Published Online: December 7, 2012
G-R-O-U-P W-O-R-K Doesn't
Spell Collaboration
By Timothy
Quinn, Phi Delta Kappan
Simply putting
kids around a table and telling them to work together does not teach them
collaboration skills.
Collaboration
is included in almost every list of 21st-century skills—and for good reason.
Technology now offers more people the opportunity to work together without
geographical restraint, and businesses everywhere are expecting employees to
collaborate on projects, both in face-to-face teams and in virtual teams.
Players of the
online game Foldit provide one of the most astounding examples of the power of
collaboration in the digital age. Together, the Foldit players solved a
molecular puzzle that had long baffled scientists and could contribute to a
cure for AIDS. In a stunning example of “citizen science”—crowdsourcing in
order to generate scientific data and solve scientific problems—Foldit players
did in 10 days what individual scientists had been unable to do in a decade
(Peckham, 2011). Such examples suggest that enhanced collaboration may be
exactly what we need to solve the world’s critical problems.
If so, then
collaboration should become a greater part of school curricula at all levels.
Currently, collaborative work is most common in graduate schools, particularly
business schools, where students work in teams on various projects, just as
they will in their careers. But students in traditional K-12 schools mostly
work individually. Common exceptions to this are students of teachers who
assign “group work.” However, group work is neither as widely used nor as
effective as necessary if we wish to produce a generation of learners adept at
collaborating. In fact, group work as often practiced does little to enhance collaborative
skills.
In the worst
cases, group work is assigned when a teacher doesn’t feel like teaching. The
teacher gives students some questions and instructs them to talk them over in
groups. The teacher then sits at his desk checking his email while students
have a half-hearted conversation before veering off topic. This is hardly an
effective way to teach collaboration. Situations like this confound the problem
by leading to a perception that group work is both unproductive and a sign of
laziness on the part of the teacher—a way of shirking responsibility in the
name of another progressive pedagogical tactic.
Teaching Collaboration
Of course, not
all teachers who assign group work are lazy, and many do it for the right
reasons. A good collaborative assignment requires much more of the teacher than
in the example above. Teachers must set clear expectations and devise a fair
and meaningful way to assess student work. Most important, the teacher should
constantly be circulating around the room, looking over shoulders, asking and
answering questions, giving feedback, and taking notes on student progress.
Still, even if
these efforts are made, collaboration is not being taught per se. Assigning
group work is very different than teaching collaborative skills. Unlike
writing—a skill in which students have been trained since elementary
school—collaboration is neither systematically taught nor modeled for students.
So, when giving a collaborative assignment, teachers should assume students
know very little about how to collaborate. Teachers should begin by actually
teaching effective collaboration strategies, including:
• Listen to
others;
• Establish
common goals;
• Compromise;
• Assign roles
and responsibilities;
• Determine
measures for accountability;
• Give
constructive feedback; and
• Assess the
group’s progress.
Only after a
teacher has talked with students about these behaviors can he or she ask them
to start collaborating. The first group assignments should be short and done in
class so the teacher can observe and provide feedback as necessary.
At the outset,
the teacher may actually want to give students an agenda to follow. For
example:
• Discuss the
problem and divide up tasks (10 minutes).
• Complete
individual tasks (15 minutes).
• Reconvene to
share individual work and synthesize information (15 minutes).
• Present
solution to the rest of the class (5 minutes).
Depending on
the nature of the task that students are asked to accomplish, the teacher may
even wish to assign specific roles and responsibilities to individuals.
Only with this
type of training will students be prepared to engage in long-term collaborative
assignments outside class. However, just because students are ready to
collaborate outside the classroom doesn’t mean the teacher should stop
monitoring the work of the different groups. Teachers can continue to monitor
group work by having students keep a running log of their work, including who
met, when they met, and what was discussed, as well as what individuals have
done during their own time. This is a good way to assure that all students are
pulling their own weight. Teachers should also establish check-in points along
the way toward completing a certain task. Within this framework, teachers can
ask students to submit the group’s goals to the teacher and to submit a chart
that outlines each member’s role and responsibilities.
