Collaborative Learning: Use and Benefits in the Classroom
The teaching and learning process in the classroom is changing and is dependent on the students’ needs. During the last decades, thanks to technology, innovation, and global communication, the world has been changing rapidly. As part of this change, the field of education has not been an exception.
Children from an early age have access to information through different means, and it is here where the teacher must be prepared for the type of students who reach the classrooms. There are various teaching models focused on different types of learning. However, the educational process is increasingly inclined to make students the protagonist of their teaching-learning process and the teacher their facilitator.
Among the types of learning that are being used daily in the classroom, we can find collaborative learning. We define learning as the lasting acquisition of knowledge, behaviors, skills, or abilities through practice, study, or experience. However, we must remember that learning is a natural and continuous process we carry out daily throughout our lives.
Once this is clarified, it is essential to point out that collaborative learning arrived in the classroom to stay and be part of the teaching-learning process. But what is collaborative learning, and what advantages it has in school?
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
Collaborative learning refers to obtaining knowledge through collaboration with colleagues when carrying out a task or solving a problem. It consists of the students working in small groups, so they are the author of their own learning and aims to help their classmates learn.
Through the collaborative learning process, the teacher becomes a learning facilitator. The goal of the teacher is to give students the necessary tools to promote meaningful learning.
This type of educational model is suitable for primary and secondary education levels. Unlike cooperative learning, where the teacher is the guide and has the leadership and responsibility to divide tasks, collaborative learning shares responsibilities, and the leadership equally between the teacher and the students.
Some activities that can be used in the classroom to promote collaborative learning are:
- Group work
- Puzzles
- Debates
- Group research
- Theater works
- Musical presentations
BENEFITS OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
- Promotes interest in the classroom.
- Improves the teaching-learning process.
- Develop intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences.
- Encourages communication and respect.
- Promotes the use of information and communication technology.
- Boosts the construction and development of knowledge.
- Promotes critical thinking and the development of ideas.
We recommend: What is Learning? and Which are the 15 Learning Types?
You may be interested: Meaningful Learning and its Implications in the Classroom
References
Aprendizaje colaborativo y cooperativo – Fundación CIAPE. (2019). Retrieved 20 November 2019, from https://ciape.org/aprendizaje-colaborativo-y-cooperativo/
Rodríguez-Sánchez, C. (2015). Ambientes de aprendizaje colaborativo en comunidades artístico-pedagógicas (Doctorate). Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Tecnológico de Monterrey. (2010). Retrieved 20 November 2019, from http://sitios.itesm.mx/va/dide2/tecnicas_didacticas/ac/qes.htm
