This method increases student skills such as critical thinking, communicating, reading and writing. 

The students are positive about the experience because for example they learn some key points from others

It would be fantastic to work as the teacher does in the video.

Teaching a number of students with different needs, behaviour and attention spans can be challenging, but when a positive learning culture is created, the students will learn better. Using the collaborative learning method can also help to reduce or prevent behaviour problems as it gives students less of an incentive to disrupt class, and it can also help to develop social skills naturally.

As regards the assessment, I think it is difficult to assess group efforts and assign grades to group.

To guarantee the quality of collaboration, it is a good thing, in my opinion, to allow students to form their own groups so it will likely result uneven groupings. It is necessary to assign roles to members of each group and change the roles periodically.

I think it could be normal for some students to feel frustrated if other students did not contribute to the team, because  they want to obtain good marks, so it is important to evaluate students on both their contribution to group processes as well as the final product, it is also important to use rubrics and the teacher has to consider asking students for feedback and including some of their ideas to the rubric and it is important to incorporate peer and self-assessment at various grades of the project so the teacher can check in on the assignment progress as well as the group dynamics.

Vocabulary bingo is an activity which students love and it is perfect to review vocabulary. The teacher gives a list of words and gives to students a blank Bingo card and they must write in it for example only 5 words. The teacher calls out the definition not just the word and keeps track of the words he uses each time to verify the winner.

The Interview is an activity a teacher can do the first day of school. The teacher can brainstorm a list of questions and students can choose which ones they write down. The basic idea is that two students will be paired together and they will interview each other. The students who did the interviewing will report about the student who was interviewed. I usually do the interviewing on one day and the reporting out over a course of day.

An activity which required a high level of collaboration was one I did last year, when I proposed to study a different Shakespearian work for each group.

Each group was formed by 4 or 5 students, depending on the total number of students in the class.

After receiving teacher’s general advice, they developed their work by themselves, searching information on books or online. Every student of each group had a precise task. The collaboration was more evident when they put together the information they found to build up the Power Point to show and discuss their work in front of the class.

In my opinion collaboration is not a personality trait, but it is something that students can develop. Only through different collaborative works students can learn how to work in groups, and teachers can teach students collaboration skills such as listening, arriving at consensus and collaborative accomplishment though individual contribution.

Technology can be used as a tool to address some of the challenges presented by collaborative activities. Lots of the uses of technology for group projects work well in any discipline, and are simple to plan and implement. New technologies are interactive, so it is now easier to create environments in which students can learn by doing, receive feedback and continually improve their understanding and build new knowledge.

In my opinion the scenario template is useful to plan collaborative learning activities, because planning all the Seven phases with appropriate activities, all the work will be clearer and all the students will know exactly what and how they have to do their work and what they will learn from it. The teachers will know exactly the amount of time they need on each phase of the lesson, the tools they need and the outcome for the lesson.

The six scenarios presented are a great source of inspiration. The way these scenarios were developed, allow teachers to use them to plan their own scenarios, adapting them to their own context: “their specific needs, taking into account the school curriculum, the age, the level of pupils and the subject taught.”

Vocabulary bingo is an activity which students love and it is perfect to review vocabulary. The teacher gives a list of words and gives to students a blank Bingo card and they must write in it for example only 5 words. The teacher calls out the definition not just the word and keeps track of the words he uses each time to verify the winner. This type of activity is CODE 2 because students ٠DO work together · BUT they DO NOT have shared responsibility. 

The other activity I proposed that is a different Shakespearian work for each group. 

Each group was formed by 4 or 5 students, depending on the total number of students in the class. 

After receiving teacher’s general advice, they developed their work by themselves, searching information on books or online. Every student of each group had a precise task. The collaboration was more evident when they put together the information they found to build up the Power Point to show and discuss their work in front of the class. This activity in my opinion is CODE 5 because students · DO have shared responsibility · AND they DO make substantive decisions together about the content, process, or product of their work · AND their work is interdependent. 

 Here is the link of  My Learning Diary:
https://padlet.com/daria_roni/dlv70y1jhwal

University of Minho, Creative Classroom Lab Project (2013). CCL GUIDE: LEARNING STORY COLLABORATION - What is the collaboration learning model and how to use it?

 

This module looks at how to effectively design and implement collaborative learning. Three of the videos featured in this module include extracts and interviews from a teacher workshop organised by the Irish National Council for Curriculum & Assessment as part of the CO-LAB project.

During the workshop, Professor Deirdre Butler explains to teachers how to embed collaborative learning into lesson design, the 4 major questions teachers need to ask themselves when designing a collaborative learning activity, as well as how to use the 21st Century Learning Design or 21 CLD Collaboration Rubric.

The final video in this module explains the learning scenario template developed in a previous project, which can also be used as a tool to help you design and reflect on your own collaborative learning activities.

