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Collaborative work:

Effective Techniques to Structure Students’ Positive Interdependence

By:Sidi Mohamed OUBIT

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Abstract:

The confession I want to make is that I used to believe that by merely

engaging students to work in small groups, the results would be a sort of

collaborative work. However, given the fact that it is a type of instruction

whereby students work together in small groups to achieve a common goal

while respecting each individual’s contribution to the group, collaborative

work can’t be achieved unless group work activities are well –structured. In

this article, I will try to shed some light on some of the techniques that help

in structuring students’ positive interdependence.

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Plan:1- Introduction.

2- Theoretical part:

2.1- key term definition.

2.2- Merits of collaboration.

3- Effective techniques to structure students’ positive interdependence.

3.1- Goal.

3.2- Incentives.

3.3- Resources.

3.4- Roles.

3.5- Sequences.

3.6- Outside- force.

3.7- Environment.

3.8- Identity.

4- Pedagogical implications and challenges.

5- Conclusions.

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1- Introduction:

Does any kind of group work means, by implication, collaborative

work? Once students are engaged in group work, does this

automatically enhance their learning? Most teachers’ desire to

involve students in group work activities emanate from their

desire to foster their learning and to provide students with unique

opportunities to be autonomous learners.

Yet, observing my colleagues classes shows that the answer is not

always ‘yes’. Group work can lead to collaboration if it is

effectively structured. On the other hand, being unaware of the

paramount importance of structuring groups in an effective way

may render both teachers and students efforts a waste of time and

energy. However; if group work is correctly organized, students

will be provided with such opportunities as:

- Learning from each other,

- Negotiating meaning,

- Improving social skills,

- Taking charge of one’s own learning,

- Being responsible for all the decisions concerned with

learning,

- Being able to take charge of one’s own learning,

- Maximizing their own and each other’s learning.

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2- Theoretical part:

2.1- key term definition:

Let’s consider the following definition:

a- Collaborative work is “a method that implies working in a

group of two or more to achieve a common goal, while

respecting each individual’s contribution to the whole”. (Mc

Innery and Robert 2004, 205).

b- Roschelle and Teasley (1995) consider collaborative work as

“the mutual engagement of participants in a coordinated effort

to solve the problem together”, (p 70).

c- Dillenbourg et al (1996) see that collaboration is an approach

that requires participants to share in the process of knowledge

creation.

d- The Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics defines

collaborative learning as “a general term for an approach to

teaching and learning which makes use of learners working

together in small groups”, (p86).

From the foregoing definitions, one may notice that

collaborative work focuses on students’ interaction, negotiation

and discussions in order to produce a product. It approaches

group work in a way that makes students work together to

accomplish shared goals. It enables individuals seek outcomes

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that are beneficial not only to themselves but also to all group

members.

2.2- Merits of collaboration:

Various are the merits of collaborative work especially in the

EFL context. Among these merits, one can list the following:

- Students learn that their success depends upon

working together interdependently,

- Students are individually accountable for while

achieving group goals,

- Students support and assist one another’s success

through face-to-face interactions,

- Students develop social skills by collaborating and

working together effectively,

- Students as a group have the opportunity to reflect

on the effectiveness of collaborating.

3- Effective techniques to structure students’ positive interdependence:

Among the techniques that can help a lot make any group a kind

of collaborative work, we can list the following:

a- Goal positive interdependence,

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b- The use of incentives,

c- Resource positive interdependence,

d- Role positive interdependence,

e- Sequences positive interdependence;

f- Outside force,

g- Environmental positive interdependence,

h- Identity positive interdependence.

3.1- Goal positive interdependence: Setting a goal for students

to achieve will definitely foster their motivation, and provide

them with a clear idea about what they are expected to do.

Students can be asked to achieve such goals as:

- creating a product,

-completing an assignment,

- analyzing information,

- scoring above a minimum criterion,

- improving a previous score,

- using appropriate social skills.

3.2- The use of incentives: As recognition of their efforts,

rewards can play an important role in this direction. Generally

speaking, rewards should be tangible. It is also advisable that

they should have a direct relationship to the learning or be a

natural outcome of it. For instance, if students collaborate to

come with a form of writing as a product, an appropriate

reward to their job is to publish it in the school newspaper.

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3.3- Resource positive interdependence: while collaborating, the

use of resources is a vital requirement. Yet, the use of limited,

appropriate and useful resources enhances efficiency in

collaborative work. For instance, if students are asked to use

the internet in their work, an effective technique to use this

resource would be providing students with a specific link(s) to

consult rather than letting them use the internet without any

directions. This may result in wasting students’ time and

energy in vain.

