Group items tagged

When you say consider the personalities of group members, do you mean just being "aware" of what they are or using them to match or team people up?

Well, I think I did not explain myself very clear in my final personal theory paper because I would have busted the 800 words limit "BIG TIME" if I were to do that :) For considering the personalities of grroup members which I have explained in my 1st Personal Theory paper, I meant the considerations that the instructor will have to make while assigning the members to the group (for instance, being a less dominant person, I am considered the "easy-going" type of person. However, I have had experiences in a group setting where there are 2 very dominant individuals who want to be the one to "call the shots". In the end, the learning process and outcome for the group as a whole suffered due to the conflicts that resulted from these 2 individuals with very strong personalities.)

Great tie-in to your personal experiences.

I think in the Army or any uniformed service for that matter, we the individuals that make up the fighting units often have to sacrifice our individualities for the collective purpose.

What is your assumption regarding outcomes? Is the first sentence of this paragraph your assumption.

Yes, that was one of my prior assumptions regarding outcomes of CL.

Very good! You listed your assumptions regarding the conditions of collaborative learning at the beginning of your paragraph. This allows for me to compare your assumptions to your actual experience with debate activities.

The word count for you paper was 766, I would like to see you elaborate more on collaborative learning outcomes and compare your assumptions of collaborative learning to that of the learning outcomes of your debate. I noticed that you listed the requirements of collaborative activities and the effects of collaborative learning but what about your assumptions?

The requirements and effects listed were my assumptions about CL. In the first paper, I elaborate on each of them more. They were quite specific, and right on point. However, in order to meet the word limit, I really had to trim the old stuff to make way for the new. He really should have increased the word limit, considering the fact that we were adding on to and justifying our previous assumptions. I will try to add as much as I can within the limit. Thanks.

You have done an excellent job of relating your assumptions to your past experiences. Your paper is almost 450 words over the limit though! The word count requirement hindered me from elaborating on my personal thoery. In contrast, I see that you chose to sacrifice meeting the requirement in turn for a thorough and insightful paper. Nevertheless, how would modify this paper to meet the 800 word limit? (Personally, I would have liked a higher maximum or maybe even no limit at all.)

I was constantly checking my word count while I was typing my theory paper, but the closer I got to 800 I realized that I wasn't even close to being finished. If I had to modify my paper to meet the 800 word limit I guess would simplify my prior experiences with collaborative learning and not restate my assumptions as much as I did

I like that you started by presenting lessons learned through course material, and followed it with a supportive experience. This will help you and other readers see the application of these concepts.

How did these conditions develop higher-order thinking skills in this experience? What were they?

Participating in small group activities promotes dialogue that entails questions and answers. Questions promotes critical thinking i.e. higher order thinking skills. Some question and answer sessions that take place in small group activities may not occur in face to face learning, which is why it is may be more beneficial to learn collaboratively.

besides the use of small groups, do you think you should also make some mention of the over-arching goals of collaborative learning presented in the class text (i.e. raising the achievement of all students; building positive relationships among students; and providing students the necessary experiences for healthy social, psychological, and cognitive development, etc)?

I agree. There should be some mention of how collaborative learning impacts the training experience for all learners.

I think that is very true. In the Army, we usually assign trainees to groups no larger than 5 or 6 since that is the size which the group will be able to perform at a optimal level.

I also think that in that size group, each person is able to participate actively in the learning experience.

I think that is very true. It is important to make the learning objectives very clear to the learners as well as to ensure that they are willing participants in order for the collaboration to be effective and successful.

I completely understand what you are saying and per the article, I can see how it would support your assumption. I would be curious to know whether any bias exists, such as in the study population. The study revealed that the best outcomes came from learners working together and for those who followed a structured study format, but was the entire testing population similar in ability to begin with?

Good point there---I wondered something along the same lines, I guess the operative phrase here is "contribute to", rather than "ensure" or "guarantee".... The article did also state that other studies revealed dissimilar results.... mwirt

Interesting point! I can definitely see learning styles not being too much of a hinderance, as each learner can work in areas they are best in. I can see personality as being much more of an issue, in regards to social aspects and working together. The one I'm not quite sure on is gender...can you please clarify how gender hinders CL?

I apologize...I actually see your study noted above in the Collaborative tasks/methods section that addressed the effects of gender. Thanks!

Ok-- It was also interesting to note the by-now-stereotypical reaction of females in mixed gender groups to be reluctant to perpetuate certain types of responses/conflict for fear of being perceived as "aggressive" or "dominating".... michele w.

I'm not quite sure how the evidence provided here supports the actual assumption about CL. The evidence appears to merely explain objectives, rather than reflect their correlation to effective CL.

The integration of course objectives/goals/outcomes INTO the writing of the learning objectives to reflect expected performances requires that the instructor nearly take his or her course themselves; I tried to say that in my third column there, could use rewording, any suggestions? mwirt

This is a good point, Heidi. I agree with you. However, could there be any other resources that could supportthis assumption?

This is a good point, Heidi. I agree with you. However, could there be any other resources that could support this assumption?

