Collaborative Learning in the Classroom

Throughout human history, our greatest achievements have stemmed from collaboration. Modern medicine, the international space station, the abolition of slavery, mapping the human brain, and eradicating smallpox, are just a few examples of monumental accomplishments that required international collaboration. When brilliant minds come together in a joint effort there is nothing too great to be achieved. But how can we be sure that children today are learning the skills they need to be the collaborative leaders of the future? 

By teaching with cooperative learning groups rather than using competitive games and activities, teachers instill values like collaboration, compassion, and cooperation in their students. Classrooms are microcosms of society. By teaching students to collaborate with each other, teachers help raise future global leaders who will know how to cooperate for the highest good of humanity. But collaborative learning is not just important for the future. Collaborative learning improves the quality of education children receive by increasing students' sense of autonomy, self-worth, and capability. Here's why. 

By giving students a chance to engage more deeply with the learning process in small peer groups, teachers show them that they are respected and trustworthy enough to take responsibility for their own education. Giving students this kind of independence can be extremely empowering as students realize they are responsible for their learning process and must negotiate with their peers, delegate tasks, and meet deadlines. Dynamic learning groups also increase accountability because each student is responsible to their group and missing a deadline or failing to complete an assigned task reflects poorly on the whole organism.

Though collaborative learning can at first seem to be more work for the teacher, with a little forethought and planning, collaborative learning can allow teachers to take a step back and watch a rich and vibrant learning process take off before their eyes. Once ground rules are set, assignments presented, and expectations established, the teacher can sit back and watch students take control of their own education. And once students have gotten used to collaborative learning, they will begin to rely more on their peers for support and guidance and less on the teacher, giving teachers space and time to move around and observe the class.

Collaborative learning can be introduced at almost any age. In a healthy early childhood setting, collaborative learning is already well in place through free and independent play time in which children form their own groups, set up games with roles and ground rules, and hold each other accountable to those ground rules. The cooperation, creative problem-solving, and conflict resolution that happens during this type of unstructured play is critically important for the healthy development of social skills in young children. Teachers of that age group should avoid interfering in this kind of play except to keep children safe. In grades one through eight cooperative learning can take on gradually greater structure as students get older.

In the lower grades, grades one through four, cooperative learning can be implemented for in-class projects or challenges like a complicated math word problem, or building a machine, a robot, or even a table. Keeping all aspects of the work in-class at this age is ideal so the teacher can help oversee the progress of the groups and make sure that no student is checked out or getting overly frustrated with their group members.

In the later grades, grades five through eight, students can be given more complex projects that need to be worked on over the course of several days or weeks and have multiple steps and various aspects that need to be held in and out of the classroom. Students should be well versed in working with cooperative learning groups before being given a long assignment that requires out of school cooperation.

At any age, giving students the opportunity to work with their peers, negotiating tasks, assigning duties, and making agreements with each other, gives them valuable life experience in how to work together.

Four Steps to Start Teaching with Collaborative Learning Groups Today:

1. Create Collaborative Groups: Put each student into pairs or small groups with other students you think they can work well with, not necessarily their “favorite” people. Select pairs or small groups based on a diversity of skills and abilities. Avoid allowing students to select their own groups, which creates a kind of toxic competition as some students are “chosen” and others excluded. Rather, select a dynamic group for your students with a variety of temperaments. It is good to have a balance of calm students with energetic students, students who like to talk a lot with students who are good note takers, etc. Selecting groups is an art and you will know how well your selections worked as you watch your groups and see if they are appropriately challenging each other while not pushing each other over the edge of annoyance.

You can also start with pairs of students if that seems better for your class. It can be good to put students together who do not typically choose to spend time together. At the same time, do not intentionally put students together who are in a conflict or have open dislike for each other unless you plan to spend the activity monitoring their collaboration and working with them to heal their conflict.

2. Start with an Icebreaker: Once students are paired or grouped, give them a few minutes to have fun together before giving them a task. If you can allow them to have fun and laugh together, their work will be warmer and more engaged. Icebreakers can be quick and simple, less than a minute, even. One idea is to give them a question prompt like, “if you could only eat one ice cream flavor for the rest of your life, what would it be and why,” or “if you could go to any other country today, where would you go and what would you do there?”

Or you can spend more time on icebreakers and have students do a physical activity like counting jumping jacks, working through an obstacle course, or jumping rope together. Choose an icebreaker that seems best for your class. Or maybe each group or pair will have a different icebreaker based on what you know each student needs to prepare to focus and get to work together. Knowing your students deeply is critical to every aspect of a rich and equitable education and selecting the right icebreakers as well as dynamic groups and group activities is no exception. For more on the importance of building healthy relationships with your students, see Teaching with Higher Senses (Nilsen, 2022).

3. Getting Started: First introduce the project, task, or discussion topic. The clearer you are with your expectations, the better able the students will be to take on the responsibility of dividing up tasks. With more involved assignments, give students time to make ground rules such as how to divide the work evenly, what deadlines they all agree to and how they will present their work to the class or the teacher. 

With simpler tasks, like a discussion topic, or building a machine, give groups enough time so that each member can speak, or participate in the tasks, but not so much time that the students become disengaged and distracted. Tell them approximately how much time each student should speak or how many jobs each student should have. It is helpful to have one student in charge of making sure they get around to everyone in the group and generally keeping the work balanced. You can have the students self-select this person or you can assign a “team manager.”

4. Present Findings: Typically, it is best to close a period of cooperative learning by returning to the full group and allowing time for each collaborative learning group to share what they discussed, accomplished, or decided. This not only allows the teacher to assess how effective the group was and how well they worked together, but it also creates accountability and provides an opportunity for each group to shine. 

It’s okay if the most outspoken student is always the presenter if they have been chosen by the group and are representing the whole group’s ideas and sharing insights from each member. This is one of the beautiful things about collaborative learning groups. Quiet or shy students can hear their ideas shared out loud without having to suffer the anxiety of speaking publicly. Just as disorganized students can benefit from the example of one of their more organized classmate's skills. 

Remember, conflict in collaborative learning groups is okay. Overcoming conflict is one of the valuable skills students learn from working in collaborative groups. Rather than trying to avoid conflict or interfering in students' conflicts, teach them language and strategies for working through conflict like negotiating, active listening, and taking turns. Ex: "We'll use your idea for this task and in the next task, we'll use my idea." Set ground rules ahead of time about what to do and not do when a conflict arises so that students know conflict is an important part of cooperating and should not be feared or avoided but handled with compassion and respect for all concerned. 

Learning through collaboration gives students skills they will use all through their educational journey, in their first jobs, in friendships, in romantic relationships, and throughout their careers. The values developed through collaborative learning will take root and continue to grow within young adults as they step into the world as global leaders and find solutions for the greatest challenges in the landscape of humanity’s future.