Collaborative learning viz. Community Building...

“It is not what you do for your children,

But what you have taught them to do for themselves,

That will make them successful human beings.”

Ann Landers

Strengthening its base with fast pace in education industry, Collaborative learning is a teaching style in which students team together on an assignment. In this method students can produce the individual parts of a larger assignment individually and then “assemble” the final work together, as a team. Students are individually accountable for their work but also for the work of the group as a whole, and both products are assessed. They can be assessed: individually, by team, by role, by work product?

This works well by placing students in groups that have between four and seven members. Here group can share ideas, teaching strategies, and solutions. It can be an effective teaching strategy for several reasons:

Firstly, students develop the skill for how to work together and support each other in learning and discovery.

Second, becoming effective and productive team members allows students to develop their independent learning skills by working individually on a portion of a group project that makes them accountable not only to the instructor but also to team members.

 And finally, integrating teamwork into a course can result in adding structure to out-of-class time and increasing student accountability for their learning.

Some activities or assignments well suited for collaborative learning include:

• Case studies

• Discussions

• Student-moderated discussions

• Debates

• Collaborative writing

• Collaborative presentation

• Games

• Demonstrations

The idea of an educator will be to help the team to develop

Purpose, goal, and mission of the team—what the team will accomplish

 Expectations for the team as a whole as well as for individual members

Roles for each individual

Meeting schedules and deadlines

Although there are always the two sides of the coin so are the anticipated issues or challenges attached with this learning style. Some difficulties that the instructor or students might encounter while working on a collaborative project are workload issues, meeting deadlines, combining their individual pieces into one, work distribution, and so forth. With little diligence an educator can help learners overcome all of them.

Through a variety of collaborative activities, starting early and persisting throughout the course, participants can foster and encourage community, collaboration, and team building among their students.

About the Author;

The Author is Ms. Sumita Gupta, Coordinator, Blooming Buds

www.bloomingbudsmws.com