Hi Sya, That's a good question. I don' t think I have read anything that states this point straight out. However, most all of the readings that we had in this course talked about how important group projects are for teaching students to work together. This makes me think that it holds a high place in the reasons for assigning collaborative work. I guess it is my common sense that says gaining knowledge of a subject area is also very important in group projects. Thinking back to teaching spanish, while part of the reason I assigned group work was to help students communicate and work together, the main objectives of the course focused on learning Spanish. In order for me to be a good steward of the students' time in Spanish class I needed to provide activities that helped them learn Spanish! I guess that is why I think the weight of these two areas may be equal - it is very important that students learn to work together and that they learn the subject matter =)

I think it is good if instructors are not able to write instructions that are not "too clear" for students, however, the instructors need a lots of practice in doing so. It may take them a couple or more of experiences in writing and organizing collaborative activities before they can finally write instructions that are good enough.

Hi Sya, I think you are definitely right on target here. As a teacher, I usually followed the pattern of accidentally giving very vague instructions, then going overboard the next year and making too many limitations and parameters on the activity and then finally the 3rd year on an activity I would start to find a nice middle ground. I think that the methods we are learning in our programs here at FSU would help to alleviate this issue and possibly help us to get it closer to right on the first try! Following a pattern that includes some evaluation and learner analysis early on should be very helpful in this process!

I believe that this is a good way to approach students in using diagrams or mind maps. I am a visual person and totally agree that in one way or another we should incorporate the use of diagrams / mind maps in our classes. You must be a great teacher, Heidi!

Hey Sya, Thank you - that is very nice to hear =) I think it's important to incorporate multiple ways of explaining and organizing information - each person seems to have such different strengths. I appreciate the ideas and suggestions provided by our text, instructor, and other students in this class. We have gained a wealth of resources in varying activities for group projects.

I didn't get any messages for this highlighted text. I'm assuming that you made corrections to my sentences. Thanks Heidi :)

(Heidi) I like that you listed conditions that are dependent on the instructor, students, and available technology. I think this is important because in order for collaborative learning to be successful in an online environment I think you probably need a good combination of all 3 - the structure from the instructor, buy-in from the students, and technology that can accommodate group interaction sufficiently!

Thanks Heidi. I'm glad you agree with my opinions. But I strongly believe that the student have to have self-initiative and motivation to drive them to do their best in online learning.

(Heidi) I think that taking time to reflect and synthesize material is important any time a person is learning something new. I agree that the peer assessment activity also allowed each of us to think through our own experiences and involvement in the project and was a great time to reflect. Do you think it is the Peer Assessment or Reflection that is a main condition to collaborative learning?

Come to think of it, peer assessment is just a tool that helps students to rate their peers. The results of these assessment helps to boost their confidence and motivate them to do better. Although it may not be an important factor, it may help to improve the collaboration activities.

(Robert Barton) A very informative paper Jesse. I'm unfamiliar with the acronym CSCW. In business, I don't believe there is as much emphasis placed on CL when compared to education. Employees are hired for a specific purpose and if working in a team environment, they may get together once a week, sometime once every two weeks. I work as a ID on a team of 12 (SME's and web developers) developing CBT. We may meet once every 2-3 weeks, as per the project manager. Most times, in business, the team knows what is required to accomplish a goal and they act accordingly. In education, the goals may seem unclear at first. They are ultimately satisfied one assignment at a time.

Bob, I didn't realize you were in ISD? I'm sure you told me at one point. I got the CSCL and CSCW terms from an article we read or a web page I came across. Sorry I can't give you the link. I don't think there is a world of difference between the two. If you think of it, both CSCL and CSCW are collaboration... one just is colaboration on WORK tasks (cscW) and the other is collaboration on leanring tasks (cscL).

(Robert Barton) Your comment regarding "conditions" has me curious. I understand your rationale for omitting it, but can you expound a little more on this topic, or possibly provide a link for further reading?

Bob. Think first of the "conditions" that might need to be in place for f2f collaboration to occure. (Social skills, desk arrangements, willing students). When cooperative learning goes online and becomes CSCL, it seems to me that you only ADD conditions that need to be in place for healthy collaboration to be able to occur. You still need willing participants. You still need social skills to be a certain level in the collaborators. You still need activities arranged to envoke collaboration. On top of this, you need tech support, you need time issues to be ironed out, you need software that really supports rather than detracts from collaboration. Going from f2f collaborative learing, to CSCL... only adds more layers. It's not just moving from one type to another such that both experiences are pretty much just as hard or just as easy to pull off.

(Robert Barton) I believe online simultaneous interaction is possible when participating in a synchronous chat. We've conducted a few and have interacted quite well :). Without researching PIES, has Kagan adapted his theory to include distance education?

Bob, I didn't mean to say that "Simultanious Interaction" was not possible online. You are right that it is possible and we have done some of that ourselves already. What I was getting at was that with my old PIES view of collaborative learning, I didn't have a category of asynchronous collaboration online. Kagan's theory was developed in f2f classes. Think of your typical public school room. In that type of environment, you want as many students simultaniously acting as possible. When you go online, via CSCL, and use an asynchronous medium.. then the word simultanious goes out the window. SO... that means that my theory needed to be a bit more flexible. I needed to be able to take the S out of PIES... or be able to stretch the theory to encapsulate asynchronous environments as well.