Collaboration and group work by Susan Bistrican

I’ve been thinking a lot about collaboration and group work lately, especially because we’re co-writing articles for this class and Dr. Froelich’s writing research class. Admittedly, I never thought I’d like co-writing with someone else because (a) it’s seems chaotic to try and synthesize two people’s research into one product and (b) I like to work alone because I can control every aspect of the project without worrying about someone else’s input (though I’ve never considered myself a control freak!). But after writing the story grammar story for LAE 5736 with Melissa, I began to really enjoy and appreciate collaborative learning as a student myself. It was helpful to have someone else to shoot ideas with. A partner or a group is also a source for immediate feedback: when I can’t think of a word or a way to phrase something, Melissa helped me out. It was also helpful to have someone there to work with because it actually eased my tension and relieved my writer’s block. I thought I would be nervous writing in front of someone, but I felt motivated and surprisingly comfortable. I mention all of this because of the subject of chapter 4: collaboration and group work (p. 34-47). I’ve had the same concerns as Lent’s(?) daughter when it comes to group work—I thought I’d have to pick up the slack and come up with all the ideas. Sure, it’s easier at the graduate level to complete group work because people are more likely to contribute a fair share than secondary students (or even undergrads). But I agree with Roskelly that “students learn from peers because they value peers’ opinions and are influenced by them in ways they are not influenced by teachers” (p. 35).

In order to achieve the benefits of group work and avoid the detriments, we as teachers need to carefully scaffold group work by aiding in the selection process for group members and modeling collaboration strategies including how to effectively problem solve. I’ve heard from several peers, either in their internships or teaching positions, that facilitating group work is harder than it may seem. I think some very uninformed people think group work is a way to avoid instruction and save time as a teacher. They couldn’t be more wrong! As teachers, we provide the guidance that is the glue for collaborative learning. Jigsaw groups and other cooperative learning strategies require meticulous organization on the teacher’s behalf. As the text notes, there are multiple ways of organizing groups: ability levels, interest, learning styles, and personality traits (p. 41-42). In order to be able to group students in these ways, the teacher has to know her students well. So group work is not an easy way out for the teacher to read a newspaper at the back of the class; I would argue that it might take more effort to facilitate collaborative learning than it does to lecture.

Collaborative learning also has the benefit of fostering healthy emotional development. One of my undergraduate research interests was determining effective interventions for bullying, school violence, and victimization. I came across social psychologist Elliot Aronson who deviated from his usual subject of adult psychology into adolescent psychology. He wrote a book about fostering emotional development and empathy through the jigsaw classroom titled No One Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion after Columbine. In my research, I found that root-cause interventions like introducing and maintaining group work in the classroom can help students develop empathy for one another—to put themselves in other people’s “shoes.” Kids will by no means like everyone they come into contact with. They might even detest some of their group mates. But the research shows that appropriately implemented collaborative learning strategies in the primary and secondary classrooms tremendously impacts student attitudes toward one another, ultimately arriving at the community-like classroom Baca and Lent describe in the beginning chapter. I hope to utilize group work in my future classroom because of these benefits. I am especially excited about implementing literature circles in my classroom because I’ve never had the chance to! This book group idea is great, especially the technology component. I think it is invaluable for students to collaborate together, have some choice in the selection of their books, and have the chance to use blogs and other websites to express their opinions. This is definitely a good way to implement collaborative work at any level!