A foreign language teacher’s experience of collaborative learning by EUN Partnership aisbl

Maria Manoilă, Romania

2016-10-24 13:40:39 UTC

To monitor teamwork using an evaluation grid

Bojana Manic, Serbia

manic75 — 2016-10-24 14:24:56 UTC

I agree that it is difficult to monitor team work, but if you point out roles within the team and give peer assessment it is easier.

Marija, Croatia

MarijaK — 2016-10-24 14:31:05 UTC

First of all, each class lesson and activity must be well planed and we should always have 'a back-up plan'. But also, we should evaluate and self-evaluate our teaching. And be ready to change our strategies and methods frequently. By asking and listening to our students we can improve our work.

Rosa Luisa Gaspar/Portugal

luisasgaspar67 — 2016-10-24 14:44:42 UTC

First of all it has been very difficult to teach a different language in my school because our curriculum doesn´t allow to be a proficous learning. I usually use etwinning projects to develop a second language in classroom.
Cooperative learning in the foreign language classroom is believed to increase target language use, improve communication skills, build confidence and stimulate learner autonomy.

Sonia, Sebia

sonia7nis — 2016-10-24 14:47:32 UTC

Jana, Germany

oldpadlet — 2016-10-24 15:02:01 UTC

I have found it useful to give my classes working plans with different results being due at certain times. In reading projects where different groups talk about different books, I have worked with a 2 min talk, script, improvised dialogue, storyboard, cover, dedication or slideshow as a product concluding a stage of the project. Also, interaction between groups can be used to keep students on track, comparing methods and outcomes.

Maria di Loreto Roberto, Italy

2016-10-24 15:32:10 UTC

The lessons to be proposed are certainly planned and can not be absolutely static. The teacher's role should be to facilitate learning and must be ready to act only as an administrator of the group. This is the hardest part: to notice and intervene in time because everyone can make their own contribution to the group

Mafalda Lapa, Portugal

lapa_mafalda — 2016-10-24 15:44:35 UTC

In collaborative learning classes the behaviour management can be a problem with the younger students but not with the older ones.
I always have the feeling that I am not being very fair in the individual assessment. I use checklists, continuos feedback (form one class to the other) and peer assesment in each group. But I have never used this tools. I have to explore them!

Stefania Z. - Rome

2016-10-24 15:51:06 UTC

I think that the ways mentioned in this video are useful; I know the tools mentioned, but I didn't use in my lesson untill no

Dalia, Lithuania. Thank you for sharing, teacher. It was extremely useful. You've mentioned a few challenges only but I reckon, there are many more, such as time management because as you say students tend to procrastinate and work deadlines have to be adjusted.

baltijadm — 2016-10-24 15:52:07 UTC

Heidi, Belgium

heidi_schrijvers — 2016-10-24 16:17:19 UTC

I'm going to explore the tools mentionned in the video. They seem very usefull!
I also have some other tools I use. But always interested in learning new ones. To evaluate it is indeed difficult. But if you set per group a few goals and describe/explain what is expected, and you have indeed some material to review at any time it can be easier. Also peer evaluation would be helpfull. I would not always let the students choose with whom they want to work with. But I would look at their indivudal talents and create groups with a mix of talents. So they can all "shine" in the group and feel important.

Lorena Olaru, RO

leoatomix — 2016-10-24 16:23:44 UTC

I monitor teamwork when they work collaboration online with the help of Revision history. The ways mentioned in this video (e.g. through self and peer assessment) are very useful.

Cinzia,Italy

nicomd — 2016-10-24 16:37:44 UTC

Behavior management and getting students to stay on track in a collaborative work can be a challenge for a teacher especially with classes with a lot of students or with students with special needs ( ADHD, SEN etc.). Sometimes it is hard work for a teacher, but it is essential to plan carefully the collaborative work .
As for assessment the best way it is to use rubrics for the evaluation of the students in which to take into account contributions of the students, attitudes, focus on the task , use of English if you work in L2, problem solving etc . and use levels , not marks.
Peer to peer is useful as well and students like it .

Maria A., Serres, Macedonia/Greece

2016-10-24 16:46:22 UTC

Behavior managment is a challenge for me. My students are very competitive and they all want to be leaders.

Rossella, Italy

rossy2305 — 2016-10-24 17:24:15 UTC

Sometimes create a collaborative learning for a teacher in the classroom is difficult because not all students are equally likely to work. It 'important to involve and pushing students to self-evaluate their skills and understand their mistakes to improve. Using technology can help a lot.

Ana, Portugal

anasalonso — 2016-10-24 17:49:14 UTC

I think behavior management is a challenge for me because it is very difficult to monitor team work.

Rosa/ Italy

rosadilonardo — 2016-10-24 17:52:00 UTC

I think that a flexible and interactive classroom environment can facilitate collaborative learning.

Maria Rita, Italy

mariarita_pepe — 2016-10-24 17:52:07 UTC

I think Anna has perfectly nailed the challenges collaborative activities pose. I have tried using rubrics to assess collaborative learning but I admit the part where I have to assess collaboration and social skills is the hardest. You can only monitor teamwork if it's completely done in class, but you can partly rely on feedback provided by the students which can be free or teacher-guided. Teaching the students to assess themselves and their peers is both a learning goal and a helpful resource to understand the learning process. It is one of the most difficult goals to achieve, though.