Teachers must
also build in time for students to reflect on their experience working with
others so they can learn from it before their next collaborative assignment.
Teachers can ask students to write about successes and failures and to think
about how they might do things differently next time. Students could also
assess the collaborative skills of other group members so all students hear
feedback from others in the group.
After completing
collaborative assignments in this manner, students may be ready to complete
group tasks successfully without teacher oversight, which should be the goal.
Challenges of Teaching Collaboration
Although this
is a recipe for teaching collaboration effectively, teachers will still face
challenges when assigning collaborative work.
Recently, I
spent hours meeting with deans, advisers, and parents because one student
working in a group was constantly harassing another student whom he disliked.
Less extreme but more common is the refrain, “I just don’t want to work with
that person. Can I please switch groups?” Dealing with these interpersonal
issues adds work for the already overburdened teacher and only complicates the
lives of students for whom social status and friendship are of utmost concern.
Assigning group
work also raises procedural issues in an academic institution—where and when do
students meet? Teachers have complained that groups have disrupted study areas
(which, by the way, have generally been designed for individual study). Student
groups have told me they have no time in their schedules when they can meet,
and, after scoffing at them, I realized that, in fact, they were correct. I
once worked at a school that even had rules prohibiting students from meeting
during certain times; exceptions could be made, but they required paperwork.
And then there
is the challenge of how to assess group work, and how to make sure all group
members are contributing equally. These two issues will cause lots of
headaches. Assessing group work fairly is complicated and outside the scope of
this article. Suffice it to say that in assigning group work teachers must be
transparent about what their grades reflect and have a clear rationale for why
the practice is justified if they allow collaborative work to be reflected in
an individual grade.
Collaboration's Value
With all of the
complications and hassles, is encouraging collaboration really worth the
trouble? Might all of the potential problems suggest that teachers should stick
to more traditional instruction? On the contrary. All of these issues are
exactly why we should assign group work. Inequality, unfairness, interpersonal
conflict, bureaucratic hurdles—this is the stuff of life. Without this
experience, students who spend their K-12 education career working in isolation
will be ill-equipped to handle these challenges when they confront them in
college and the workplace. The benefits of group work come not from a project
smoothly accomplished, but from learning to deal with all of the challenges
posed by working with others. As research increasingly suggests, we learn more
from failure and setbacks than from success. Collaborative assignments allow
students—particularly the best students who might otherwise breeze through
school having nothing but success along the way—to deal with a little
adversity.
So, is
assigning group work a sign of laziness? I think not! A teacher must be willing
to deal with these headaches and to help students struggle with these issues if
he or she wishes to prepare them for success in today’s world.
References
El presente artículo hace referencia a la
colaboración en los trabajos en grupos. Para integrar y participar en un
grupo de trabajo se considera necesario poseer ciertas características como
por ejemplo el compromiso individual que contribuye a la colaboración.
Ayudando a obtener resultados positivos promoviendo la realización de determinados proyectos.
Pero para esto, es necesario que el trabajo en grupo se vaya practicando
desde la escolarización primaria del individuo, comenzando lentamente para
que el mismo vaya interiorizando esta forma de trabajo colaborativo.
El artículo también nos ofrece un ejemplo del
trabajo colaborativo virtual. Otorgándonos un ejemplo real a través de un
juego llamado “Foldit” que mediante éste se produce la colaboración entre
individuos para la investigación de la cura de la enfermedad el SIDA.
Destacando que la unión de ideas contribuye a buenos resultados en menos
tiempo.
El trabajo en grupo en las aulas, debe ser
orientado o guiado por los docentes. El mimo debe registrar, monitorear,
corregir si es necesario para contribuir a resultados positivos.
ACTIVITY
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