II. Step in: Collaborative Learning

Building interpersonal capital and shared knowledge using learning tasks that meaningfully engage all participants in the process.

Questions to consider

1. How will participants have opportunities to solve problems collectively?

2. In what ways are collaborative tasks complex, allowing for differentiated roles and strengths, recognizing that participant brings unique knowledge to the PD?

3. How will group work be structured to ensure each participant plays a role in the meaning-making process?

4. How will the debrief and analysis of learning build off the group work, or occur in a collaborative way?

transfer tip

Give participants blank copies of the frameworks and protocols you use so they can try out the same strategies in their own applied contexts.

group work through productive struggle

“You need to immerse people in the experience by giving them a rich task. If you give them a rich task, then by the nature of task design, you’re putting them in a sense of productive struggle that will provide rich discourse.”

– Professional Development Specialist

you might... use problem based learning

Using Problem Based Learning (PBL) in the classroom means engaging learners in an extended inquiry of an authentic and complex question, problem, or challenge.

Here are features of great PBL projects: 1) a challenging problem or question, 2) sustained inquiry and multiple drafting, 3) authenticity and real-world connections, 4) student voice and choice, 5) critique and revision, such as peer review, 6) public sharing of work, and 7) reflection.

You don't have to do it all— even adding bits and pieces of PBL to your PD will facilitate deeper understanding!

See PBL In Action At High Tech High

you might... delegate authority

“When a teacher gives students a group task and allows them to struggle on their own and make mistakes, she has delegated authority. This is the first key feature of group work. Delegating authority in an instructional task is making students responsible for specific parts of their work; students are free to accomplish their task in the way they decide is best, but are still accountable to the teacher for the final product. Delegating authority does not mean the learning process is uncontrolled; the teacher maintains control through the evaluation of the final group product and the process by which the students arrived at the final product.”

- Cohen & Lotan, (2014) p.3

you might... suggest group work roles

Adapted from Cohen, Elizabeth & Lotan, Rachel. Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom. (2014)

Roles within group work helps establish structure:

Facilitator - Clearly defined, yet limited leadership role that brings efficiency to the group without sacrificing the active learning that takes place.
Reporter - Organizes the project by requiring the whole group to discuss what they would report to the class.
Moderator - Eases interpersonal conflicts that arise, attentive to the feelings of individual members, and encourages members to compromise and discipline themselves to help maintain the group.
Materials Manager - Only one person per group is moving through the learning environment seeking resources.
Clean-up Person - Ensures that the learning environment is set for next learning segment.

You might... establish norms as a tool

The act of establishing and referencing collaborative norms that shape how participants will cooperate during group instruction can be a great collaborative learning task.

Leading participants through this process can enable active learning, shared accountability, and improved achievement outcomes for all.

“Learning is a cumulative experience derived and informed by an individual's and a group's cultural and historical experiences.”

– Linda Lampert et al., The Constructivist Leader. (1995) p. 21.

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