Below you will find the empty template of the collaborative learning scenario and six examples of scenarios focusing on different topics and aspects.

Following that, you will see some examples of lesson plans developed by participants in the MOOC's previous edition, which employ the Learning Designer and implement collaborative learning approaches. You can use these examples as inspiration for the final learning activity (lesson plan).

Please note that the template of a learning scenario and that of a lesson plan in the Learning Designer differ in structure. The learning scenario template is broader and designed to include contextual aspects, including assessment and final reflection. The lesson plan template focuses on the description of each learning activity.

In general, it is necessary to say that assessment helps teachers to improve their work in order to make it more effective. 

The assessment of a collaborative work may discourage or it can encourage competition, a positive competition, but in my opinion, it depends on team dynamics, personal traits or past experiences. It is the teacher’s task to foster collaboration through P2P proactive interactions. There is a need for team awareness to support learning.

The summative assessment of each student considers the learning process and the outcomes to make adjustments, reinforcement, etc. I agree that the assessment should be brief, clear and timely. I use formative and summative assessment more regularly than self-assessment or peer evaluation.

The activity described by Chrysa is well designed and realised, she acted as a counsellor and a facilitator. The questions she asked to her students are clear, simple and very effective and help them in self-assessment and critical thinking, because students can reflect on what they have done and how they felt during the activity.

With peer-assessment each student feels to have a role in the activity and feels also the responsibility to give his/her mates an opinion on the work by showing to the teacher points of strength or weakness. A self-assessment is also important because students can reflect on their involvement in the project and decide to do better next time.

Regarding the final question peer evaluation is also useful with younger students as they get used to it and they become more conscious of what they are doing.

What do you think about the projects described by Antonio, from the student collaboration point of view, as well as the teacher collaboration point of view? Do you agree with the 7 benefits Antonio associates to assessing collaborative learning? What about the challenges he mentions concerning group dynamics, team management and the time needed to prepare and implement assessment of collaborative learning in the classroom – are these challenges you also face? Antonio mentions the use of collaborative digital tools, reorganizing the classroom space and introducing more interdisciplinary teaching and the sharing of materials amongst teachers as useful tips. Do you agree and what are your experiences of these suggestions?

In this video Antonio, an ICT teacher in Portugal described his experiences in two eTwinning projects, which not only have student collaborative learning at their core, but also teacher collaboration. He talks about his opinion on the benefits of collaboration learning and assessment, and the challenges he had faced, together with some tips on how to overcome them.

As I said before the assessment of collaborative is very difficult and sometimes can encourage competition but it is important to increase motivation and self-reflection of students. The teacher’s role changes because he should assess students’ collaborative work also with IC tools. The tools presented, like Padlet, Kahoot, Teamup and others are really important and useful for collaborative learning, but I think they need time to assimilate.

The biggest challenge in the assessment of a collaborative learning activity is the group dynamic: students should have a positive and receptive attitude towards their involvement in the assessment. I fully agree with the solutions proposed by Antonio to solve the major challenges of assessment collaborative learning.

Normally I let my students choose their partners in a group and to decide each team’s member role, but sometimes I set up groups of students, above all if there are in class lots of students who are weak, so they can be helped by the students with more abilities.

I have never used a random name-picking tool and I think it encourages students to be more responsible, assertive and impartial in assessing their peers.

In working groups and informative assessment I have already used Socraative, Padlet and Google form. I learnt how to use many other digital tools like Kahoot – QR codes – Prezi – Popplet – Tackk – Edmodo, but I have not yet used them in this context of collaborative work.

As a teacher I agree with Anna Laghigna, the greatest challenge in collaborative learning lies in the summative evaluation because in Italy parents and students want to know what the mark is rather than understanding the mistakes committed or pay attention to the task that was requested. 

I've never used rubrics or checklists to assess collaborative work, but I found it is really interesting to include students in the construction of checklists, because they will know better what will be the target of assessment 

I agree on the importance of assessing students’ performance wholly consideringn four dimensions: factual, conceptual,procedural andmeta-cognitive from diagnostic tests throughout the school year in formative and summative assessments with peer and self evaluation.

Peer evaluation helps students’ reflection on their works and performances and develops a critical attitude because they always have to give arguments for their assessment..

In my experience I had always assessed only the final product, but thanks to this course I learnt how to assess also students’ participation. I had always had a principal role in the assessment, while thanks to self and peer assessment also the students can be involved in their assessment, because they feel more responsible and it reduces the trend of “friendship dependency”.

Finally I agree that it is a good idea to assign a percentage weight to individual assessment  as part of the summative assessment related to collaborative work. 

