Benefits of Collaborative learning
Academic benefits
CL Promotes critical thinking skills
- CL develops higher level thinking skills
- CL stimulates critical thinking and helps students clarify ideas through discussion and debate
- Skill building and practice can be enhanced and made less tedious through CL activities in and out of class
- CL develops oral communication skills
- CL fosters metacognition in students
- Cooperative discussions improve students' recall of text content
Involves students actively in the learning process
- CL creates an environment of active, involved, exploratory learning
- CL encourages student responsibility for learning
- CL involves students in developing curriculum and class procedures
- CL provides training in effective teaching strategies to the next generation of teachers.
- CL helps students wean themselves away from considering teachers the sole sources of knowledge and understanding
- CL fits in well with the tqm and cqi models of effective management
- CL promotes a learning goal rather than a performance goal.
- CL fits in well with the constructivist approach
- CL allows students to exercise a sense of control on task
Classroom results are improved
- CL promotes higher achievement and class attendance
- CL promotes a positive attitude toward the subject matter
- CL increases student retention
- CL enhances self management skills
- CL increases students' persistence in the completion of assignments and the likelihood of successful completion of assignments
- Students stay on task more and are less disruptive
- CL promotes innovation in teaching and classroom techniques
Models appropriate student problem solving techniques
- CL fosters modelling of problem solving techniques by students' peers CL allows assignment of more challenging tasks without making the workload unreasonable.
- Weaker students improve their performance when grouped with higher achieving students
- CL provides stronger students with the deeper understanding that comes only from teaching material (cognitive rehearsal).
- CL leads to the generation of more and better questions in class. Students explore alternate problem solutions in a safe environment
- CL addresses learning style differences among students
Large lectures can be personalized
- CL activities can be used to personalize large lecture classes
- CL can be adapted to large lectures involving students in interactive, critical thinking activities during class
CL is especially helpful in motivating students in specific curriculum
- CL is synergystic with writing across the curriculum (wac)
- CL is especially useful in foreign language and esl courses where interactions involving the use of language are important
- Jigsaw is an ideal structure for laboratory and design projects
- CL is especially beneficial in mathematics courses.
Social benefits
Develops a social support system for students
- CL promotes student-faculty interaction and familiarity
- CL develops social interaction ski
- CL promotes positive societal responses to problems and fosters a supportive environment within which to manage conflict resolution
- CL creates a stronger social support system
- CL fosters and develops interpersonal relationships
- Students develop responsibility for each other
CL Builds diversity understanding among students and staff
- CL builds more positive heterogeneous relationships
- CL encourages diversity understanding
- CL fosters a greater ability in students to view situations from others' perspectives (development
- Of empathy)
- CL helps majority and minority populations in a class learn to work with each other (different ethnic groups, men and women, traditional and non-traditional students)
CL Establishes a positive atmosphere for modelling and practising cooperation
- Establishes an atmosphere of cooperation and helping schoolwide
- Students are taught how to criticize ideas, not people
- CL classrooms may be used to model desireable social behaviors necessary for employment situations which utilize teams and groups.
- Students practice modelling societal and work related roles
- CLfosters team building and a team approach to problem solving while maintaining individual accountability
- CL processes create environments where students can practice building leadership skills.
- CL increases leadership skills of female students
Develops learning communities
- CL provides the foundation for developing learning communities within institutions and in courses
- CL activities promote social and academic relationships well beyond the classroom and individual course
- In colleges where students commute to school and do not remain on campus to participate in campus life activities, CL creates a community environment within the classroom.
- CL helps teachers change their roles from their being the focus of
- The teaching process to becoming facilitators of the
- Learning process. They move from teacher-centered to student-centered learning
Psychological benefits
Student centered instruction increases students' self esteem
- CL builds self esteem in students
- Clenhances student satisfaction with the learning experience
- CL promotes a mastery attribution pattern rather than helpless attribution pattern
- CL encourages students to seek help and accept tutoring from their peers
Cooperation reduces anxiety
- Classroom anxiety is significantly reduced with CL
- Test anxiety is significantly reduced
CL Develops positive attitudes towards teachers
- CL creates a more positive attitude toward teachers, principals and other school personel by students and creates a more positive attitude by teachers toward their students
- CL sets high expectations for students and teachers
Alternate student and teacher assessment techniques
Collaborative teaching techniques utilize a variety of assessments
- CL provides a basis for alternate forms of assessment such as observation of groups, group self assessment, and short individual writing assessments
- CL provides instantaneous feedback to students and the teacher on the effectiveness of each class and the progress students are making by observing students working in groups and individually
- Groups are easier to supervise than individual students