Collaborative, Cooperative, po-tay-to, po-tah-to. Do these words mean basically the same thing, just said in a different way? These terms are pretty much identical, right? I used to think that was the case, but through my research on this subject, I’ve learned that the philosophies are different at their core and it is important to know the differences. Once I fully grasped the distinctions between these two seemingly interchangeable words, it completely revolutionized how I ran my classroom. Let me show you why these terms are more like a potato, tomato situation.