This module is all about teacher collaboration. So far on the course we have learned how to design and assess students’ collaborative learning. But preaching to students about the importance of collaboration is not enough; teachers, as well as teacher trainers and principals, need to model collaboration in order for students to take it seriously and to recognise its value. We know from recent European research (which you can access in the resource section of this module) that more opportunities for teacher collaboration are sorely needed. Such opportunities could include building networks, providing virtual spaces to interact in, and developing a collaborative school culture between teachers, students and the wider community.

In this module we hear about teacher collaboration experiences from a variety of viewpoints  – from Bulgarian, Turkish and Irish teachers as well as a teacher trainer and a researcher. The benefits and challenges of teacher collaboration are discussed, along with the skills required and the school conditions needed for effective collaboration to take place. We also hear about how technology can facilitate teachers working together.

Last year for the first time in my high school I worked in two different classes (a first year and a second year) using the co-teaching rotation model with two different colleagues. It was a new experience but we put a co-teaching partnership into practice using a variety of methods.

1-      One Teach, one Observe or One Teach, one Drift

In this model, one of us instructed while the other observed students to identify issues and assessed their performance. This method allowed the observing teacher to provide feedback on which content and activities were most effective for students, allowing us to continually improve our practice and best meet the needs of all students in the classroom. In the other way while one teacher was instructing the classroom, the second teacher provided additional assistance and support to students as needed.

2-      Station Teaching

With station teaching, the lesson was divided into segments as the teachers each instructed part of the lesson at independent stations or rotated between groups of students. This allowed us to provide specialized support when delivering content in areas we might have more expertise in, or if our style better fitted a certain part of a lesson.

3-      Parallel Teaching

Sometimes we divided the class into two groups and instructed each group with the same content simultaneously. In this arrangement, the smaller groups allowed closer supervision and more opportunities for interaction between the students and teacher.

4-    Alternate Teaching

Sometimes one teacher handled a larger group, while the other taught a small group who needed specialized attention and additional supports.

It was a success at the end of the year because none of the students had the debit of the English subject to be repaired on September. 

I am an enthusiastic Social Media user which I consider an useful space for teacher collaboartion and professional learning. I love working in collaboration with other teacher both locally and internationally, I have learny a lot with them and from them, but I agree that lots of teachers have not got the required skill to take advantages of digital technologies.

Do you agree with the benefits and challenges highlighted by Professor Butler? Which benefits and challenges would you add based on your experiences? What opportunities have you been able to take advantage of in your own context to collaborate with teachers both in and outside of school? Do you collaborate with teachers in your own subject group, across age groups or across themes relevant to the whole school, and if so how?

Many years ago, when I stated my careeer at school I was often sad, because it was my first experience and I always asked help how to teach something or I asked if I did right or wrong and I could not find people available for helping me. Now it has been long time and I am pride when some younger colleague asks me some information about teaching. I love sharing my lesson plans, my PPT and so on, because sharing is a way to compare and discuss own experiences.
Last year when I worked in a co-teaching rotation model, at first I was really doubtful over the success on this type of work. But at the end of the year I was really surprised because all the students of the two classes where I worked in this way had acquired all the objectives we planned.

Do you agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools? What would you add to this list based on your experiences? Does the leadership in your teacher training institution or the current school in which you teach model collaboration? If so, how, and do you think this is motivating and beneficial for students? Do you work with teachers who are sceptical about collaboration, and what have you/will you try to help them see the advantages of this way of working?

For a collaborative teaching skills as knowledge, motivation, attitude and communication are vbery important. Attitude is relevant because ego must be set aside as it often gets in the way and affects the collaboration process and so the final result could be a failure. My experience was a positive one because we shared skills, not just ideas, motivation and responsibilities, in short I can say we worked together to teach English to our students.

I use technology at school with my students or teachers. I use Moodle platform,  dropbox, google drive or Icloud for sharing documents or resources. All technology facilitates theacher collaboration. I use tech not only for sending or displaying, it is also useful for processing, analyzing and sharing and a very good thing to underline is that digital tools can be accessed from anywhere, anytime.

Do you agree that finding time within the school day for teacher collaboration is challenging? What are your experiences of this, and what solutions have you tried to overcome this challenge? Do you agree that working with teachers from different disciplines can be very useful, and what are your experiences of this? What are the conditions needed in your opinion for this to work?

Last year in my experience we had no time to work within the shool day, but we collaborated using online environments, in this way we had the opportunity to communicate, to share resources or plan the next lesson.
In the past I worked with colleagues of other disciplines, because I taught in a Secondary School for Accountants, where the leading sujects were Law and Acoounting, so students had to study techical English dealing with the same topics of those subjects, so collaboration was a necessary condition and each teacher had to be willing to work in team. But I have to say that some years ago we did not use digital tool in order to plan our lessons, we met outside the hours of school or we phoned and we planned the next lesson. It was a bit difficult than last year.