Reading
practice (week 1)
05-June-2013
Towards Better Group Work: Seeing
the difference between Cooperation and Collaboration
I have a confession to make. Until
several months ago, the terms cooperation and collaboration were synonymous to
me—I did not think about the differences between these methods and was unaware
of the gap that divides them. “Is there really a big difference?” you might
ask. And, more importantly, “Why should it matter for us practitioners?”
I would argue
that being unaware of these differences impedes teachers from organizing group
work as effectively as possible. True collaboration is simply too valuable not
to take advantage of because it provides students with a significant
opportunity to learn from one another, negotiate meaning, and improve their
social skills.
The purpose of
this article is two-fold: I would like to highlight the difference between
cooperative work and collaborative work in general; I will also suggest
practical activities that serve as stepping stones to promote collaboration in
English as Second Language (ESL) classrooms.
Definitions of key terms
Researchers such
as Dillenbourg et al. (1996) and Roschelle and Teasley (1995) agree that it is
important to make a distinction between cooperative and collaboration. While
cooperative learning can be defined as “working together to accomplish shared
goal” (Smith 1995), collaborative learning is “a method that implies working in
a group of two or more to achieve a common goal, while respecting each individual’s
contribution to the whole “ (McInnerney and Robert 2004, 205). Roschelle and
Teasley (1995) describe cooperative work as a task that is accomplished by
dividing it among participants, where “each person is responsible for a portion
of the problem solving,” and they see collaborative work as “the mutual
engagement of participants in a coordinated effort to solve the problem
together” (70).
The key
difference between these approaches to group work is that cooperation is more
focused on working together to create an end product, while successful
collaboration requires participants to share in the process of knowledge
creation (Dillenbourg et al. 1996; Roschelle and Teasley 1995). In other words,
cooperation can be achieved if all participants do their assigned parts
separately and bring their results to the table; collaboration, in contrast,
implies direct interaction among individuals to produce a product and involves
negotiation, discussions, and accommodating others’ perspectives.
According to
Nelson (2008), cooperation is a “protocol that allows you not to get in each
other’s way” as you work. He uses the example of an assembly line and reaches
the conclusion that “a cooperative enterprise could in some way be done, as
long as you had enough time or other resources, by a single person.”
Strengths of collaboration
Numerous studies
show that collaborative learning, as compared to working independently, results
in deeper information processing and more meaningful psychological connections
among the participants (Johnson, Johnson, and Smith 1998; Smith 1995). The goal
of collaboration is to create new insights during discussions (Henri 1992; Kaye
1992) and to move students closer to an understanding of alternate perspectives
(Cunningham 1992). While working together, students build new understanding by
challenging others’ ideas and their own. When successful, this creates a
product that is different from what any individual could produce alone (Ingram
and Hathorn 2004).
Kaye (1992)
believes that the single most important criterion for collaboration is the
synthesis of information—that is, creating a new product through the
combination of different perspectives, talents, and ideas, which is quite
different from what each of the participants could have created on his or her
own. An indispensible element to collaboration is that all those involved in a
collaborative task must contribute more or less equally (Ingram and Hathorn
2009). Important questions to assess if classroom task is truly collaborative
include:
Were the students negotiating and accommodating one
another’s perspectives?
Was everybody contributing equally?
Have different perspectives been included in the final
product?
Collaboration—a chimera or a realistic goal?
As beneficial as
these strengths seem, collaboration is not always easy to achieve. Some authors
point out that dividing students into groups and asking them to work
collaboratively will not guarantee that they will
really do so (Kreijns, Kirschner, and Jochems 2003; Johnson and Johnson 2004).
This is not surprising, as collaboration places more structural, interpersonal,
and cognitive demands on individuals than more passive cooperative activities
do. Collaboration often does not come naturally to our students, especially in
cultures that encourage individual responsibility and accountability. Think
about it—we grade our students based on their individual effort and results, so
when we ask learners to work in groups, it may contradict the structure they
are used to and become a major challenge, both emotionally and cognitively.
