What is collaboration?
Collaboration "is a principle-based process of working together that produces trust, integrity and break-through results by building true consensus, ownership and alignment" (Marshall, 1995). What is collaborative learning? 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 (1994), collaborative learning is based on the notion that learning is a naturally social act in which the participants talk among themselves. It is through the talk that learning occurs. Why do we talk about collaborative learning in this course? Basically there are two reasons. First, the goal of the third Master Plan (MP3) in Singapore is to develop students' competencies for self-directed learning and collaborative learning through effective use of ICT. Obviously promoting students' collaborative learning has become the focus of using ICT for teaching and learning in Singapore schools. Every teacher must know how to use ICT to support and promote collaborative learning. (Source:http://ictconnection.moe.edu.sg/masterplan-4/our-ict-journey/masterplan-3/vision-and-goals ) Second, one new development of research in the domain of learning sciences is shifting from individual cognition to group cognition. A representative scholar advocating group cognition is Gerry Stahl. He claims that: "When small groups engage in cooperative problem solving or collaborative knowledge building, there are distinctive processes of interest at the individual, small-group and community levels of analysis, which interact strongly with each other. The science of group cognition is the study of the processes at the small-group level" (Stahl, 2010). ![]()
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Collaborative learning is often defined as an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together, or the instructional use of small groups in which students work together to maximize everyone’s learning.
Collaborative learning vs cooperative learning The two terms "collaborative learning" and "cooperative learning" are often used interchangeably. However, many researchers argue that it is meaningful to make a distinction between cooperative learning and collaborative learning (Dillenbourg, Baker, Blaye, & O'Malley, 1996). One distinction is that in a cooperative learning process, the learning task is often divided among the learners who will each accomplish their parts, followed by the assembling of these parts into the whole. Comparatively, collaborative learning is more of an on-going process. It is more than assembling of tasks according to the roles the individual learners play; it involves ongoing efforts in meaning negotiation and the establishment of shared understanding among them. For instance, Dillenbourg (1999) defined the distinction as follows: "In cooperation, partners split the work, solve sub-tasks individually and then assemble the partial results into the final output. In collaboration, partners do the work together" (p. 8). He further highlighted that collaboration is a process by which individuals negotiate and share meanings relevant to the problem, and it is a coordinated, synchronous activity that is the result of a continued attempt to construct and maintain a shared conception of a problem. Another distinction is that in the cooperative learning process, the teacher controls most of what is going on in the class, even if the students are working in groups. Collaborative learning, on the other hand, is aimed at getting the students to take almost full responsibility for working together, building knowledge together, changing and evolving together and of course, improving together (Dooly, 2008). Two pillars of collaborative learning There are two key concepts (or pillars) in collaborative learning:
Individual accountability or individual contribution is the measurement of whether the contribution of a group member has helped to achieve the group’s overall goals. Everyone in a group must work together with others and contribute to the completion of the group task. It should not be all for one or one for all. Individual accountability as a structural element in collaboration is pivotal to prevent and lower the likelihood of free riders or social loafing. It is the belief that everyone will be accountable for her/his performance and learning. Individual accountability often occurs when the performance of each individual is assessed and the results are given back to the group and the individual. ![]() Positive interdependence refers to the relationship of group members who share common goals and perceive that working together is individually and collectively beneficial, and success depends on the participation of all the members. In a collaborative environment with positive interdependence, often one cannot succeed unless all members succeed; they either sink or swim together. The proverb 'Only when a rain drop falls into the ocean will it never go dry' tells the importance of positive interdependence of rain drops.
Importance of collaborative learning
In the new information age, work becomes more knowledge-based, interdisciplinary and complicated. It is hardly possible for an individual to complete a sophisticated task without the help of others. The ability to work collaboratively hence becomes highly valued in the present workplace (Barron, 2000). Students ought to learn how to work collectively when they are in schools so that the transition from the school to the workplace is less daunting (Chai & Tan, 2009). Educational benefits of collaborative learning Collaborative learning does not guarantee improved learning outcomes. Then, what are the educational benefits of collaborative learning? Research studies show that collaborative learning has the potential to build positive social relationships among students; to build self-esteem in students (Johnson & Johnson 1989); and conceptual conflict is a positive factor that makes collaborative learning more efficient (Kaptelinin, 1999). Laal and Ghodsi (2012) summarize educational benefits of collaborative learning into the following categories: Social benefits:
Two pillars of collaborative learning There are two key concepts (or pillars) in collaborative learning:
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Individual accountability or individual contribution is the measurement of whether the contribution of a group member has helped to achieve the group’s overall goals. Everyone in a group must work together with others and contribute to the completion of the group task. It should not be all for one or one for all. Individual accountability as a structural element in collaboration is pivotal to prevent and lower the likelihood of free riders or social loafing. It is the belief that everyone will be accountable for her/his performance and learning. Individual accountability often occurs when the performance of each individual is assessed and the results are given back to the group and the individual.
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Positive interdependence refers to the relationship of group members who share common goals and perceive that working together is individually and collectively beneficial, and success depends on the participation of all the members. In a collaborative environment with postive interdependence, often one cannot succeed unless all members succeed; they either sink or swim together. The proverb 'Only when a rain drop falls into the ocean will it never go dry' tells the importance of positive interdependence of rain drops.
Challenges in collaborative learning Coordination and monitoring are two salient challenges in collaborative learning. Coordination ![]()
Individual accountability and positive interdependence calls for coordination. In a collaborative learning environment, group members identify and build on their individual strengths so that everyone makes a great contribution to the learning task. Furthermore, their individual effort must be synchronized to ensure that they all work towards the same direction and make coherent contributions.
External support is needed for effective coordination to take place. The complexity of authentic problems involved in a collaborative learning task poses difficulties to the students, who must continuously negotiate plans and share understanding. They often struggle with organizing evidence and interpreting results, and get lost or overwhelmed by the large amount of data or information. They need external scaffolding strategies to organize, coordinate, and reflect upon ongoing ideas through the long-term investigation process (Land & Zembal-Saul, 2003). Monitoring ![]()
Learning is a highly interactive and dynamic process. For effective learning to take place in a collaborative learning environment, monitoring closely how students collaborate in the process is crucial. To students, keeping track of what has been established and what needs to be further revised makes the learning process be carried out in a more organized and efficient way. To teachers, monitoring the learning process allows them to identify strengths and weaknesses of the instructional design or the learning environment so that they can adjust the learning process promptly for unexpected needs or improve the curriculum further in the future (Pozzi, Manca, Persico, & Sarti, 2007).
![]() Monitoring the collaborative learning process can also help teachers to keep track on students’ on-going performance so that any pitfall leading to potential failures can be immediately diagnosed and appropriate support can be provided. Teachers need to collect and analyze data constantly to keep the learning process under control. They must ensure the learning process is going on smoothly and proper decisions are made when needed (Chai & Tan, 2009). Additionally, monitoring the learning process enables the teacher to assess students’ individual and group learning more accurately. The prevailing views of learning that emphasize on the social, distributed, and collective nature of learning results in a need to capture, assess and characterize both individual and collaborative aspects of knowledge construction in CSCL (Chan & Van Aalst, 2004). Keeping track on the collaborative learning process allows the teacher to discern students’ individual contributions and to assess them fairly. Post 2 practical challenges with collaborative learning to the following comments area based on your personal experiences, and give 2 comments to the challenges posted by others.
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