How Collaboration can Lead to Success: Model and Practice

Collaboration seems easy for some people. They are outgoing, well-spoken, energetic, and infectious getting those around them to listen and respond with ease. But for others, shyness, lack of vocabulary, even frustration or reluctance can lead to a lack of cooperation. How can we get our reluctant and motivated students to come together and truly collaborate. It all begins with creating a classroom where every voice matters, where students can chose to speak or remain quiet, but the freedom and energy draws the quiet students in, they listen and learn just may not speak up. We as teachers need to model that talking and sharing is a safe endeavor where everything shared is important and appreciated.

Teaching teamwork may seem easy. Just throw a group of children in a group and they will figure their roles out and cooperate to reach a common goal. As we all know from experience, this rarely happens. As adults when we are placed in teams we are given roles, goals, expectations. We may not agree with or even like those we are teamed with but we figure out a way to make it happen. We need to tell students groups are not always a choice but focusing and collaborating and treating others with respect is a choice. We as teachers need to model how to do this. So how do we do this?

I tell stories of the various teams or groups I have worked with over the years. The successes and the the failures. I explain why some groups work better then others. It all comes down to respect and listening skills. Everyone has a voice and has something important and valuable to share with the group. You must be willing to listen to every idea. Also you must stick with your responsibility, your role and let others complete their own tasks. When we allow others to complete their goals then the group will work better together.

Some students will not complete their role. They are reluctant learners and they will leave their job unfinished. It is a teams responsibility to help one another but if a member just does not keep up with the group agenda then, they need to complete their own part of the project. They need to talk with the reluctant learner and see if they can get them to re-enter the group but it is not their responsibility to get that students part of the project completed. When the pressure of that is released, students are more likely to cooperate and accomplish their goals. Model collaborate but do not hopld students responsible for another students work.

My students work collaborative all the time. We have had teams that are extremely successful but others were not. But I have never given a student a grade they did not achieve whether an A or an F. Once a student does fail a PBL or collaborative project they learn from this experience and do step up in further projects. Lots of practice is how my students have become comfortable and responsive when collaborative assignments are given. They like them actually, they choose their own groups most often, and are respectful of others opinions.