Andrea Ullrich, Germany

MrsU — 2016-10-24 18:04:44 UTC

Assessing collaborative learning is difficult if part of the collaboration happens outside the classroom. As I don't have the equipment, presented in all the videos, at hand, i.e. my students don't have a personal device to work on during most of the lessons a huge part of creation in a project happens outside school. So I have to rely on students' feedback. However products show if they collaborated and worked interdependently.

Fabiana Italy

fabiana2 — 2016-10-24 18:17:35 UTC

Good ideas

Francesca, Italy

francesca_lombardi1973 — 2016-10-24 18:23:38 UTC

In my teaching I try to involve students in creating the norms and ground rules for group learning in the class. I give students clear directions about how they are supposed to work together and this makes explicit what behaviors are productive and counterproductive in group discussions. Students can use the form to monitor themselves and other group members. I think self and peer assessment are very useful for my students.

Maria Nikolova, Bulgaria

maria_n_ss — 2016-10-24 18:44:28 UTC

I agree that the biggest challenge in collaborative learning has to do with assessment. In our educational system summative assessment require too. But in this assessment teacher assess what student don't know only. In my opinion formative assess motivate students, give look of individual development of students and of their social skills. It is very difficult give formative assess in group works. When and how assess individual work in group? How overcome conflicts between students whose self assessments not coincide with my assess or with partners assess?

Helen, Belgium

2016-10-24 19:24:44 UTC

I have also used rubrics to assess team work. They can also be a useful way to encourage students to self-assess and reflect on their progress. Using checklists to monitor progress is also a good idea. Looking forward to discovering some new ideas and tools.

Inge,Austria

2016-10-24 19:42:24 UTC

Great example for collaborative learning in the video! The online tools mentioned might be useful in upper secondary levels, but for my target group they are too difficult to use; I would ask too much of them and might frustrate my students.
For monitoring teamwork I would use a grid.

Marina Molla, Greece

mollamarina — 2016-10-24 19:43:04 UTC

Great video and inspiring work!
Behavior management and getting students to stay on track are challenging. And I also agree that assesing teamwork and monitoring it is quite difficult as well. It takes time to learn to work in teams and it has to be structured, monitored and guided.

Mariangela Bielli, Italy

mariangela_biel — 2016-10-24 19:57:38 UTC

Both behavior management and helping students stay on track are important issues in a collaborative learning context and the role of the teacher as facilitator is crucial to get it. I definitely agree that assessment is difficult; peer assessment can help and also the use of rubrics like the ones mentioned are useful.

Ana Ribeiro, Portugal

AnaRibeiro — 2016-10-24 19:59:36 UTC

Inspiring Vídeo! Thanks!
I think it's more important to evaluate how students achieve the aims (the process) than the knowledge itself. It's easier to evaluate what students know or memorized for a written test but at the end of the year or the term we know that they have already forgotten the topics studied before. Monitoring the kind of tasks presented in the video are a real challenge and the tools presented are quite useful for that age group.

Carmen Carella, Marche, Italy

carmencarella — 2016-10-24 20:32:00 UTC

What an awful lot of work behind Anna's PBLs! Such a vibrant and inspirational video. As an Italian teacher, I think I understand what she means by students getting off-track or non-taking personal responsibility while accomplishing a task, or lacking respect for others. These are essential requirements to the delivery of a project. All the strategies and tools she adopted can be motivating for them while carrying out the tasks, and the peer and self-assessment tools can be of help too.They unveil students' skills levels, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses to themselves and to the class. Peers's point of view are the most effective as an evaluation.
My students are aged 11-13, which makes them more naive in their judgement and behaviour, still they understand when they work well or not, and when I rebuke them when they tend to get-off track, they are quite obedient. They appreciate self-assessment and peer-assessment too, and we often discuss the pros and the cons of an activity, they appreciate the flexibility of the teacher, which is not only a guide but also a bit of a "mother".

Pat27

Patseba — 2016-10-24 20:43:47 UTC

It is really interesting!

Carla, Portugal

2016-10-24 20:46:41 UTC

Excellent sharing.
I believe in collaborative work becomes difficult to control the behavior of students since classes are more dynamic.
Evaluate this type of work is also very complex, since within the group each student turns out to perform a specific task. So the teacher has difficulty evaluating all aspects of collaborative work individually.

Angelo, Rivoli, Italy

Angelo — 2016-10-24 20:56:33 UTC

Keeping the students focused on the task is the most difficult challenge: often one must accept to lose this challenge. I am well aware that to ask the students to work in groups means engaging in a daily battle ... that sometimes it's better to give up.
I ask the groups to create a logbook. I should find a way to digitize the checklist. Very useful to control the behavior it is ClassCharts or ClassDojo, assigning points each lesson. It works very well with students of 19 years.

Tiago, Portugal

tiagotadeu — 2016-10-24 21:13:30 UTC

Managing and evaluating a collaborative work is difficult, but the colleague left some useful tips (-check lists, road map to the work). I haven't used yet the tools mentioned in the video.

Massimo Italy

massimo_pescato — 2016-10-24 21:14:22 UTC

I don't believe in group assessment, I always resort to an individual assessment, I think it is too difficult assessing collaborative learning and you cannot make mistakes in assessment, otherwise your relation with your students get worse and worse.

