Lesson 15: Collaboration

Challenge

Reflect on the following questions.

1. Do you foresee problems or difficulties in integrating values into your curriculum?

2. In what mathematics topics in Grades K to 3 do you think is this strategy most appropriate? Why do you think so?

Harness

This activity will test your skill in spontaneously integrating values in a math class setting. This activity will be part of the learning portfolio which you will compile at the end of this module.

Consider this situation. A student consulted with you and raise the following points.

"Hi, Teacher! Our lesson now on addition is not that hard. But why do I need to study addition? My gadget can actually add for me? Why do I have to do it on my own?"

How will you tap into your student's affective domain for him/her to understand the relevance of your lesson in his/her life?

Topic: Addition of Whole Numbers

Possible Values integration Point

Summary

There is a growing demand for teachers to deliberately teach values and this is possible even in the mathematics classroom. All teachers need do is to be intentional about it and reflect on ways to inject values in their lessons.

O b jective

Design collaborative activities that will encourage involvement, interdependence, and a fair division of labor among students

Intro du ctio n

When transitioning from preschool to primary grades, children develop a really strong bond with one friend. Some child psychologists point out that it easier for some kids to relate to just one co-learner rather than socializing with a big group at the same time. Teachers, however, can provide primary graders with many opportunities for interaction. Within collaborating groups, children learn to try things out, conjecture, explore, justify, evaluate, and convince others of their findings. Collaborative tasks provide enriching opportunities for learners to explore other students' perspectives that may differ from their own. Thus, these can develop a stronger sense of empathy among students.

Group activities, if facilitated carelessly, could waste classroom time. Because of this, it is important for teachers like you to ensure that group activities are carefully designed and successfully implemented. This lesson aims to help you prepare, monitor, and process collaborative tasks in your classroom that will maximize your student's capacity to socialize with each other.

T h in k

V y g o ts k y ’s S o cia l Le a rn in g T h eo ry

Collaborative learning branches out from the Zone of proximal development theory of Vygotsky.

Vygotsky defined the zone of proximal development as follows:

"The zone of proximal development is the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem-solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers."

In the zone of proximal development, the learner is close to developing the new skill, but they need supervision and assistance. For instance, if a student has already mastered basic addition of fractions, then basic subtraction may enter their zone of proximal development, that is, they have the capacity to gain mastery of subtraction of fractions with assistance. The assistance may not be directly provided by the subject teacher. A child seeks to understand the actions or instructions provided by any skillful peer and internalizes the information, using it to guide or regulate their own performance.

It is, therefore, necessary that learners should be given the opportunities to work with their peers in broadening their learning experience, allowing small groups of students to work together to share knowledge, exchange ideas, and to solve problems together. As learners collaborate with their classmates and teachers, they adopt some of the learning heuristics and develop more skills in problem-solving.

D e s ig n in g Group A c tiv itie s

Collaborative activities encourage active participation from learners. Instead of passively accepting information from the teachers, learners discover new insights by cooperatively working with other learners. As mentioned earlier, teachers should be keen in selecting appropriate learning activities for students. Listed below are some tips about preparing, monitoring, and processing collaborative tasks in your classroom that will maximize your student's capacity to socialize and learn from and with each other.

• Identify the instructional objectives.

When deciding whether or not to use group work for a specific task, reflect on the following questions: What does the activity aim to achieve? How will that objective be furthered by asking students to work in groups? Is the activity complex enough that it requires group work? Will the project require true collaboration? Is there any reason why the assignment should not be collaborative? Are the objectives attainable within a given time frame?

• Determine the group size.

How many students will be assigned to each group? The size you choose will depend on the total number of students in your classroom, the size of the venue where the activity will be held, the variety of students needed in a group, and the task assigned. If you want to have a diverse, productive, active,

Decide how you will divide the class.