3.4- Role positive interdependence: much has been said about

whether it is the role of the teacher to assign role to students or

it the students who should select the role that they feel

comfortable doing. However, roles need to be complementary,

interconnected, modeled and explained. In addition, each

student should experience a variety of roles which would

provide them with the opportunity to strengthen weaker skills,

reinforce stronger skills and learn new skills. A list of the roles

that students may be asked to do:

- Checker,

- Timekeeper,

- Questioner,

- Summarizer,

- Encourager,

- Material manager,

- Reader, etc.

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3.5- Sequence positive interdependence: This usually happens

when students are asked to work as teams in a hypothetical

situation to succeed or to survive. This helps students a lot

fragment and prioritize the chunks of their work.

3.6- Outside force positive interdependence: To create a

positive competitive atmosphere among students, it is

important to make students fight against an outside force

positively in order to bring students together. Students may be

asked to consider the following examples of outside force:

- Other groups,

-The same group’s previous score,

- Time.

3.7- Environmental positive interdependence: Preparing an

inviting physical environment that would facilitate the work of

students in groups. It exists when the physical environment

facilitates the group members being bound together. This

environment can be structured if teachers allow for:

- providing each group with a meeting area,

- putting tables, desks or chairs together as a meeting spot,

- requiring all group members to be within an area.

3.8- Identity positive interdependence: It basically exists when

group members establish a shared identity which facilitates a

joint pride. An example in this direction is when students

provide names to their groups.

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4- Pedagogical implications:

Several are the pedagogical implications that the foregoing

techniques suggest not only for teachers but also for teacher

trainers.

a- Pedagogical implications for teachers: among these are the

following;

- Collaborative work can take place inside or outside

classrooms as formal settings.

- Students’ engagement in group work may not be

fruitful unless positive interdependence among

students is well structured.

- Collaborative work should not be for the sake of

collaboration but should target an end product.

- Appropriate use of incentives is required from the

part of the teacher. On the other hand, overuse of

incentives may be harmful.

- The role of the teacher is mainly centered upon

guiding students to use the resources they need

effectively.

- Teachers are asked to give the chance to students to

change their roles from time to time to help students

improve their skills or develop new ones.

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- Teachers should take into account that not all

students are used to working in groups to accomplish

a task, especially if they are accustomed to a more

teacher-centered form of instruction,

- Teachers should make students aware of the purpose

of and benefits of collaborating,

- Teachers should establish ground rules for all

collaborative learning activities. These rules can be

summed up in three steps:

a- Always ask for help when something is confusing,

b- Always offer help to those who ask for it,

c- Everyone’s ideas should be heard.

- Teachers should take into account that collaborative

activities require different degrees of collaboration,

- Teachers should take into account that the difficulty

levels of collaborative activities can be adjusted up or

down, depending on the language level of the class.

Various are the collaborative activities that can be

successfully used in the classroom to introduce students

to collaborative work. Here are sample collaborative

activities:

- Vocabulary brainstorm,

- Preparing a structured survey,

- All the ingredients matter! Here students are asked to

role-play by representing the different ingredients

needed to cook a dish,

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- The secrets of the Internet. Here the main language

objectives are technical vocabulary and language

functions associated with the internet and social

networking. Students are asked to discuss the

important components of the internet such as

Wikipedia, etc.

b- Pedagogical Implications for teacher trainers:

- Teacher trainers ought to avoid lecturing in their

training sessions as much as possible.

- Teacher trainers are asked to create a collaborative

atmosphere among teachers.

- Creative teachers should be given the chance to give

presentations about issues related to teaching English

as a foreign language to their colleagues.

- Teacher trainers should take into account that if well

structured positive interdependence yields positive

results among students, it also does so among

teachers.

Conclusions:

All in all, among the prominent institutions of our society, the schools

are least characterized by collaborative activities. However, given the

paramount importance of collaboration which is, like lots of other

skills in life; a learned skill, teachers should give it a chance. It is only

when effectively structured that group work can be seen as

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collaborative work and can therefore be like the potluck dinner

where everyone enjoys different dishes while at the same time learn

how to cook them.

References:

Bruffee, K. A. 1999. Collaborative learning: Higher education, interdependence, and the authority of knowledge. 2nd ed. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Cunningham, D . J . 1992 . Beyond educational psychology: Steps towards an educational semiotic. Educational Psychology Review 4 (2): 165 – 94.

Henri, F. 1992. Computer conferencing and content analysis. In Collaborative learning through computer conferencing, ed. A. R. Kaye, 117- 36. Berlin: Spring – Verlag.

Johnson, D . W ., and R. T. Johnson. 2004. Cooperation and the use of technology. In Handbook of research on educational communications and technology, 2nd ed., ed. D . H . Jonassen, 785-811 . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.