Isabel Graça, Portugal

2016-10-24 21:17:23 UTC

This is another great inspirational video. I first knew online rubric tools with the PBL MOOC. I am trying to use them now, improving formative assessment. I find peer assessment very important to develop student’s responsibility and to take track of tasks. But Anna Laghigna has more questions, and so do we…

Susana Vasconcelos, Portugal

susanavasc — 2016-10-24 21:56:22 UTC

I learned a lot with this video. The tools are very useful. Monitoring a team work it is very important but I have to learn more about how to organize, structure and guide.

Alex_PT

teacheralex_dua — 2016-10-24 22:28:26 UTC

Anna has indeed provided some useful ways to track sts and rubrics are also fantastic not only for sts but also parents who sometimes have some problems dealing with different school approaches. In my experience, sts can definitely become noisy – too noisy – if we don’t manage their behaviour.

Maria Daniela Roberto

2016-10-24 22:28:37 UTC

Maria Daniela Roberto

2016-10-24 22:28:37 UTC

Undoubtedly, valuation is one of the most important aspects ofour teaching, because it is a feedback on the effectiveness ofour teaching. When I worked as a group, I evaluated the groupas a whole, taking both aspects closely related to behaviouralskills acquired, and (interest, participation, ability to get the jobdone). I used to use concept maps to fill and crossword puzzlesto complete. (crossword puzzle maker)

Betina Astride (PT)

2016-10-24 22:34:35 UTC

For me assessment it’s never easy. Rubrics are a very nice way to do this hard job both for me and for my pupils. Self-assessment and peer-assessment very important in the work I do with my primary class. We have been used it frequently not only in group work. Assessment is as other activities: we have to practice. In the beginning they easily think “my best friend will have a nice comment” but soon they are very good on identifying what is not very good and how should he/she can improve. Peer-assessment in group work can be very useful to the teacher.

João Sá

joaosa — 2016-10-24 23:52:17 UTC

Assessing collaborative working and learning is difficult and subjective, because there are so many variables, different activities, different personalities and styles of participation. This video has some very nice ideias, specially to use rubrics to help in assessments. Some of the online tools mentioned, I already use, but others are new and I will try it like scrumy and rubistar.

Conceição Aleixo, Portugal

caleixonline — 2016-10-25 00:31:29 UTC

I really agree that getting students on track and assessing collaborative learning are big challenges for teachers. Work group is a “time consumer” so we have to believe in its benefits for teaching and for learning.

I was planning to use “Mindmap” and now, after seeing the video, I'm even more convinced that it’s an useful tool to use in class.

Barbara Ital

dotriv — 2016-10-25 07:14:50 UTC

Assessing collaborative learning is very difficult. I usually ask each group to perform in front of their peers while i focus my attention to every singol member of the performing group. But it is not easy at all!

Carmen Rodríguez

c_rodvix — 2016-10-25 08:17:13 UTC

I teach Spanish to children from 6 to 11 and I find setting collaborative learning experiences up quite challenging. Some of the reasons are: Not having the proper equipment or knowledge, sometimes internet or ICT not working properly, lack of time because my lessons are short (also only once a week) and behaviour issues. You start the lesson with great ideas and the result is sometimes the opposite. It can be quite frustrating but on the other hand, this is the thing that challenges you and makes you think: 'I am going to make it'! When everything works smoothly, I´ve noticed that children like having the chance to work more independently and the outcomes are very positive and full of great ideas. I would say that it´s definetely a challenge but I think it is important to give it a go and learn from my mistakes. I find these videos very inspiring to see how people cope with different learning experiences. I am looking forward to continue learning. Thanks :-)

Mirjana Jovanovic, Serbia

mirjana_jovanovic_ns — 2016-10-25 08:59:45 UTC

I totally agree that assessing collaborative learning is very difficult. In my opinion combining individual and team assessments might be a possible solution.

Tim Gayton - Sweden

2016-10-25 09:17:11 UTC

Collaborative learning and most group work takes time - so projects may not get completed in the given time. A great group can even have a lot of good process but no final product, maybe because of many restarts and changes.
Fixed course knowledge requirements may not fit well so assessments need to be flexible and holistic here.
Group work

Gaia, Italy

gaialombardi69 — 2016-10-25 09:34:41 UTC

Group activities and learning by doing are engaging and motivating for all the students. They help students to be active and responsible about their learning. Weaker students are encouraged to express themselves, while strong students can develop their autonomy in learning.
The organization must be very well set by the teacher: goals, aims, times, spaces, materials.
Formative assessment can be done during the whole process, within a regular feedback to the group and to the individual.
Final assessment is more difficult, because the product is the result of a group work in which the single student gave different contributes. Normally, I assess and evaluate the quality of the product and give the group the opportunity to self-evaluate the process.

Maria Nica Italy

mariellanica — 2016-10-25 09:48:17 UTC

Peer evaluation is important because give motivation to the student's work. Moreover, students share and compares opinions with their colleagues. students become more aware of their learning.

Betta, SA-ITA

anicia1 — 2016-10-25 11:30:56 UTC

In my experience behavior is always a tricky one when it comes to collaborative learning and I still haven't figured out how to address the issue effectively. Assessing collaborative learning is actually not easy and I use a combination of rubrics and self evaluation tools. I monitor teamwork setting deadlines and checking that the work is done by that specific date. I am curious to explore more about the online tools the colleague mentioned. I know about Google doc and Edmondo but I have never used them myself. It is time to try!

