Group items tagged

mutually-enhancing learning process.

In traditional classrooms the teacher is seen as the information giver; knowledge flows only one way from teacher to student. In contrast, the methods used in a collaborative classroom emphasize shared knowledge and decision making.

Teachers may have a great deal of difficulty learning how to share control of instruction with students.

helping students make their own decisions will conflict with some teachers' learned experiences as well as their feelings about being in charge.

For some teachers this is a most difficult challenge

Similarly, students who are used to relying on teachers to give them so much structure, direction and information will have to learn to start asking themselves

"What can I do before I ask an adult?"

Some psychologists point out that fostering self-determination and personal efficacy can conflict with our goals for collaborative work (Sigel) unless we find ways to mold both goals into our instructional programs

self-direction can refer not only to the individual but to a group, a class of students, that decides upon goals, designs strategies and collaboratively evaluates progress on a group basis. As Vygotsky (1978) notes,

learning to think occurs within a social context; group speech gradually becomes internalized as personal self-talk about confronting life's difficult, complex situations.

Finally, personal efficacy means taking control of one's destiny

school restructuring and change

Some critics (Apple, 1979) suggest that schools help students reproduce knowledge of a dominant social, economic class, and not engage in producing for their own knowledge.

Further, many parents are concerned that a reorientation toward student self-direction and personal efficacy will diminish the influence of home and school and inadequately prepare students for the work force.