How could collaborative learning potentially impact on primary education? - Hollie Monks

Hi bloggers!

This blog post will discuss what collaborative learning is and how it can make an impact within primary education. Collaborative learning is where two or more students work together to share ideas to come up with a joint decision, (Renkl, 2007) Roschelle (1992) says collaborative learning is when students share their different opinions and knowledge to build a common ground and gain joint knowledge. Collaboration within classrooms has increased over the years but is by no means an innovative idea within education (Lloyd and Beard, 1995) as theorists such as Piaget (1936) believed that peer interaction developed logical thinking while Vygotsky (1978) thought that social interaction was the core of development.

Studies such as Daugherty’s Collaborative Learning Report (2004, p.39) have shown that children can make progress within their learning and gain a wider range of understanding in different subjects when they work within groups compared to when they work on their own. Another study such as Visible Learning for Teachers (Hattie, 2009) had over 800 meta-analysis’ concerning achievement that looked over 50,000 pupils which became the biggest ever evidence based research project within education, found that students learnt more effectively when working together and has a prime effect on enhancing the children’s problem solving skills, he also found that students receive the most feedback from their peers which meant that working collaboratively allowed the students to learn from their mistakes faster and correct themselves through their conversation as they worked together. Kutnick and Thomas (1990) also found that children who work within pairs work better and have a significant improvement on their performance within the classroom whether being put into pairs with an equal partner or an unequal partner.

Lord Broers (2005) says that ‘creativity is increased by collaboration as your ideas are exposed to the diversity of new ideas and allows you to see ideas in different ways.’  I agree with this statement as I think that with the use of modern technologies such as skype it allows children to communicate to other children from a different part of the world who may have different or new ideas on topics which may sway the children’s ideas and allow them to see things differently. Before technology was introduced to the classroom and made collaborating easier for children it was the teacher’s role to facilitate collaboration within learning and they do so by establishing groups within the class room and teaching negotiation and listening skills, it is important for teachers to promote children to work together and talk about their problems as Koschmann and Suthers (2014) say that meaning takes place across sequences of words or messages from a number of people with meaning and understanding being the end result. However, teachers are no longer the only source of knowledge within the classroom because of technology and as technology grows children go to it as another facilitator. Bennett and Todd (1977, p. 127) believe that ‘by setting aside the traditional teaching model learning becomes a social experience, putting pupils into situations where they will be confronted with opposing views requiring negotiation and learning that perhaps others’ viewpoints may be just as valid as their own’.

 Although studies have shown that children learn best when they use collaboration in primary education some children do not benefit from it as a third to a half of the population are introverts and learn better when they are in quiet low-key environments but as schools have transformed over the years they have become designed for extroverts (Susan Cane, 2012). Susan Cane argues that ‘introverts living under the extroversion ideal are like women in a mans world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we’ve turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.’ (Susan Cane, 2012)

References

·         Renkl, A. (2007). Kooperatives Lernen [Collaborative learning]. In W. Schneider & M. Hasselhorn (Eds.), Handbuch Psychologie, Bd. Pädagogische Psychologie (pp. 84–94).

·         Roschelle, J. (1992). Learning by collaborating: convergent conceptual change. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2, 235–276.

·         Daugherty, Crystal. (2004) The Benefits of Collaborative Learning in the Elementary Classroom. Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers. Paper 39.

·         Kutnick, P. and Thomas, M. (1990) ‘Dyadic pairings for the enhancement of cognitive development in the school curriculum’. British Educational Research Journal. 16(4).

·         Broers, A. (2005). The Triumph of Technology. {The Reith Lectures} 4th May.

·         Bennett, D. and Todd, F. (1977) Communication and Learning in small groups. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

·         Susan Cane (2012) The Power of Introverts. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts/up-next (Accessed: 06/12/2017).

·         Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of 800+ meta-analyses on achievement.  Oxford, UK: Routledge

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