A limited yet important role for teachers
The sobering news
is that teachers cannot possibly have complete control over all the factors
that could potentially influence collaboration; students come to our classes
with their own backgrounds, personal relationships, and personality, all of
which affect the way learners interact. The good news is that teachers do play
an important role in shaping students’ experiences. That is why I feel that we
should include more collaborative tasks in our regular teaching and work
towards increasing students’ awareness of the numerous benefits of
collaboration.
Laying the groundwork for successful collaboration
Since individual
achievement is the top priority in many educational setting, collaboration is
often something that our students are not used to. Therefore, it might take
time for students to accept collaborative tasks and learn how to perform them
successfully. However, obstacles to collaboration can be overcome by being
consistent and cultivating a positive environment.
Being consistent
Being consistent
in the design, application, and assessment of collaborative work ensures that
students have a clear understanding of the objectives and procedures of the
task they will accomplish and greatly increases the potential for success. The
following general suggestions can help establish consistency in collaborative
group work:
1. During a pre-collaboration
period, make sure students are motivated to participate.
2. Lay clear ground rules:
everybody must participate, and all ideas should be accommodated.
3. Be available as a resource
for students, but do not offer any judgments on the work in progress and assure
them that tensions are natural.
4. Do not get discouraged when
a collaborative task results in some emotional responses from students—keep
creating opportunities for learning to work collaboratively.
The following questions are critical
to effective planning of collaborative tasks, which also produces consistency
and increases the chance for success:
What are the specific language
objectives of the task?
How many of the four language skills
will be used?
Will the task require pairs, triads,
small groups, large groups, the whole class, or a combination of these?
Will the task be introduced with
brainstorming, discussion, or some other short activity?
What is a reasonable time period for
the task to be completed?
Will each group make a final oral or
written presentation to another group or to the whole class?
Will
there be a presentation of the final project to parents, the community, or even
a large audience?
Cultivate a positive environment
When my students
are successfully collaborating, I use a lot of positive reinforcement. I often
ask them if they feel that their final product is better than any of them might
have done individually (a loaded question, I admit, but it serves the purpose).
The answer almost invariably is yes, it is indeed better.
Another helpful
strategy is to consciously es they receive while sharing resources and
expertise. The result will be students who are more accepting of different
opinions and increased tolerance in the classroom.
Sample collaborative activities
Following are
five activities that I have used in my classroom to introduce students to
collaborative work. They require different degrees of collaboration, and the
point is to prepare students at the beginning and intermediate levels for more
complex group work and tasks that they will eventually encounter in their ESL
classes. The difficulty levels of these activities can be adjusted up or down,
depending on the language level of the class. The group sizes can also be
adjusted for the size of the class and the particular activity.
Collaborative Activity 1:
Vocabulary brainstorm
This simple activity makes a good
warm-up or review activity. The language objective is to help students learn
new words about general topics such as food, weather, and clothes, or words
that are examples of structures they may be studying, such as phrasal verbs,
concrete nouns, adjectives and adverbs to name a few.
Materials: paper
Time required: 10-15 minutes
Step 1: Student form groups and generate as many words as
possible that relate to a selected
topic.
The main rule is that everyone must participate. To ensure that the
less-advanced students participate in the activity, ask them to keep track of
the words that the group has generated by writing down and numbering the words.
Step 2: Each group chooses a spokesperson to read out that
group’s words to the whole class.
The advantage of
this activity is that it is quick and fun, and exposes students to new
vocabulary. It can be turned into a game if the teacher encourages students to
generate as many words as possible and keeps track of or scores the final
number of words for each group. The teacher can create a record book or make a
poster wall.
Collaborative Activity
2:
Preparing a structured survey
A survey activity
words well in terms of collaboration because a variety of people are involved
in asking and answering questions. The language objective is to practice
relevant grammar constructions and functions that can be included in the
questions and responses of the survey instrument.
Materials: survey questions, paper
Time required: 25-30 minutes
Step 1: The teacher or the students prepare different sets
of survey questions beforehand, which can be purposefully designed to practice
targeted grammatical structure: “Where did you use to live? What do you prefer
to drink with your meals? Where are you going after school?” When constructing
the survey questions, students should avoid questions that can be answered with
a simple “yes” or “no”. It also helps to require students to answer the survey
questions in complete sentences.
