From my personal experience of working as part of a team to produce the teaching pack I learned a lot about collaborative working. Collaborative working is when a group work together in order to achieve a shared goal. Members of the group encourage one another and provide each other with help and support in order to promote success (Johnson and Johnson, 1999).
One of the main things I have learned from my experience is that working collaboratively encourages students to create and uphold friendships with peers. When groups are assigned by the teacher it provides an opportunity for students to meet and get to know more of their classmates. I noticed that as relationships grow between group members so does the rate of productivity. There is
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a silent but understood feeling of commitment and responsibility amongst the group and members are willing to go over and above in order to achieve their shared goal. This sense of responsibility is important as each member is accountable for their contribution and it is vital that everyone does their share of the work and that their share is valued. This will impact my teaching practice as in future I will be wary of ensuring that every member of a group is involved and contributes.
One way that I could do this would be to designate the children with different jobs/roles within their group. For instance, group leader who would be responsible for making sure everyone does their job and completes the task on time; scribe who would be responsible for writing what the group decides, reporter who would be responsible for reporting to the class what the group has done at the end of the task; coach who would be responsible for finding ways to encourage team members and so on. This would give each child a sense of importance and belonging to the group as it makes them feel like the group needs them in order to complete the …show more content…
task. Working together to achieve a shared goal not only results in better productivity but also greater achievement than working alone (Johnson and Johnson, 1999). This could be due to the added pressure of producing high quality work as the other members of your group are relying on you. The quality of work you produce not only reflects on you but on them as well. This social influence can be a form of motivation and encourage children to put a lot of effort into their work. Furthermore, I learned that organising students into groups and instructing them to work together does not in itself result in collaborative working; there is a lot more to it than that. Students need the necessary social skills such as leadership, communication and decision making in order for group work to be effective (Gillies, 2003). In addition to this, it is also necessary for pupils to respect each other and be able to negotiate so as to avoid arguments. As university students, most of us have already developed these skills therefore working collaboratively on our projects was not a major issue. However, primary school students are likely to need a lot more scaffolding and support to develop these skills in order for collaborative working to be effective in the classroom. My understanding of this will impact on my classroom practice as I will adopt techniques and strategies to teach children the skills they will need to work effectively in groups, as well as structuring lessons that facilitate learning in groups. Additionally, I learned that when collaborative work is carried out effectively students are able to learn from each other as each member of a group has something different to offer. There is a more frequent influx of ideas and solutions as opposed to if a student worked individually. A successful group will share their knowledge and use each other’s strengths to the group’s advantage. Consequently, I now recognise that children need to become dependent on each other as opposed to solely dependent on the teacher as they can learn a lot from their peers. This will impact my teaching practice as I will need to develop techniques to encourage the children in my class to become more interdependent. For instance, introducing pupils to phrases such as ‘ask three before me’ encourages the children to teach and learn from each other before immediately going to the teacher for help. In addition, another way to promote interdependence could be by allowing groups the freedom to create their own identity through group names, banners, posters and mottos (Jolliffe, 2007). Overall, from my personal experience I have learned that there is more to collaborative working than simply putting students into groups.
It requires an array of skills that as a teacher I will need to help my own pupils develop. Collaborative working can help form positive relationships and as these relationships grow so do rates of productivity and achievement. Groups members should be interdependent and learn from each other as everyone has something different to offer. What I have learned will impact my teaching practice in a number of ways as I now recognise that collaborative working and group work are not the same thing and that as a teacher I need to facilitate ways in which collaborative working can be carried out effectively and to the benefit of all.
