Collaborative Learning Strategies: Enhancing Student Engagement and Outcomes, Dispense di Lingua Inglese

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• 1. Collaborative learning – the new paradigm
• 2. Spoken vs. Written Language
• 3. English for Specific Purposes and Register
• 4. Collocations

What is collaborative learning?

• Collaborative learning is based on the view that knowledge is a social construct. Collaborative activities are most often based on four principles:
• The learner or student is the primary focus of instruction.
• Interaction and “doing” are of primary importance
• Working in groups is an important mode of learning.
• Structured approaches to developing solutions to real-world problems should be incorporated into learning.

Research shows that educational experiences that are active, social, contextual, engaging, and student-owned lead to deeper learning.

• COGNITION
• Development of higher-level thinking thinking, oral communication, self-management, and leadership skills.
• It encourages problem solving skills, understanding complex relationships and decision making in an open ended situations. Such problem solving processes also mirror “real world” working environments.
• SOCIALIZATION AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
• Collaborative learning aids in students’ socialization, and requires them to divide up tasks, provide feedback, and debate different conclusions
• Promotion of student-faculty interaction.
• Increase in student retention, self-esteem, and responsibility.

• REAL WORLD KNOWLEDGE AND

EXPERIENCE

• Exposure to and an increase in understanding of diverse perspectives.
• Preparation for real life social and employment situations.
• GROUP WORKING AND SHARING COMPETENCIES
• Collaborative learning often allows for “peer coaching,” when the higher achieving students can help their less achieving team members understand a problem and possible solutions.

What Role Do I Play in Collaborative Learning? In collaborative learning, the professor acts more as an organizer, facilitator, and mediator than as a transmitter of knowledge. Collaborative learning often involves challenging students with analytical problems which they must solve in teams by obtaining information or utilizing information given to them.

Group

Work

• Collaborative learning can occur peer-to-peer or in larger groups. Peer learning, or peer instruction, is a type of collaborative learning that involves students working in pairs or small groups to discuss concepts, or find solutions to problems. This often occurs in a class session after students are introduced to course material through readings or videos before class, and/or through instructor lectures. Similar to the idea that two or three heads are better than one, many instructors have found that through peer instruction, students teach each other by addressing misunderstandings and clarifying misconceptions.
• Group work or collaborative learning can take a variety of forms, such as quick, active learning activities in class or more involved group projects that span the course of a semester.

How can you design group work assignments?

• First, think about the course learning outcomes and how group work might address them. Then consider how groups will be organized, how student learning and group processes will be supported, and how students will be evaluated. (Short in-class activities may take less planning, but it is still important to consider how the process will play out in a classroom situation) How will you introduce the activity? How much time is required? How will you debrief as a group? (For more involved projects that take place over a longer period of time and for which students will be graded, plan each stage of the group work.)

Designing groups

• What technology might assist the group work? If technology use is required (e.g. wikis), you will need to incorporate learning activities around the use of the technology. At the beginning, do a low stakes activity that helps students become familiar with the technology. If other types of technology can facilitate the group work processes, guide students in its use.
• How will you ensure that students are productive? Set aside time early in the semester to allow for icebreakers and team-building activities. Consider using class time for group work to eliminate students having to coordinate meeting times outside of class. Much of the group work can be done collaboratively online, again, lessening the difficulty of coordination.

How will groups be formed?

Size of Groups

Allowing students to form their own groups will likely result in uneven groupings. If possible, arrange groups by skills and/or backgrounds. E.g. ask students to rate their comfort/ability level on a number of skills (research, background knowledge, work experience, etc.); try to arrange groups that include “experts” in different areas. Research shows that groups of four or five members work best in most situations. The less skillful the group members, the smaller the groups should be. The shorter the amount of time available, the smaller the groups should be.

What can the students do?

• Choose assignment topics or tasks that are related to the real world, and can be connected to students’ lives.
• For example, have students try to analyze and solve a current local or international problem.
• Have students complete tasks that involve using and developing skills that they will likely use in their future professional lives, such as writing a proposal or collaborating online.

How can you manage group work? Managing shorter

in-class collaborative learning activities

• This generally involves a 3-step process:
  • Introduce the task. This can be as simple as instructing students to turn to their neighbour to discuss or debate a topic.
  • Provide students with enough time to engage with the task. Walk around and address any questions as needed.
  • Debrief. Call on a few students to share a summary of their conclusions. Address any misconceptions or clarify any confusing points. Open the floor for questions.

This process can be as short at 5 minutes, but can be

longer depending on the task at hand

Managing larger group work

projects

• Provide opportunities for students to develop rapport and group cohesion using icebreakers, team-building, and reflection exercises. - Give students time to create a group work plan allowing them to plan for deadlines, and share responsibilities. - Have students establish ground rules. Students can create a contract for each member to sign; this contract can include agreed-upon penalties for those who fail to fulfil obligations. - Assign roles to members of each group and change the roles periodically. For example, one student can be the coordinator, another the note-taker, another the summarizer, and another the planner of next steps. - Allow students to rate each other’s quality and quantity of contributions. Use these evaluations when giving individual grades, but do not let it weigh heavily on a students’ final grade. Communicate clearly how peer assessment will influence grades. - Check in with groups intermittently, but encourage students to handle their own issues before coming to you for assistance.

Grading in Collaborative

Learning: Peer Evaluation

Early on, students should agree which traits, skills, and responsibilities will be assessed, such as timeliness, thoroughness, making meetings on time (or at all), and so on. Students must be aware that their grade is in part a group grade; thus, there is a great degree of inter-dependency. For each student to succeed, the entire group must succeed.

• When the project involves team papers, the better students sometimes complain that the less capable students “drag them down.” One way to resolve this is to have each student turn in a component of the team paper (for example, the analysis of a survey question), and then the team as a whole writes the overall paper (such as the analysis of a survey).
• More weight could be given to the individual component paper than the team analysis paper. Some educators suggest that the individual component be given much more weight in determining that student’s final grade than that part of their grade derived from the team’s overall grade for the completed project.