similarities are recorded in the intersection of the
two circles. The differences are recorded in the outer
sections of the two circles.
Learning Role Cards
For successful small group work:
• organise students into groups of four to
ensure participation
• deal out Role Cards for effective role
demarcation through assigned roles
• each student is dealt a Functional Role card
and a Learning Role card
• the Learning Role cards are used to scaffold
the discussion
• note that every group member must take on
the role of Encourager
• explicit teaching and modelling of roles are
important
Functional Role
ENCOURAGER and SCRIBE
• writes and reports groups ideas;
• is not a gatekeeper
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• Record all ideas
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• Don’t block
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• Seek clarification
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• Write
• Write
• Write
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• Report
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Functional Role
ENCOURAGER and STORE KEEPER
• locates, collects and distributes resources including
informational resources like web pages and encyclopaedia
entries
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• Get all the materials for the entire group
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• Collect worksheets from the teacher
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• Sharpen pencils
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• Tidy up
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• *Allowed to leave your place without teacher permission
Functional Role
ENCOURAGER and COP
• reads instructions and directs participation
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• Read the instructions
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• Call for speakers
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• Take turns
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• Call for votes
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• Count votes
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• State agreed position
Functional Role
ENCOURAGER and SPY
• summarises findings and trades ideas with other groups
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• Check up on other groups
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• Trade ideas with other groups
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• Summarise findings
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• *Allowed to leave your place when directed by the teacher
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References
• Bellanca J. & Fogarty R. (1994). Blueprints for
Thinking in the Cooperative Classroom. Australia:
Hawker Brownlow Education.
• Education Department of Western Australia.
(1997) First Steps Oral Language Resource Book.
Melbourne: Rigby Heinemann.
• Hill, S. & Hill, T. (1990). The Collaborative
Classroom: A Guide to Cooperative Learning.
South Yarra, Victoria: Eleanor Curtain.
• Reid, J. (2002). Managing small group Learning.
Newtown, NSW: Primary English Teaching
Association (PETA).
Useful websites
• www.criticalskills.co.uk
• http://www.kaganonline.com
• http://www.collaborativelearning.org