"Cooperative learning describes a group working together and typically dividing up tasks to complete a particular assignment. The word cooperate intimates 'putting up with one another' for the common good. For example, if the class wants to get to lunch on time, everyone should cooperate and get on line and be quiet. Collaborate, on the other hand, intimates that some new knowledge is going to be developed based on the 'two-heads-are-better-than-one' principle. Collaboration results in an end product that is enhanced by the input of more than one person; thus, collaborative activities are open-ended and focused on higher-order thinking."Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge
Reflection Questions:
When do your students naturally come together to collaborate rather than cooperate?
When have you been empowered to collaborate personally or professionally?
While it is not easy to get my students to collaborate, I do provide opportunities to do this when we meal plan and cook on a weekly basis. Students all work together to select recipes and share the responsibilites to prepare a simple meal.
ReplyDeleteI have been empowered to collaborate with collegues when I created my APPR project. I have also been able to collaborate with teachers in other districts that also teach the life skill students.
I recall a time during my Field Hockey unit this year when students were asked to create an attack strategy, transitioning the ball from defense to offense up the sideline (Primarily). Students were put in mini game situations and were challenged when attempting to succeed at the task. Team members had to collaborate and make use of their best skills to be successful as a team.
ReplyDeleteI am presently feeling empowered to collaborate with my colleagues to develop a curriculum for a new year-long course we are offering students: “Fitness for Life".
Students will naturally collaborate when given a common task which can range from brainstorming solutions to a given problem, creating satirical magazines, or editing peer work.
ReplyDeleteThe best collaboration has occured when there is free time to engage with my colleagues. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen often enough, but when it does, I have gained value feedback on my ideas for lessons, been given useful worksheets, and brainstormed several ideas for various units.
I often provide opportunities during class for students to work together to help each other by splitting the workload thus allowing each person to bring knowledge to the group. This can be empowering because it allows you to take a new concept and reteach it to your peer.
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ReplyDeleteMath:
ReplyDeleteStudents tend to collaborate when given a challenging or higher level math problem. They have the skills to solve it, but pair up to to discuss and reinforce what they know.
Students are given the opportunity to work collaboratively. In a group project, students can work separately and independently on tasks and bring those experiences back to the group for the group project or they can work together bouncing ideas off of eachother. From Studio Art to Drawing & Painting, students are afforded this opportunity. Students can be asked to pair up and work on exploring a concept together to support one another’s learning whether it be a research-based task or a technique-based task. Group critiques are always a collaborative experience where students verbally share their ideas, reflections and feedback with one another.
ReplyDeleteWhen students are given a meaningful task to complete or problem to solve, and when they care about the outcome, this happens seamlessly. The challenge, however, is that not all students love every subject equally. As teachers, we do our best to ensure that the material students study is relevant and engaging. In addition, we try to foster a sense of community in our classrooms so that students feel "safe" testing their ideas and bouncing them off of us as well as one another.
ReplyDeleteIronically, it's teachers who appreciate these collaborative opportunities the most but get them the least. It seems that many of our staff development days, which are supposed to foster these opportunities, actually do the opposite. More often than not, we find ourselves herded into "one-size-fits all" workshops meant to instruct ALL teachers, K-12. Just as a six-year old's needs are different from that of a 16 year old's, so too, are elementary school teachers' needs different from high school teachers'.