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Strategies Topic: Collaboration " Collaborative learning is an approach to teaching and learning that requires learners to work together to deliberate, discuss, and create meaning. Smith and MacGregor (1992) define the term as follows: “Collaborative learning” is an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together. Usually, students are working in groups of two or more, mutually searching for understanding, solutions, or meanings, or creating a product. Collaborative learning activities vary widely, but most center on students’ exploration or application of the course material, not simply the teacher’s presentation or explication of it. A meta-analysis from the Cooperative Learning Center at the University of Minnesota concluded that having students work collaboratively has significantly more impact on learning than having students work alone (Johnson, Maruyama, Johnson, Nelson, & Skon, 1981). An analysis of 122 studies on cooperative learning revealed: • More students learn more material when they work together— talking through the material with each other and making sure that all group members understand—than when students compete with one another or work alone individualistically. • More students are motivated to learn the material when they work together than when students compete or work alone individualistically (and the motivation tends to be more intrinsic). • Students have more positive attitudes when they work together than when they compete or work alone individualistically. • Students are more positive about the subject being studied, the teacher, and themselves as learners in that class and are more accepting of each other (male or female, handicapped or not, bright or struggling, or from different ethnic backgrounds) when they work together. Collaboration can be between teachers, between students, and between teacher and student. — Wisconsin's Guiding Principles for Teaching and Learning The Collaboration Topic within the Strategies Domain addresses best practices in the use of Collaboration to promote learning. |
Strategies: Collaborative
Collaborative Topics
The Seven Steps
