Collaborative Learning

Within this elective we have been asked to work collaboratively in groups. I have been rather lucky with the groups I have been in as i feel that we worked well together as a team. If problems arose within our group they were resolved very quickly (there were no conflicts of character but problems with software). Compared with other groups in the elective, we were very lucky to have group members who pulled their weight and did not leave the work to everyone else. Within the group we played to everyone's strengths and if members of the group were unable to do things due to personal reasons, others stepped in without complaining to pick up the slack. We all had individual accountability, which Johnston and Johnston believe is the third basic element of cooperative learning

Collaborative learning is very beneficial to children. The strengths of using collaborative learning within the primary classroom are:

• Higher achievement and greater productivity are obtained.
• More caring, supportive and committed relationships are formed.
• Greater psychological health, social competence and self esteem.

Johnston and Johnston (1989)

When using collaborative learning I feel that the skills that go with it need to be taught to the children as they can not be expected to be in place when using it for the first time. These should be taught gradually and should be introduced in manageable chunks.

Collaborative learning should be used appropriately and not used for every lesson. Although it is very beneficial children can become bored with it if it is implemented too often and that can mean the loss of its benefits.

However I feel that the use of collaborative learning is of great benefit within the primary classroom.