Learning about Collaboration from Literature

My hypothesis is that a collaborative approach during group and independent learning activities might increase student engagement and develop a better understanding of topics or concepts and their practical application. 

Research shows that collaborative group work involves students working jointly on the same problem at all times. Within a collaborative group, decisions are shared and the negotiation of roles and relationships constantly evolves. Such a collaborative approach to learning is linked to Vygotskian ideas such as situated cognition, scaffolding, and the zone of proximal development  (Forman & Cazden, 1985).

Interestingly enough, I found proof of my own observations 'that part of the reason students give up on learning is because they find it difficult and think they are alone in their struggle. An important change takes place when students work together and discover that everybody finds some or all of the work difficult. This is a critical moment for students, and one that helps them know that for everyone learning is a process and that obstacles are common.' (LIMITLESS MIND by Jo Boaler)

Jo says that collaboration is vital for learning, brain development, and creating equitable outcomes. I agree with her; however, first of all, it is important to establish interpersonal connections. I noticed that some of my learners are happy working together and they achieve better results than a group that keeps arguing without listening to each other's ideas. Hence, teachers need to spend more time creating positive norms for collaborative groups.

Emily R. Lai (June 2011) in her Pearson Research report states that "Collaborative interactions are characterized by shared goals, symmetry of structure, and a high degree of negotiation, interactivity, and interdependence. Interactions producing elaborated explanations are particularly valuable for improving student learning. Nonresponsive feedback, on the other hand, can be detrimental to student learning in collaborative situations. Collaboration can have powerful effects on student learning, particularly for low-achieving students. However, a number of factors may moderate the impact of collaboration on student learning, including student characteristics, group composition, and task characteristics."

This resonates with me and my own experiences and shows that student collaboration requires a lot of teacher thinking and designing in creating tasks, forming groups and again, setting up class positive norms. Teachers need to carefully consider group composition in terms of gender and ability when using collaborative learning. Simple tasks with one correct solution that can easily be solved by a single, competent group member should not be used in collaborative settings. Even if not all young students will be able to collaborate effectively in their early school years, they will definitely start to develop such important habits required in older classes and in life in general. 

Another important idea I confirmed during my professional reading is that collaboration is not the only powerful approach to learning and/or working together. There are some times when individual and co-operative learning should take place to develop sound knowledge and skills to be able to work collaboratively and achieve better outcomes. 

For example, Nilofer Merchant in her article Eight Dangers of Collaboration (Dec 2011) reveals eight dangers of collaboration. She describes situations when people want to be individually recognised because they are great professionals or situations when collaboration slows down the process and creates conflicts instead of benefiting participants and organisations. Once again, in my opinion, we have to learn to choose the most suitable approach when it comes to a specific situation or task. This relates to students and even more to teachers. 

Create Staff Meeting - Silhouette Art workshop

Each term the Manaiakalani Kahui Ako hosts staff meetings as an opportunity for Manaiakalani teachers to connect with our COL Kaupapa and Pedagogy.

This time, my school hosted the Create Staff Meeting and I enjoyed the opportunity to share my practice with other wonderful and creative Manaiakalanai teachers. I was privileged to be supported by my team as this was the first workshop that we presented together. Well done Team Kea!

Team Collaboration to improve the efficiency and well-being of my team.

I believe that achieving effective collaboration with my colleagues improves the efficiency and well-being of my team. As I shared earlier in this blog, I see my team's collaboration not as a task to complete and then move on. Collaboration is an ongoing process that involves a lot of sharing, experimenting, designing, reflecting, etc.  I noticed that when we are team-planning and co-teaching, we develop and establish shared trust, values, goals and improve our team's systems.

TKI - Collaborative Teaching

Active collaboration is particularly important for creating a growth-based learning environment and for increasing student learning progress. Research shows that teachers who work together and learn from each other are more successful in improving student outcomes than those who work alone.

Through growth to achievement: Report of the review to achieve educational excellence in Australian schools , (March 2018)

Key benefits of teacher collaboration include:

• a sense of "all being in it together"
• having a critical friend to support you
• trying new things and getting feedback from students and colleagues on their impact
• being part of an ongoing process of reflection.
• a shift of thinking from “me” to “we” and from “my learners” to “our learners”.

We already see the shift in our thinking and approach to Team Kea's planning, teaching and learning.

For example, collaborative planning provides opportunities for us to improve our content knowledge of the NZC and receive/ give feedback on our next steps and professional achievements.

As we move towards moving to ILE, we will continue to develop our personal and team successful collaboration skills by actively participating in PLDs, reading professional literature, visiting different ILE schools and reflecting on our own practice and experiences.