Sarah Mallia, Malta

sarahborg85 — 2016-10-25 11:37:00 UTC

When working in a group, there might be some noise in the classroom however if its controlled I don't really mind it - as long as the students are working and learning. From my experience, the more group work you carry out, the better the groups will become as they will get used to it and get used to the rules. In fact there were instances where one group was asked to stop working as a group because of the high level of noise or childish arguments after a number of times, and therefore they had to work individually. I also find it useful to reward the students as a group when doing teamwork. I also make use of Edmodo and agree that students are keen to read any feedback given online rather written on the copybook.

Elisabetta, Italy

mauro_elisabet1 — 2016-10-25 12:02:10 UTC

I do use group work, but sometimes the students need to be reminded that each of them has to be responsible for the result of the project, so I avoid giving a formal grade to the group and I prefer to evaluate the individual final product (any written work or oral presentation

Elvia, Italy

2016-10-25 12:39:41 UTC

In collaborative learning students behaviour is quite noisy but it depends on the fact that they are engaged in activities which need negotiation and sharing different point of views. I didn't know resources as Scrumy or Rubistar and what I can say is that they seem to me very useful

Stella Maris Berdaxagar from Argentina.

SMBerdaxagar — 2016-10-25 12:45:58 UTC

Student voice and choice, P2P collaboration & evaluation, metacognitive, critical thinking and performative skills help organize hard skills into meaningful knowledge and schemata to apply to future learning paths. Teacher's timely feedback/ forward , time and class planning and management through checklists and rubrics are crucial to shape students' learning for better collaboration and self-paced personalized stations . The whole scenario becomes bloomified for best
practices. Behavior management and getting students to stay on track is a challenge. Assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult especially in flipped classes. I monitor teamwork through rubrics, checklists , revision history and feedback. Self and peer assessment are useful to lead metacognitive collaborative and individual self-paced learning . The tools mentioned or similar are the ones I use in my classes.

Teachers need to control lesson In collaborative learning the role of the teacher changes. Although pupils become the crew rather than the passengers, the teacher still remains the pilot.

lella_asciolla1 — 2016-10-25 14:20:51 UTC

Rosa Calvino

Angelamaria Galderisi, Italy

soleemare_a — 2016-10-25 14:40:54 UTC

I teach English as a foreign language in a Secondary School, so I find really interesting the experience shown in the video. In my experience of collaborative learning, it is difficult to manage not only the students’ behaviour but also the assessment of collaborative learning. A new kind of teaching and learning pactice needs a new kind of asessment, not only summative but also – and especially- formative. I think that rubrics could really be the right solution to formative assessemtn, as well as peer reviews and mutual feedback.

Valerica-Romania

dvaly2010 — 2016-10-25 15:00:21 UTC

.Working with young students is more difficult. I used wikispace and google site where my students in the 4th grade wrote their thoughts and appreciated their colleagues presentations. Now I would like to use something else.It is difficult indeed, but that is why I am here to learn, to share.. Thank you for this opportunity.

Silvia Patrizia Ruggeri, ITALY

silviap_ruggeri — 2016-10-25 15:03:11 UTC

Yes, the behavior management and getting students to stay on track is a challenge.
I agree that assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult, anyway there are online tool that help to recognise what is the contribuite of every component of the group, and I prefer to realise working group in classroom for that reason, because for example I can see in a padlet on real time what is the contribuite of everyone.
Sure, I find the ways mentioned in this video (e.g. through self and peer assessment) useful
About the online tool, are really useful, as titanpad, prezi, and other tools I could recognise in the video. Moreover Learning Designer can be very helpfull as soon as I can improve utilising it.

Evi Karella-Greece

spevispevi — 2016-10-25 15:27:08 UTC

Yes I agree that assessing collaborative learning is difficult, as well as to teach your students how to learn collaboratively. These methods are quite new and we need first to learn more about them.

Alessandro Zampa, Italy

2016-10-25 15:54:12 UTC

Behaviour managment is one of the most important things to be dominated when working in a collaborative learning environment, and I think ther is no true recipe working in every occasion, since all stems from the learner's attitudes and everyone is a different story from the others. Mixing of different attitudes helps to improve student's skills but can be potentially shattering...
Concerning methods to reduce anxiety during assessments, my solution is to give freedom to the students to choose the date and type of the assessment, consistently with the effectiveness of the method chosen compared to the skills to be verified. Each can demonstrate their mastery of skills when they feel ready to do it, anyone can examine the tests previously taken by others.
During report time, one student from each group updates the others on the results, and the presentation becomes a way to give an assessment to the whole group, so everyone feels motivated to give their best for himself and his teammates.

mbacita — 2016-10-25 16:18:10 UTC

The main challenges are time management and formal written or oral tests.I usually ask my students to use prezi or powtoon for presentations

Cátia, Sweden

katyfpr — 2016-10-25 16:44:21 UTC

It is true that students will learn more with their peers. Allow students to develop their knowledge when interact with others will motivate the students. However for a teacher it will become more difficult to manage the dynamic the group and to see who is really working. For me assessing students using just group working is extremely difficult. I would like to learn more techniques that might facilitate the assessment.
The idea of using a check list and a summary in the end of the section it will help students to know where their learning level is and what they need to learn. Keep the students on track is also a challenge for the teacher.