References
Allen, M (2010) Misconceptions in Primary Science, Open University Press, McGraw-Hill Education, pp 4-5
Association for Science Education (2011) BE SAFE! 4th edn, p10
David W. Johnson & Roger T. Johnson (1999) Making cooperative learning work, Theory Into Practice, 38:2, 67-73, DOI: 10.1080/00405849909543834
Gillies, R. (2003). Structuring cooperative group work in classrooms. International Journal of Educational Research, 39, pp
35-49 Guest, G (2013) Alternative Frameworks and Misconceptions in Primary Science, UWE Bristol Jolliffe, W (2007) Cooperative Learning in the Classroom: Putting it into Practice, DOI:http://dx.doi.org.proxy.lib.strath.ac.uk/10.4135/9781446213971 Millar, R (2009) Analysing practical activities to assess and improve effectiveness: The Practical Activity Analysis Inventory (PAAI), Centre for Innovation and Research in Science Education, Department of Educational Studies, University of York, p18 National Research Council (1997) Science Teaching Reconsidered: A Handbook, National Academy Press, pp 27 Schauble, L (1996) The development of scientific reasoning in knowledge-rich contexts, Developmental Psychology, 32(1), 102-119.http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.32.1.102 SCORE (2008) Practical Work in Science: A Report and Proposal for a Strategic Framework
By working together there is information sharing, improve safety and quality also collaboration gives knowledge to other professionals. (Littlechild and Smith, 2013).what I have learned through working in partnership with other professionals was creating a poster related to what each professional does. Some of the professionals I did not know how exactly they work together in partnership. Example: I was not aware of how a radiology would work with a social work and the outcome of that was that Radiology develop and maintain collaborative relationship with medical colleagues and participates in regular meetings with other professionals activities to meet the needs of a service users therefore they collaborate with Social Workers. By doing a poster and delivering information I learned a lot from the other team members, shared experiences knowledge and skills with other group members. Group work made me realise how it is very important to work in multi-displinary team, the benefit of it and what others can benefit from. During the poster each of the student was from different professional however we all had the question but each had to look at it in each profession perspectives. This gave an opportunity to everyone to go and search for each professional and communicate with the rest of the group the outcome of the presentation. By doing that, we exchanged ideas learned from each other’s skills and used it into practice. I have learned about sharing information with others, learned about communication and
Engleberg, Isa N. and Dianna R. Wynn. Working in Groups. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.
Collaborative working is that when working together in a group is acceptable to the tutor setting the assignment, the work regarding your studies is in any way collaborative as it is online and it is allowed outside the classroom and it is considered helpful as it help the student learn more.
Stacey, M. (2009). Teamwork and collaboration in early years settings. 1st ed. Exeter: Learning Matters.
Weiner, Harvey S. “Collaborative Learning in the Classroom: A Guide to Evaluation.” The Writing Teacher’s Sourcebook. Eds. Gary Tate and Corbett. New York, NY: Oxford UP: 1988. 238-247.
In order for effective cooperative learning to occur five essential elements are needed; positive interdependence, face-to-face interactions, individual accountability, social skills and group processing. (Johnson, 1999, p. 70-71). Social skills being the foundation to achieving all other elements required, without this set of skills the individual learner will find it difficult to cooperate with others. Thompson (1996) “social skills are paramount to applying cooperative learning to academic tasks” (p. 84).
According to Gerlach, "Collaborative learning is based on the idea that learning is a naturally social act in which the participants talk among themselves (Gerlach, 1994). It is through the talk that learning occurs."Collaborative learning is an educational approach to teaching and learning that involves groups of students working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. According to Gerlach, "Collaborative learning is based on the idea that learning is a naturally social act in which the participants talk among themselves (Gerlach, 1994). It is through the talk that learning occurs." pair share activity , This learning strategy promotes classroom participation by encouraging a high degree of pupil response, rather than using a basic recitation method in which a teacher poses a question and one student offers a response. Additionally, this strategy provides an opportunity for all students to share their thinking with at least one other student which, in turn,
This cooperative learning activity typically involves something having to do with science. Project-based learning, “Involve students working in self-chosen groups. Each group may work on its own task, which may also be self-chosen. The group’s task will be to produce a product that represents the groups learning,” (Slavin 202). These features reflect constructivism because the constructivists approach in science, “Discovery, group work, and conceptual change,” (Slavin 197). In the example given above, the students are able to choose their own group, the task that they want to research, all based on science material. It somewhat relates to the concept-reading instruction that is involved in
Scarnati, J. T. (2001). Cooperative learning: make groupwork work. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 67(Fall), 71-82.
