Tips for Better Learning Groups

Below is a checklist of things that groups can do to function better. If appropriate for your class, distribute to your students.

I. Before the group begins:
Expect to learn, to enjoy, and to discover.
Team up with people you don't know.

II. As the group begins:
Make a good first impression.
Build the team.
Do something that requires self-disclosure.
Take interpersonal risks to build trust.
Establish team goals as appropriate.
Start thinking about group processing.

III. While the group is in existence:
Work at increasing self-disclosure.
Work at giving good feedback.
Get silent members involved.
Confront problems.
Apply lessons from class work.
Work on issues in the group even if they appear at first to be just between two members.
Don't assume you can't work with someone just because you don't like or respect them.
If the group can't solve a problem, consult the instructor as a group.
Regularly review your data.
Vary the leadership style as needed.

IV. Wrapping up the group:
Summarize and review your learning from group experiences.
Analyze the data to discover why the group was more effective or less so.
Provide final feedback to members on their contribution.
Celebrate the group's accomplishments.

Collaborative Learning and its Benefits

Collaborative Learning : -

The concept of collaborative learning is the grouping and pairing of students for the purpose of achieving an academic goal. The term "cooperative learning" refers to an instruction method in which students at various performance levels work together in small groups toward a common goal.

44 Benefits of Collaborative Learning : -

1. Develops higher level thinking skills
2. Promotes student-faculty interaction and familiarity
3. Increases student retention
4. Builds self esteem in students
5. Enhances student satisfaction with the learning experience
6. Promotes a positive attitude toward the subject matter
7. Develops oral communication skills
8. Develops social interaction skills
9. Promotes positive race relations
10. Creates an environment of active, involved, exploratory learning
11. Uses a team approach to problem solving while maintaining individual accountability
12. Encourages diversity understanding
13. Encourages student responsibility for learning
14. Involves students in developing curriculum and class procedures
15. Students explore alternate problem solutions in a safe environment
16. Stimulates critical thinking and helps students clarify ideas through discussion and debate
17. Enhances self management skills
18. Fits in well with the constructivist approach
19. Establishs an atmosphere of cooperation and helping schoolwide
20. Students develop responsibility for each other
21. Builds more positive heterogeneous relationships
22. Encourages alternate student assessment techniques
23. Fosters and develops interpersonal relationships
24. Modelling problem solving techniques by students' peers
25. Students are taught how to criticize ideas, not people
26. Sets high expectations for students and teachers
27. Promotes higher achievement and class attendance .
28. Students stay on task more and are less disruptive
29. Greater ability of students to view situations from others' perspectives (development of empathy)
30. Creates a stronger social support system
31. Creates a more positive attitude toward teachers, principals and other school personnel by students and creates a more positive attitude by teachers toward their students
32. Addresses learning style differences among students
33. Promotes innovation in teaching and classroom techniques
34. Classroom anxiety is significantly reduced
35. Test anxiety is significantly reduced
36. Classroom resembles real life social and employment situations
37. Students practice modeling societal and work related roles
38. CL is synergystic with writing across the curriculum
39. CL activities can be used to personalize large lecture classes
40. Skill building and practice can be enhanced and made less tedious through CL activities in and out of class.
41. CL activities promote social and academic relationships well beyond the classroom and individual course
42. CL processes create environments where students can practice building leadership skills.
    

Constructivism, a theory of building Knowledge

Constructivism is the construction of new understanding as a combination of prior learning, new information, and readiness to learn. Individuals make choices about what new ideas to accept and how to fit them into their established views of the world.

In a Constructivist Classroom...

Student autonomy and initiative are accepted and encouraged.

By respecting students' ideas and encouraging independent thinking, teachers help students attain their own intellectual identity. Students who frame questions and issues and then go about analyzing and answering them take responsibility for their own learning and become problem solvers.

The teacher asks open-ended questions and allows wait time for responses.

Reflective thought takes time and is often built on others' ideas and comments. The ways teachers ask questions and the ways students respond will structure the success of student inquiry.

Higher-level thinking is encouraged.

The constructivist teacher challenges students to reach beyond the simple factual response. He encourages students to connect and summarize concepts by analyzing, predicting, justifying, and defending their ideas.

Students are engaged in dialogue with the teacher and with each other.

Social discourse helps students change or reinforce their ideas. If they have the chance to present what they think and hear others' ideas, students can build a personal knowledge base that they understand. Only when they feel comfortable enough to express their ideas will meaningful classroom dialogue occur.

Students are engaged in experiences that challenge hypotheses and encourage discussion.

When allowed to make predictions, students often generate varying hypotheses about natural phenomena. The constructivist teacher provides ample opportunities for students to test their hypotheses, especially through group discussion of concrete experiences.

The class uses raw data, primary sources, manipulatives, physical, and interactive materials.

The constructivist approach involves students in real-world possibilities, then helps them generate the abstractions that bind phenomena together.