Cristina Paliotes, Portugal

paliotes_cristina — 2016-10-25 16:51:11 UTC

The evaluation of the collaborative work is difficult and a big challenge since it becomes difficult to assess individually.
Use direct observation grids to evaluate the student involvement in the task, the behavior of the relationship with peers and acceptance of others' opinions.
I have never used the tools mentioned in the video nevertheless I consider them interesting and facilitators.

Costas Moschonas

2016-10-25 17:05:11 UTC

There where plenty of tools in this video. Well assessing collaborative learning is difficult. I think that one good way is to use peer assessment. The students knows

Maria teresa Italy

teresarughi — 2016-10-25 17:22:36 UTC

Monitoring team work and personal responsibility has always been the greatest challenge. Self-peer assessment is useful, provided the students are given clear parameters and points of reference. Sometimes I use google.questionnaires or teamup.aalto.fi/ or https://www.edmodo.com. or rubistar.4teachers.org.
The tools mentioned in the video are extremely useful.
My students often use https://titanpad.com and https://www.mindmup.com/, but mainly for activities. It's a very good suggestion to use these tools for assessment.

Gisella de Liddo, Italy

2016-10-25 17:24:26 UTC

Yes, sometimes getting students to stay on track can be a challenge; I also find that often some members of the group do not work as much as the others, and prefer sitting aside and watch. Assessing collaborative learning is THE challenge, according to my opinion.The ways mentioned in the video are very effective, and rubrics quite useful.

Maria Panou/ Kalymnos, Greece

maria_themelis — 2016-10-25 17:50:27 UTC

I liked very much rubic tools are used at video, especially peer review form. This year I tried to use it but as my students are just come at high school it's a little difficult for me evaluate them. I started by self evaluation of their works, giving them after the work forms to check right answers, them I gave the opportunity to check their schoolmates' works and evaluate them, so they are starting litlle by little to understand how valuable is peer review for their own knowledge! We are really starting diving in the oceans of knowledge and although my student's fathers are already spongue divers, we have many difficulties!!!

Maria Stalia, Greece

mastalia — 2016-10-25 17:56:24 UTC

In my experience of collaborative learning, time and behaviour management as well as keeping students on track have been the biggest challenges. It is difficult to have 25 12-year-olds working in groups without too much noise and disaggreements or even fights or loss of interest at some point. Moreover, assessment of the pupils' work has always been a puzzle to me and the idea of self and peer assessment seems quite effective and worth to try. I have actually used powtoon and prezi for presentation of final products but the digital tool for rubrics was unknown to me until now.

Giuseppe, Italy

profgcorsaro — 2016-10-25 18:09:27 UTC

Hi, Anna. What a wonderful experience!

Serena, Ital

serenavisai — 2016-10-25 18:59:38 UTC

It’s hard for me to have students focussed on their work since they are still young and some of them are less interested or have attention problems, or dislexya. I have hard time in monitoring group work and assess it but I’m willing to try some of the suggestions in the video and from other colleagues. I try to be transparent in the evaluation , I often use Edmodo to share ideas and projects with my students.

Motivation is the key for success. If our students are motivated they are active and self- confident. The role of the teacher is crucial to develop a productive learning environment. This video is a good example of how important it is to articulate online tools and a positive pedagogical relationship. Actually I sometimes feel a bit nervous about using new tools( online tools) in the classroom because I feel I am "technological illiterate". Some colleagues at school are a good support in this area and collaborative peer work can give a great help for "old" teachers like me.

2016-10-25 19:01:56 UTC

Group work is something I often do in the classroom. I usually give the sudents a particular role in the group so that all ,and each of them has the possibility to participate. I also give the groups the opportunity to share their works and evaluate the final product of their schoolmate´s oral or written presentations.

Rosella, Italy

rosella_manni — 2016-10-25 19:24:47 UTC

Lecturing is without doubt effective for transmitting information but if we wish to develop thinking skills, problem solving abilities and lifelong learning skills a more student-centered approach must be taken. This involves a change in the role of the lecturer from presenting information to students to facilitating and guiding learning.

Richard Nagel

2016-10-25 19:37:12 UTC

It is not easy to assess the contribution of everyone in a group, even when all are on task, engaged and learning. Direct observation of the groups in action, and of the individuals within the groups seems to work for me. However, if this were guided by the use of an observational rubric for each child then it would focus my observations more. It is easy to assess the end product produced collectively by the group, but less simple to assess the individual contributions. Peer and self review are also important, as is individual conferencing with each pupil. I also think that collaborative learning is part of a wider package of assessment- a good variety of assessments is key.

Emiliana Rufo, Italy

emiliana_rufo — 2016-10-25 20:23:44 UTC

I use Rubrics to evaluate my students' cooperative learning activities. I focus on collaboration, organization of tasks in the group, content and final product. I have to improve peer reviewing.

