Facilitating Collaborative Learning
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If you’re just joining me, I’ve been posting a series of articles on the 3 Crucial Elements of Any Collaborative Learning Task. I’ve done my first deep dive into part 1 of the process: Frontload. Now we are going to jump in with the next element: Facilitate.
Ok, so you’ve frontloaded your students on the HOW and WHAT of the collaborative task and now you are going to facilitate the actual DOING of the collaboration. Now, let me be honest, this is the most difficult step to get right in the collaborative process because we have to UNTRAIN ourselves in a couple different habits that we have been doing for most of our teaching careers. Now, you may not do all of these things, but I am sure you will resonate with at least one of them.
“...we have to UNTRAIN ourselves in a couple different habits that we have been doing for most of our teaching careers.”
Habit #1 to Break:
You don’t TEACH anything during this step, you only FACILITATE the learning that happens as a result of the collaboration within your student teams. This means that you are there to help guide and support them through the processes you’ve created and outlined during the FRONTLOAD portion.
Now it is time for them to learn by DOING and PROBLEM SOLVING. Think of your students as the active members during this step and you are more of a passive member.
Now, that does not mean you sit down and catch up on grading or answering emails at this time (as tempting as that may be). You are constantly walking around and monitoring your students throughout this portion. There are a few reasons for this.
You are grading this assignment, and in order to grade their collaborative skills, you need to observe them constantly throughout this process. It’s also helpful to have a spreadsheet or checklist of sorts on a clipboard as you are walking around to take notes on the different team dynamics. You can use these FREE notes to help you grade as well.
Your students may need your help as they try to solve problems within their team. Especially as you are in the first few months of collaborative activities. Students will struggle with various aspects: dealing with conflict among their teammates, meeting the challenges of the activity itself, and balancing the workload across all team members. You need to be available to help mediate.
HABIT #2 to Break:
Something very important to consider as you encounter a team that is struggling is that it is NOT your role as facilitator to solve their problem FOR them. We want our students to experience PRODUCTIVE STRUGGLE. Remember, they are the active members of the learning process and the only way they will grow in their collaborative skills is through learning HOW to conquer the challenges as a team. If you swoop in and save the day for them, it will rob them of that learning experience and that potential growth. They will become more dependent on YOU rather than on their TEAM.
Here are some things you CAN do when you approach a team that is struggling to make it productive:
Walk over to the team and observe them quietly. Don’t draw attention to yourself, just take notes if needed and listen. Sometimes your mere presence and proximity will help the team get back on track without any further help needed.
If the problem persists, gently insert yourself into the conversation by asking, “What seems to be the problem here?” Choose one student to speak first and make sure others don’t interrupt them. Hear from all members of the team until you have a clear picture of what is going on. Then ask how they have tried to solve their problem already.
If they haven’t done anything yet, ask them what are some things they can do to solve their problem. If they come up with some ideas on their own, stay near their team and allow them to try to work things out on their own. If they look at you with blank stares, ask if they are feeling stuck. If so, offer a few suggestions of potential ways to solve their problem and ask them to come to consensus on which one they would like to try.
Consensus means that all members of their team are in agreement. Make sure the team is allowing one person to talk at a time and they are listening well. Give some reminders of the collaborative skills you are looking for.
If the situation is similar to #2 but they have tried to solve their problem already and it didn’t work, here’s what you can do. Praise them for their efforts and ask some probing questions to help them think of some new solutions. You can ask them why they think their ideas didn’t work or if there are any other things they haven’t tried yet. Most of the time these questions will be enough to activate some self-directed problem solving strategies.
If none of the above works for the team, as a last resort you can give them a specific strategy to try and implement to solve their problem. It is important that you don’t SOLVE their problem for them, but instead give them a specific tool to solve the problem within their team. Again, the learning and growth will happen if they are doing the hard work, not you.
“ It is important that you don’t SOLVE their problem for them...”
Side note: it is helpful to give your students a time frame for when they need to have the project/activity completed. Time management is part of the collaborative skills they are practicing and they can learn to manage time better if you display a large timer on the board or give each group their own timer. If it is a longer project, break up the sections and give them time periods for each section of it to help them pace themselves.
If you take away ONE thing from this article, let it be this. If you have a team or teams who do not finish the activity, who seem to be in conflict almost the entire process, or who even have tears shed, or groans of dismay and frustration loudly expelled, that is OK. The best learning can come from those situations. Don’t use your students’ struggles as an excuse to forego collaboration in your classroom. EMBRACE THE STRUGGLE and your students will too.
What is one new thing you learned about the collaborative process from this article?
Do you feel you could implement this in your classroom? Why or why not?
