Literature Review On Collaborative And Individualist Learning

“Alright,” the teacher says to the students, “I’m going to number all of you off into groups. Each group will read a section from the textbook and become experts on that section. Then, each group will teach the rest of the class what they learned from their reading.” This is an instruction common to the classrooms in the United States. More and more is the pedagogy of public education leaning in favor of team-based activities, projects, and learning. Group work is generally seen as an ultimately beneficial way to teach students, but this may be somewhat of a fallacy. The emphasis on group-based learning in public schools causes a multitude of problems.

I believe collaborative work is a useful strategy to help students develop understanding of concepts and become independent thinkers. It allows teachers to build a learning community in which students are able to work together to support each other’s learning. When using collaborative work, students become active participants of each lesson and the teacher becomes a guide that supports students throughout the learning process. I use collaborative work in my classroom because it allows me to meet the needs of my Special Education and English Language Learners. When my students work together they are able to put their strengths together to solve academic problems and complete different tasks. They are able to get along and work together to apply

This strategy is gained when students learn to reflect and think about their learning. Cooperative learning is a natural way to use the reciprocal teaching strategies, as those strategies are based on having conversations and social interactions. These strategies are beneficial whether working with a whole-class grouping or literature circles.

In addition to the effects mentioned above, one more thing that students can be impressed by cooperative learning is developing their self-confidence. When a student experiences group success acquired by his or her cooperation, or when he/she answers questions made by other members, he/she feels as a qualified member of the group and this causes development of self-confidence. In the following paragraphs it’s expressed how cooperative learning can be effective in educational systems.

I believe that I am proficient in establishing a classroom setting that calls upon the students to learn in an individual and collaborative manner. I believe that I have sufficiently encouraged positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation. I have shown this in learning activities that have been presented to the students. An example of this would be with the placard assignment, which had the students fill out a sheet that corresponded to four maps to help them figure out what artifacts certain cultural regions would use. During this learning segment, students would have to be self directed after the directions were given, the students would have to use collaborative skills, and they were all engaged during

Moreover, despite all those well documented benefits of cooperative learning, many teachers still do not prefer to use this pedagogical practice in class, stated by Baines, Blatchford, and Kutnik (2003). The fact is that the cooperative learning requires teachers to have high awareness of students’ learning, good control of students challenging behaviors.

I had the opportunity to observe in a collaborative classroom during field observations for my EDUC 1301 class two years ago. In that school teachers usually worked collaborate to do lesson planning and instruction. For example, in the second grade that observed in, one teacher taught science and math and the other teacher taught language arts and social studies. I feel that collaborating with others can help teachers come up with more creative lessons for student and new strategies to teach the material. Also, dividing up the work, allows teachers to focus more on the subjects they are teaching and actually have more time to plan the lesson. On the other hand, I personally will dislike being in a collaboratively taught class if my partner

adopt classroom cooperative learning strategies (Jenkins, Antil, Wayne & Vadasy, 2003, p. 280; Foreman & Arthur Kelly,)

American poet Mattie Stepanek once stated, "Unity is strength...when there are teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved." This idea is exactly what I believe collaborative learning is about. Collaborative learning allows the students to establish unity and great productivity with any project. I love it because it allows me to carry all the stresses but gain an outside perspective on anything. Being a student at Liberty has definitely allowed me to work in this style and become open to ideas as well as standing up for my own thoughts.

“Group work is a teaching strategy that promotes academic achievement and socialization”(Frykedal, Chiriac, 2011). This method is often used since allow individuals to combine their skills with the intention to achieve a mutual goal. To be efficient when working with a group, individuals have the responsibility to understand and respect others preferences and

It helps students to share their knowledge with each other for a better understanding of a specific concept. One of the important principles that the cooperative learning theory proposes is heterogeneous grouping, which means that the students within the group vary in their gender, skills, class social, religion and age (Jacobs 4). Another important principle is maximum peer interactions that occur when specifying the number of students working together (Jacobs 4). Collaborative skills is an additional principle that is proposed by this theory, which means that students who work with each other are capable of explaining and giving reasons (Jacobs 4). Also, one of the essential principles is individual accountability, which ensures that every one is and working trying to share their knowledge (Jacobs 5). This theory is applied to the physics worksheet because it is a model for enhancing the cooperative learning

Educators and researchers have never stopped the examination of the importance and relevance of collaborative learning that are encouraged by middle schools. When compared with studying alone, I personally believe that it is far more beneficial to students when working in groups for the following reasons.

Cooperative learning will be a method I use in my classroom. I believe that in a cooperative learning group a student can learn socialization skills and how to work with others. This goes along with the pragmatic/progressive philosophy that children learn by doing. The progressivism teaching style also includes the incorporation of problem-solving and critical thinking techniques. I want my students to learn to think for themselves and be able to function in society. At the same time, I will be a fellow learner myself and

Collaborative learning stems from the theory of Vygotsky’s conception of Zone of proximal development. The thought is that children learn best with “help and guidance” (Ormrod, 2012). In transitioning this zone to a collaborative learning experience, children work with their peers in broadening their learning experience, allowing small groups of students to work together to share knowledge, exchange ideas, problem solve, and more. These classroom environments help to create durable abilities in students and aid in producing a “smoother integration into adult society when the activities resemble real-world tasks” (Ormrod, 2012). As students work with peers and adults, they adopt some of the learning strategies demonstrated and develop more skills in problem solving. This scaffolding creates a trickle-down effect of knowledge construction. In collaborative learning, students are afforded a myriad of enriching opportunities to explore perspectives that may differ from their own. These activities serve to create a self-awareness in the student of their responsibilities to a group, requiring them to self-monitor their activity (Lee, Tsai, Chai, & Koh, 2014).

Collaborative learning is founded on the idea that the learning process is a naturally social act which requires the participants to talk among themselves. Collaborative learning involves small groups of students who act on a structured learning activity to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. In simpler terms, the students work in groups to learn or understand a new concept they are studying. In this learning approach, it is important to understand that the students are accountable for individual work as well as the group work they do as a group in collaborative learning