Will you group them based on proximity? Will you group them according to their own preference? The fastest way to group students is to divide the class based on proximity. You might also want to randomly assign students to groups by counting off and grouping them according to number. Another idea is to let students get a piece of chocolate from a basket of different chocolates and group students according to the flavor they chose. You may also strategically assign them to groups instead of randomly assigning them. Prepare a list with names vis-a-vis his/her prevailing attitude toward the subject. Divide the students accordingly based on this list. Make sure that each group has a good mixture of personalities. Other possible factors that you should consider include gender, race, ethnicity, and behavior.

Give a teambuilding task before assigning the actual task.

Give a preliminary task that will help each student establish a good rapport with his/her group. These primer activities should be designed in such a way that positive relationships will be built and mutual respect between and among members will be established. You may prepare a simple activity like asking each member to answer questions about his/her favorite foods, books, places, or hobbies. Students will be given the opportunity to find connections—things they have in common with one another.

(Note: Feel free to remove this part if the class is already bonded and cohesive.)

Delegate a specific task to each member of the group.

How do you get students to participate in the task? Come up with a task wherein different roles are assigned to group members so that they are all involved in the process. Each member should feel responsible for the success of their groupmates and realize that their individual success depends on the group's success. If a student feels that other people are relying on them, then he/she will be motivated to accomplish his/her part excellently.

Have a contract signed by your participants.

Establish how group members should interact with one another. Make them sign an agreement that explicitly states their expectations of one another.

• Share your reason/s for doing collaborative activities.

The reason for doing collaboration has to be clearly articulated to your students. Students must understand the benefits of collaborative learning. Explicitly connect these activities to larger class themes and learning outcomes whenever possible.

• Give your instructions clearly.

Giving instructions is not something that you take for granted. Giving a clear set of instructions contributes to the good performance of students in an activity. Failing to do so can lead to a huge waste of time. If the students do not understand the given task, then this will result to a lot of interruptions. As a facilitator of the activity, you should tell exactly what your students have to perform and describe what the final output of their group task will look like.

• Go around and keep your ears open.

As students accomplish their group task, go around and answer questions about the task. Make sure to keep your ears open. Listen to their collaborative dialogue.. Pay attention to the interesting points that will surface from the discussion. Talk about these interesting points during the subsequent closing/ processing of activity. Try not to interfere too much with the group's way of proceeding; give your participants the time to think about their own problems before getting involved. Consider leaving the venue for a few minutes. Your absence can increase students' willingness to share uncertainties and disagreements. If you find a group that is experiencing some sort of uncertainty or disagreement, refrain from giving the answers or resolving the disagreement. Allow your participants to feel some stretch/to experience struggle—within reason—to accomplish the task.

• Provide closure to the group activities.

Conclude the activity by having a session wherein students give a report. You can ask each group to give an oral report or submit a written report. The reporting should revolve around their insights. You may also ask them to reflect on how they performed in the group. This will also give you an idea of their

perceptions about group work. Relate the points raised to your current lesson and the objectives of the activity.

Experience

The following are sample collaborative activities that you might want your iearners to engage in.

Activity: Jigsaw

As in Jigsaw puzzles, each student holds a vital piece of the puzzle. They need to assemble in order to complete the whole puzzle. In this collaborative activity, each member of the group will be given a task to perform. The goal of the group is to gather every member's input to come up with a final output.

Topic: Graphical Presentation of Data

Objective: To work cooperatively with other students to ensure the attainment of your group goals

Time frame: 55 minutes

Task: Divide the class into groups. Ask each group to think of a question they would like to survey their fellow classmates on. For instance, they might want to ask their classmates about their favorite pizza flavor. Allot enough time for students to walk around the room buzzing with each other to gather data. Instruct them to write down the responses of their classmates.

Once they are done collecting data, ask them to represent their results graphically. Remind them to label their graphs. Take a photo of each student's graph, which you can later print out to create a class collage to display.

Assess

Answer the following questions to verbalize your understanding of collaboration as a teaching strategy.

1. What are the possible drawbacks to collaborative activities? What can you do to address these issues?