Carla Diogo, Portugal

tgeiepbjcporto — 2016-10-25 21:11:30 UTC

Another inspiring video. Assessment is definitely a huge problem when we talk abou collaboartive projects. I have been using rubrics but something is still missing...I have never used peer review. It will be my next step

Alessandra M., Italy

prof_alemurgia — 2016-10-25 21:14:14 UTC

I agree that the assessment of collaborative learning is a difficult task, as well as behaviour management.
The video was really inspiring and the tools mentioned very useful.
Rubrics may help, also for peer assessment, which can be considered part of the coolaborative work

Ariana Vacaretu, Romania

ariana_vacaretu — 2016-10-25 21:15:17 UTC

For assessing students’ collaborative problem solving competence developed within the MeJ workshops,I used the following methods and instruments: observation (I've created an observation sheet), analysis of the information and reflections in the students’ logbooks, self-assessment (I've created a self-assessment sheet for students).
Yes, I think self-assessment and peer-assessment are useful. Don't know what to say about the online tools, as I don't know them.

Carlos Silva, Portugal

2016-10-25 21:55:32 UTC

This is a great video and show us very well how to create independent learners. The online tools are a great way to make students get connected eachother and share their work. With that, of couse, teacher can also monitor their team work.

Isabel Nunes, Portugal

2016-10-25 22:10:40 UTC

In my opinion the self-evaluation and the hetero-evaluation are powerful instruments of assessment. The learning is a social experience where the interaction between students enables them to acquire new experiences and knowledge. The teacher should mediate the learning process through strategies that lead the student to be independent and stimulate his knowledge. The orientation given by the teacher should enable the creation of participation environments, collaboration and constant challenges. The assessment is done using different instruments such as structured notes, checklists, rubrics and portfolios that meet the activities students perform to demonstrate mastery of the content

Anna Nervo

laclassenelweb — 2016-10-25 22:18:09 UTC

I must know all about Scrumy! Thanks for your suggestions and to sharing your experience!

Maria Indirli Italy

ndrmra — 2016-10-25 22:21:19 UTC

The group assessment is a very difficult concept to applicare.Ho tried instead to use peer assessment. I find it very effective. But I am unable to evaluate the group.

Ana Fernades, Portugal

apmfm — 2016-10-25 22:30:17 UTC

Behaviour management and getting students to stay on track are achieved but with effort. It demands lots of attention.
I agree that assessing collaborative learning is very difficult, especially when you intend to make a summative and quantitative assessment.
Formative assessment is easier. I have envolved the students in their personal assessment (auto-evaluation) and peer assessment.
The monitorization of the teamwork can be done with the use of direct obsertvation charts, group diary registers and elaboration of portfolios.

Petra, USA

drpe — 2016-10-26 01:27:30 UTC

Getting students to stay on track can be a challenge, especially when they are new to the collaborative learning process or have learning difficulties. Some students find it ‘easier’ to be fed information than to look for it on their own. Assessing the collaborative learning is less difficult when I know the students well. I monitor teamwork by observation, feedback forms, checking revision history, and sometimes recordings. My students don’t like mindmaps that much, but, after seeing this, I might try then again. I do find self and peer assessment useful, but we need to give students time to learn how to go about it step by step. I have not used ‘scrumy’ but will check it out. Thanks for the idea.

Isabella Santoro, Italy

2016-10-26 04:52:01 UTC

I agree that assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult, but when the students are motivated (as well as in the video) they are active and they can be able to be responsible and autonomy about their work, their learning and their self or peer assessment. It's also important for me that we teachers use often or alway self and peer evaluation for our teaching.

Ana Martinčević, Osijek

novoselic_ana — 2016-10-26 06:11:31 UTC

I like it. It is difficult to evaluate students. The teacher was very well prepared and developed assessment. Congratulations.

Zeljka Korlevic, Slatina

mravak57 — 2016-10-26 09:35:15 UTC

I think it s very difficult but worth of any effort. I m trying to do some lessons that way, and yes, monitoring and evaluating is hard.

Kristina Kaučić, Croatia

2016-10-26 11:11:07 UTC

Well done! I like it. It is difficult to work that way as you have to follow your curriculum and prepare students for matura exam. It is worth of trying, though.

Sander Vreven

sander_vreven — 2016-10-26 12:10:36 UTC

Wow, this was mind moving for me. I was still searching for a way of evaluation but this is a way to my solution.
Personally, my groups are smaller and less (socially)intelligent and they need more management.
This video gave me great ideas that I'll try out in the next weeks.

Ana Chambel, Sesimbra, Portugal

tichachambel — 2016-10-26 14:25:15 UTC

The evaluation of collaborative work is very difficult as well as behavior management in the classroom when performing this type of work.
Normally I use direct observation grids to evaluate the results and all the work process. I don't usually use the tools described in the video but I think that these are very useful and facilitative.

Alessandro Ruffino / Italy

2016-10-26 14:55:05 UTC

The management of behavior plays a role very important in a collaborative learning so we have to pay attention when we evaluate students in working group. I observe them when they work in group and I note who works or not so I can evaluate them. Regarding the tools, I'm an etwinner and I often use these web tools to realize the projects with my students!

