Reflective Blog on Topic 3: Learning in communities – networked collaborative learning

This blog entry will discuss what is collaborative learning, the benefits and obstacles as well as my personal experience on how I overcome collaborative learning obstacles in class.

 

What is Collaborative Learning?

 

According to Laal (2011), collaborative learning is an educational approach to teaching and learning that involves groups of learners working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. Smith and MacGregor (1992) added that usually it involves students working in groups and they mutually search for understanding, solutions, or creating a product. In his theory of social development, Vygotsky (1934) stressed that community was an important factor in the process of creating knowledge.

 

Collaborative learning is about working together as a team and the enhancement of learning through teamwork. There are many benefits to collaborative learning. However, the implementation of collaborative learning is not clear-cut. Educators might face some obstacles when collaborative learning is carried out.

 

What are the benefits of collaborative learning?

 

There are many benefits to collaborative learning. Hari Srinivas listed 44 Benefits of Collaborative Learning. Laal and Ghodsi (2012) list the benefits into four categories: social, psychological, academic, and assessment.

 

Our group had a discussion and highlighted 7 benefits of collaborative learning. They are:

• Shared tasks, roles, and previous knowledge as a point of learning
• Shared learning, mentoring and collaboration often result in synergetic effects
• Utilizing existing capabilities and diverse ways of explaining and expressing themselves
• Learn to respect and understand the different perspective
• Bringing intentionality to learning and treating every experience as a learning opportunity
• Improving transferable and soft skills
• Learning to criticize ideas, not people

 

While there are many benefits to collaborative learning, there might be some obstacles to implementing them, especially for a beginner teacher. Through experience, the teacher can develop strategies to implement collaborative learning in virtual classrooms.

 

What are the obstacles to collaborative learning?

 

Ha Le, Jeroen Janssen & Theo Wubbels (2018) identified four obstacles to collaborative learning. They are the lack of collaborative skills in students, free-riding, competence status, and friendship. Jeffrey et.al (2011) identified the obstacles and supports of collaborative learning to foster the development of DIL in staff and students in higher education. They also identified a range of obstacles that hindered students’ ability to develop their technology-related skills.

 

Our group had a discussion and highlighted 7 obstacles to collaborative learning. They are:

• Division of tasks into micro-tasks can be completed without any collaboration
• Poor task design and instructions do not promote collaboration
• Lack of knowledge, guidance, and appreciation of the Collaborative Learning benefits
• Diverse learning styles, cultures, and personalities
• Biases from past experiences
• Accessibility issues
• Lack of collaborative ground rules

 

My Experience

 

In my previous blog, I mentioned that I have been working in the education sector for the past 22 years: as an educator, instructional designer, and leading a team to create interactive online learning content. Therefore, I have experienced for myself how challenging it can be to implement collaborative learning.

 

As I think back and reflect, and relate the scenario to my personal experience and what I did to overcome the challenges.

 

Scenario: “So often when we ask students to collaborate, they see it as merely a way of distributing the workload, and not as an opportunity to build and consolidate their collaborative skills. They fall into old ways of working in groups where the task is divided and individuals complete their part individually, only really coming together at the end to bring it all together. I would like to design a learning opportunity that not only gets my students working together collaboratively but which also influences their capacity for collaboration beyond the course. How can I get people to recognize the value of becoming part of a learning community and experience the benefits of social learning?”

 

Excerpt from Scenario	How I mitigate the issue based on my experience
So often when we ask students to collaborate, they see it as merely a way of distributing the workload, and not as an opportunity to build and consolidate their collaborative skills.	I will usually have a short initial lecture about collaborative learning before I distribute my students into their groups. I will tell them my expectations. I will inform them to collect as much information first as a group, and share the information with the group, before distributing the workload. I will sit in for the initial discussion when they break into their groups.
They fall into old ways of working in groups where the task is divided and individuals complete their part individually, only really coming together at the end to bring it all together.	I will encourage the students to meet and share what they have learned or researched before the distribution of duties. Every student was assigned roles for every assignment and the roles cannot be repeated for different assignments.
I would like to design a learning opportunity that not only gets my students working together collaboratively but which also influences their capacity for collaboration beyond the course. How can I get people to recognize the value of becoming part of a learning community and experience the benefits of social learning?	Show examples of best practices from previous groups and the benefits of collaborative learning if it is done correctly.   I will also invite a student from previous courses to talk about his/her experience and this will usually cover:   ·        Best practices for team collaboration ·        The benefits of working together as a team ·        How the experience changed his/her view of collaborative learning ·        How he/she has used collaborative learning in their working life

 

Conclusion

 

As mentioned in this blog entry, collaborative learning involves groups of learners working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. There are many benefits to collaborative learning but at the same time, there are obstacles to implementing them. Some strategies can be taken before the implementation of collaborative learning to minimize the obstacles. However, there are no ‘tailor-made’ options. The teacher has to decide on the best options for their students before the implementation of collaborative learning and they have to be flexible and modify/change the strategies when the need arises.

 

 References and Inspirational Materials

 

Ha Le, Jeroen Janssen & Theo Wubbels (2018) Collaborative learning practices: teacher and student perceived obstacles to effective student collaboration, Cambridge Journal of Education, 48:1, 103-122, DOI: 10.1080/0305764X.2016.1259389

 

Jeffrey, L., Hegarty, B., Kelly, O., Penman, M., Coburn, D. & McDonald, J. (2011). Developing Digital Information Literacy in Higher Education: Obstacles and Supports. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 10(1), 383-413. Informing Science Institute. Retrieved May 17, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/111528/.

 

Laal, M., Laal, M. Collaborative learning: What is it? Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 31, 2012

Laal, Ghodsi, Benefits of collaborative learning, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 31, 2012, Pages 486-490, ISSN 1877-0428, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042811030205)

 

Loh, R. C. Y., & Ang, C. S. (2020). Unraveling Cooperative Learning in Higher Education: A Review of Research. Research in Social Sciences and Technology, 5(2), 22-39.

 

Smith, Barbara, and Jean MacGregor. 1992. “What is Collaborative Learning?” In Goodsell, A., Maher, M., Tinto, V., Smith, B. and MacGregor J. (Eds.), Collaborative Learning: A Sourcebook for Higher Education. Pennsylvania State University; National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Publishing.

 

van der Veer, René. (2015). Vygotsky, Lev Semenovic (1896–1934). 10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.61134-0.