Step 2: Students form groups and each group uses a set of
questions to interview member of their group. If possible, and to increase the
variety of responses, each group can ask different survey questions. Every
student in each group must ask and answer a set of questions.
Step 3: Each group assigns a scribe who records all the
answers to the group’s survey questions.
Step 4: Group member choose a representative to present
their group’s survey responses to another group or to the whole class.
Collaborative Activity 3:
Drawing together
This activity, in
which students create drawings using different colors, is fun and appealing to
students. The language objective includes the vocabulary of colors and
adjectives, including comparatives and superlatives. Students works alone at
first and then as a large group (group size is dependent on the size of the
class).
Materials: crayons (or watercolors of colored markers),
paper (small and large)
Time required: 20-25 minutes
Step 1: Each student chooses a different color and works
alone for five minutes to draw a picture of his or her choice.
Step 2: The teacher provides a piece of paper large enough
for all students to draw their pictures. Students draw together on the same
piece of paper for five minutes.
Step 3: Students analyze the final product and take turns
naming the different colors.
Step 4: The teacher asks students to use adjectives to
compare and contrast the single one-color drawings with the large multi-color
picture. This step will entail the use of comparatives and superlatives (e.g.,
bigger picture, most colorful, prettiest drawing).
Collaborative Activity 4:
All the ingredients matter!
In this activity
students role-play by representing the different ingredients needed to cook a
dish or prepare a meal. The language objective is to describe, compare, and
explain using the large vocabulary of food and cooking, including the names of
ingredients, flavors, cookware, and utensils.
Materials: food ingredients and cooking equipment (e.g.,
eggs, flour, salt, cooking oil, frying pan, utensils). Pictures of the items
may be substituted for the actual item.
Time required: 35-40 minutes
Step 1: Each student selects or is assigned an ingredient or
utensil (either the real object or a picture).
Step 2: The teacher asks different students questions about
what their ingredient tastes like, whether it can be take a lot of social
referencing from their teachers, and they will most likely adopt such an
attitude and continue collaborating with the group.
Introduce micro-collaboration by having students work on
smaller projects that are easier to manage. Incorporating this type of smaller
task frequently enough builds up familiarity and contributes to students’
positive experience.
Conclusion: Give it a chance
The reason I felt
it was important to write this article is to share a lesson that I learned
while trying to organize collaborative activities. And the lesson is this: even
if it fails the first time, give it a second chance. I was initially frustrated
trying to set up some collaborative tasks. The activities seemed messy, noisy,
and chaotic; sometimes students ran to me complaining about their group mates.
It was not an ideal, blissful teaching situation. What kept me from giving up
on collaboration is the idea that, like a lot of other skills in life, the
ability to collaborate is a learned skill and can hopefully will be developed
if students are given enough opportunities.
So I continued. I
often divided students into groups, told them that everyone should participate,
and rewarded students lavishly with praise and grades when they truly
collaborated. I also made it clear that dividing the task and completing it
separately was not acceptable. And eventually it worked—after several awkward
attempts, my students started talking and sharing ideas; they now decorate the
walls with great word lists and posters that they create together, and they
take pride in them. What is more, they relax in group work. It is no longer a
competition against one another, but a fun process of working together to build
something new.
Finally, let me
finish with a metaphor of a potluck dinner, where people cook and bring
different dishes to the table. The dinner is more exciting than what each
individual would have eaten individually—but the guests return back to their
homes being able to cook only the same dish they brought to the potluck. Even
though they may have gotten recipes, they still need to learn to make the new
dishes themselves. On the other hand, had they cooked together in the first
place they would have observed and learned a lot more from one another; they
would have taken away some practical, hands-on skills even if cooking together
had meant a messier and a more chaotic process. So give collaboration a chance!
It is worth the effort.
Summary
In this academic, it tells that the
difference between cooperation and collaboration. That the cooperation likes
collaboration and each method can adapted to use in English classroom
efficiency.
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05-Jun-13
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