Collaborative Learning

Video Transcription

In this tutorial, we'll take an in-depth look at collaborative learning. We'll begin with an overview of collaborative learning, and then we'll learn about some of the impacts of collaborative learning experiences. Finally, we'll explore what collaborative learning might look like in a professional learning community. Let's get started.

First, what is collaborative learning? Collaborative learning can be defined as teachers working together with other teachers or other professionals. In the world of education, you'll often find that collaborative learning occurs in peer-to-peer learning opportunities and in PLCs, or Professional Learning Communities.

Research tells us that deeper learning is fostered by educational experiences that are contextual, social, active, engaging, and student-owned, so let's explore some of the benefits or potential impacts of these collaborative learning activities. Collaborative learning can help students to develop higher-order thinking skills, improve their oral communication skills, and improve their self-management.

Collaborative learning can help to develop leadership skills in students and teachers alike. It can place an emphasis on the importance of teacher-to-teacher interactions and on the concept of teacher leadership. It can increase teacher empowerment and teacher self-efficacy, and it can result in an increased understanding of other perspectives.

So we know that collaborative learning is not only an important tool that we can use when we are designing instruction for our students. It also can be a vital part of our professional development. So let's take a look at several different examples of collaborative learning within the context of our own professional learning and see how those experiences might then render these benefits of collaborative learning.

Let's first consider the implementation of PLCs, professional learning communities, as the organizational structure for professional development. PLCs definitely help teachers to improve their self-management skills, as each teacher in a PLC is responsible for gathering his or her own data, reporting to the PLC on that data, and also just for balancing their time and their resources and their energies among the various efforts of the PLC along with all of the other roles that a teacher plays.

A PLC also helps teachers to develop their leadership skills, not only within the context of the individual PLC, where each teacher will at times take a turn being the facilitator of that PLC, but also when it comes to reporting to supervisors or the whole staff or any other invested parties on the progress that the PLC is making. Teachers really do need to learn to embrace those leadership roles as they are making progress with their PLC.

Next, let's consider a group of teachers who have been assembled into a study group that includes teachers of varying disciplines. Often, PLCs tend to be grouped by grade level or by a content area, so let's consider a situation where teachers are working with teachers from other grade levels or other disciplines.

A big potential benefit here would be increasing the understanding of other perspectives. Sometimes it's easy to get into the mindset of our own classroom and our own curricular area, and so it can be very helpful to see things from other perspectives. This mixed content area or mixed grade-level study group might also help to underscore the importance of teacher-to-teacher interaction and teacher leadership.

And finally, as a result of these activities, we might also see an improvement in our oral communication skills. Again, sometimes we just tend to communicate in the vocabulary and in the context of our grade level or our subject area. And remembering that we need to maybe speak of things in different terms when we're communicating with people who are not familiar with our content area-- that can be really valuable in helping us gain some perspective on how we might want to best communicate with our students as well.

Finally, let's consider one more professional learning context. Let's say a group of teachers are working together on a community action or community outreach project. This type of activity might help to develop higher-level thinking skills as teachers are perhaps working together to put together a logical argument that would convince the community to support this particular effort. This activity might also increase teacher empowerment and self-efficacy as we see the impact of our efforts in the community, not just in the school or within our classroom walls.

So clearly, collaborative learning can occur in any number of different situations and contexts. It's not just going to be in those peer-to-peer situations or even in the larger groups like our PLCs. Collaborative learning can occur anytime that teachers are working together in pairs, in small groups, in larger groups to discuss a concept or to find a solution to a problem.

So one context in which you'll find collaborative learning taking place is within the context of a PLC, a professional learning community. According to Rick DuFour, "A PLC is an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve."

In the implementation of PLCs, we understand that continuous job-embedded learning for educators is really the key to creating that improved learning for our students. This means that all members of a PLC really do need to work and to learn together, and the result of this is that PLCs is really do just create the perfect environment for collaborative learning to occur.

In this tutorial, after a brief overview of collaborative learning, we learned about the impact of collaborative learning experiences, and then we looked more specifically at how collaborative learning is supported in a PLC. So here's a chance for you to stop and reflect. If you currently do participate in a professional learning community, can you identify some of the benefits of collaborative learning that have been clear to you as a member of that PLC?

To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the Additional Resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material. Thanks for watching. Have a great day.