Nils, Germany

2016-10-26 15:30:59 UTC

I think management is an important issue and one of the big problems our students have in project based or collaborative learning. As I mentioned before I haven't done much self-assessment so far and I didn't know those online tools. Due to the lack of equipment I won't be able to use them anyway

Viviana, Italy

vivianasavino75 — 2016-10-26 15:54:19 UTC

In my experience, behaviour management is not a challenge when collaborative learning is a daily routine. Instead, when collaborative learning is a "special event", pupils are excited, they can't believe themselves to look in the eyes each other, during the lesson, and it's very difficult to get them to stay on track. I don't think that assessing collaborative learning is difficult, because expert teacher monitors teamwork just passing through the desks and listening to what pupils say to each other and write. Self and peer assessment is useful, but not necessary: a short circle time can be the solution. About online tools mentioned, i can say that i like Prezi but i don't know Scrumy

Iolanda Moya, Spain

2016-10-26 16:03:50 UTC

In my experience, collaborative learning assessment is difficult as well as behavior management when we work like this. However, the idea of individual and peer evaluation can help us in this task. In my case, I cannot use online tools such as Edmodo because not all the students have computers at home. I'm doing different Etwining projects and my eternal problem is, how can I assess them? Maybe a rubric for each activity can help

Cristina Rocha, Armindo Serra, Stela Batinas, João Reigado, Fátima Nave, Ana Marques, Martine Mendes e Rita Gil, Carmo Martins, Conceição Varela, Alexandra Figueiredo, Edite Ferreira, Sara Gamito - Portugal

mcrisroch1 — 2016-10-26 16:18:11 UTC

Our students are very dependent on a traditional/classic classroom practice "bus methodology" , where teacher is the driver and students are passive spectators.
When we start a new strategy, their behaviour gets out of control at the beginnig. Despite teacher's instructions, they get lost easily. We agree that assessing colaborative learning is difficult, but when students realize the advantages or the importance of collaborative learning and accomplish success in the activity this encourages their commitment. We evaluate the whole process, in different moments: observation and final results. Students need and appreciate feedback of their learning achievements.

Grazia Paladino, Italy

graziampl — 2016-10-26 17:10:30 UTC

Working in collaborative learning, in my experience, it requires exercise, not only by students, but also teachers. It is 'wrong to expect everything at once, but you need to work on startup activities and team building explaining to students what is expected and what is actually the cooperation and interdependence.

Tina M

tinamellos — 2016-10-26 17:59:37 UTC

Tina M_Macedonia Greece

tinamellos — 2016-10-26 17:59:47 UTC

Behavior management and getting students to stay on track can be a major challenge for the teacher. Assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult. I usually monitor teamwork through self and peer assessment. I haven't used the online tools mentioned in the video but I think it's a great idea and I'm planning to implement them in the next project,

Tina M_Macedonia Greece

tinamellos — 2016-10-26 17:59:47 UTC

sevim hazar/turkey

sevimhazar05 — 2016-10-26 18:13:27 UTC

self-evaluation with the use of rubrics/mutual feedback

Iliyana, Bulgaria

ipanayotova — 2016-10-26 19:24:38 UTC

To manage and assess team work to me always seems very difficult. Well, rubrics are good, self evaluation and peer evaluation not always objective – my pupils are younger. I am impressed how many and various tools the teacher uses. I’d like to try some of them.

emma giurlani Italy

2016-10-26 19:49:30 UTC

Assessing collaborative learning activities and outcomes and moreover behavior management can be really difficult . I think peer assessment and the use of systematic observation and also rubrics can help students and teacher to monitor progress and problems as well. In Italy it's sometimes very difficult to assess collaborative working because we need summative individual assessment . Nevertheless I think we must encourage this innovative way of collaborating and learning approach also with shared criteria , I mean criteria which can be defined also with the help of our students

Giovanna, Italy

giovanna_biceg1 — 2016-10-26 20:13:31 UTC

I don't think evaluating collaborative work is more difficult than evaluating single work. It depends on how teacher can engage students to produce something effective and to reflect on learning process.

José María Díaz, Spain

2016-10-26 21:10:38 UTC

True, the assessment is complicated but there is no doubt that, in the worst cases, students with more difficulties have an excellent opportunity to improve.

Ana Franco, Barcelos, Portugal

ana_lufranco — 2016-10-26 21:29:27 UTC

As I mentioned, I have to monitor this type of work at a distance, in class only analyze one or another detail that may have been doubts. However the presented assessment tools and monitoring are very interesting. The development of mental maps to structure the work, the production and presentation of their work, the way the teacher can through these applications interact with their students is a great way to collaborate and guide content.

Cristina Teixeira, Portugal

2016-10-26 22:10:03 UTC

I believe that assessing collaborative learning is in fact particularly difficult to most shools or classes. I absolutly agree with benefits of collaborative learning since I believe that weaker students may find new forms of scheduling and organizing their work and study (loved the exemple of the ("checklists"). In collaborative learning students are more willing to participate with less amount of anxiety such as the one found in singular activities (oral presentations ou written exams).

Ana Rochinha

ana_rochinha — 2016-10-26 22:14:33 UTC

For me, the difficulty in assessing group work, has remained ... It's amazing the amount of tools used! I do not know any of them.

I'll have to experiment with a group / smaller students of class ...

Eduardo Pinheiro, Portugal

eduardojgpinheiro — 2016-10-26 22:52:15 UTC

I agree, it´s very difficult assessing collaborative learning. I use observation grids to evaluate and students also fill in grids about our work in group. Edmodo helps in sharing and discussion through self and peer assessment.

Darina Koleva,

2016-10-27 05:45:27 UTC

Bulgaria
I practice group work and learning by doing and finally evaluation of the work is usually positive for everyone, because they are 7 year olds and they should always be encouraged.