Building self-esteem, enhancing student satisfaction with the learning experience, and promoting a positive attitude toward the subject matter are all benefits of collaborative learning. A higher degree of accomplishment takes place as a group because you essentially are a team. An example of this is a sports team. In a collaborative situation it takes every member to do his or her part in order for a situation to have a greater resolution; as where a sports team needs everybody’s individual talent to win a game. In retrospect, as a group; the contributions of our own talents can make the difference between a “win or Lose situation” it gives you a sense of competition, and knowing that you can win as a group; self esteem in one’s self is accentuated. Johnson and Johnson (1989), Slavin (1967). Another benefit to collaborative learning is based on the members of your group. Every individual in the group demonstrates their own input based on where they were born, what nationality they are so on and so on. The benefit of this is that you get a different perspective on things rather than always knowing what you know. You can take information from other cultures and add or apply it to what you already know.
The application of collaborative learning strategies is a process in which two or more students work together. Collaborative strategies will be used in planning, translating and reviewing the education process to form student learning through group-oriented activities. This source will also be useful in lesson planning to help explain how collaborative learning strategies in the classroom will help students in the learning process improve by interaction; how positive interdependence of collaborative learning leads to common responsibility; how collaborative learning builds students’ self-esteem, and confidence in students. This application recommends that collaborative learning strategies can be implemented with Jig-saw technique as well as in learning technology which can be accessible to all participants working in cooperative groups (Iqbal, Kousar, and Ajmal, 2011).
Working in teams provides an opportunity for individuals to come together and establish a rapport towards others within a group. Teamwork is classified as people with different strengths and skills who work together to achieve a common goal. When a team works well, specific objectives are fulfilled and satisfied. Teamwork plays a crucial role in implementing and fulfilling a common goal in a team project. Each member plays a role and takes on different responsibilities combined together. In different stages of teamwork, conflicts and arguments may occur for as members have different standpoints which need to be harmonized within the team. The key to having an effective teamwork is to explore each member's unique abilities to motivate them.
Collaborative learning is an educational approach that involves groups of learners working together to reach a consensus through negotiation to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product (Bruffee, 1993). Learning occurs through active engagement among peers, wherein the main characteristics of collaborative learning are: a common task or activity; small group learning, co-operative behaviour; interdependence; and individual responsibility and accountability (Lejeune, 2003).
Working together with other people for an assignment can be a challenging task in some cases but luckily, I worked well with my group members. The decisions we made were anonymous although we paced ourselves individually when it came to completing our separate parts of the essay. As a group I believe that we connected well on an interpersonal level as all four of us were able to make alterations to any problem together . Furthermore, we did not give each other a chance to get angry at one another as we knew that this would only cause conflict that would disrupt our flow as a group. There was an equal divide in the amount of work that we all did; our contributions were fair and no one was lacking behind. In addition, my group members were great at keeping each other informed if one of us were not able to attend a group meeting; emails were sent out informing us what we missed and ideas that were formulated. Everyone in my group worked according to deadlines and in synchronization with each other; we did not have to nag anyone to complete work or wait on a member to complete their task.
...I believe through the use of critical thinking, communication with students and parents and showing the creative side of learning the collaboration within colleague would be enhanced. I know from my prior experience within the classroom as a substitute that without some collaboration the students are at a disadvantage. One memory stands out the most when collaboration is mention is when I was subbing for a ECE Teacher in a regular learning classroom, while the teacher was giving the rest of the students their assignments I was working one on one with a ECE student that needed the extra help in order to fulfill their task. The teacher and I collaborated on the questions that the student had left to complete before moving on to their homework. Through the use of collaboration the student was able to complete their task and be on the same task as the rest of the class.