Rossana De Martino, Italy

rossana_demartino — 2016-10-27 06:03:11 UTC

It's a very great job, the organization, the tools used for the final product, the role of the teacher as guide and facilitator to consider the student as the real core , the playlist, the rubrics for the peer assessment. I try to teach n this way in my classes and I think in a collaborative learning the problem is to assess the teamwork and how the students have worked . It's important the observation and specify the objectives of the project. I have to focus my attention on the collaboration and interaction of the students, their involving in the group, the tasks shared and the final product and its presentation.

Eliana, Italy

2016-10-27 07:05:57 UTC

The only problem with Italian students is that they are not used to cooperate and to be assessed as a group. They are individuals and the system makes them think that learning is a sort of race, one student is running against the others. So the first step is persuading students that being a good group member is essential in today world. I normally share this idea and the rubric I use has got a specific caption about cooperation and neing a collaborative group member. It does not always work of course. Some students keep thinking that they should work individually all the time.

Ivan Roblas, Philippines

markivanroblas — 2016-10-27 07:58:55 UTC

Behavior management is a concern in conducting collaborative learning as the students are left on their own. Assessing it is also difficult especially in providing individual grades to students. In monitoring their work in the Science Explorer, I go around the bus to check on the students.

Paula Gomes, Portugal

2016-10-27 08:07:05 UTC

Kimberley Edwards, Ireland

kedwards19 — 2016-10-27 09:47:41 UTC

Evaluation of collaborative work can be assessed through the quality of the finished product. Behaviour management is not too bad but sometimes the students can become side-tracked and begin discussing their weekend etc. instead of taking part in the activity which causes delays. Some students will do all of the work and others will sit back. To assess individual work I will go to certain groups and ask individuals to explain aspects of what they are doing. An anonymous feedback questionnaire for the students to fill in could be a good idea after the class.

Sandra Alves

2016-10-27 09:48:08 UTC

I think the assessent it is very difficult to apply in collaborative learning. It´s very diffult to assessent de group interactions and what each one learn. With online tools it´s easier but unfortunaly not accessible to all. To assessement, normally I use the grid observation, final results and presention of team work.

Helena Inacio

helena_a_inacio — 2016-10-27 10:05:18 UTC

Both assessment and behaviour management regarding collaborative learning are indeed a challenge for the teacher, especially if students aren't used to working through project based learning . Many students and parents fail to see the benefits of the learning experiences gained through such methodology. Wary of this, teachers struggle to keep noise levels down and to keep the students on track and motivated. Assessment is still expected to be summative through a formal written test in order to be fair and individual. Personally, I do agree that self and peer assessment at the end of every step of the work at hand is a way of keeping them on track, responsible and aware of what is expected from them. I use this method with station learning. The online tools I use are limited to google docs since internet access is very limited.

Cristiana Oliveira

cristianafreire — 2016-10-27 10:22:29 UTC

As a Science teacher I couldn´t agree more with the phrase “Learning by Doing and Group work are the best ways to learn!”

The evaluation of things learned is always difficult, but much more when it is done collaboratively. The factor "subjectivity" increases and it is not always easy to reduce it.

What I usually do is, during the presentation of the final product, ask questions to all students in the group.

To monitor the work, I want to some tasks to be completed on a certain date, so that I can give feedback and ensure that the work is actually being done. Feedback is made though email ou I deliver some wtitten notes.

Self and peer evaluation is very helpful and often serves to prove element of our own observations.

I´m anaware of some of the online tools presented on the vídeo.

I also hope to get to know some facilitative ways to promote evaluation on collaborative work.

Concetta Drago

concetta_drago — 2016-10-27 10:53:51 UTC

Concetta Drago, Italy

concetta_drago — 2016-10-27 10:53:51 UTC

In my experience of collaborative learning I have seen that the best point is to engage the students, their motivation in order to do the assessment.
About the way to monitor the teamwork, I usually invited one student per group to present to the others group their results. Each student of the same group get the same rate as the others.

Anabela Gonçalves, José Rui Ferreira and Teresa Fonseca, Portugal

2016-10-27 11:00:51 UTC

Managing behaviour through collaborative learning and assessing the whole process are indeed challenging. Most of us focus mainly on final products rather than on the process itself, since sometimes assignments can’t be entirely developed during class time. The online tools mentioned in the video seem appropriate and many others could have been mentioned as well. Assessing students is always hard, but I’m not sure teachers have to, or even should, assess everything every time. A huge array of tools, we believe, can be discouraging and hinder creativity. Giving students clear instructions, setting feasible objectives, choosing three or four tools to allow teacher and peer collaboration (designing – monitoring – assessing – evaluating) and establishing a negotiated timeline for the entire process might seem baby steps but for us they are also steady ones.

Elisabete Carvalho, Maria Araújo, Olga Seabra, Paula Cavadas, Paula Usha_Portugal

7bsobrado — 2016-10-27 11:36:19 UTC

Once again the video exposes an inspiring collaborative task to develop with students. The challenge in performing this activity consists of developing in students the necessary skills to acknowledge their cognitive capabilities, as well as, creativity and critical thinking to effectively help their fellow colleagues throughout the challenges they face to accomplish the project. Assessing collaborative work can be and is a challenge but with discrete guidance without coercion such as: dialogue, constant checking of tasks, reassurance on their group achievements, respect for others by creating moments of brainstorming and negotiation of different ideas and visions. Charts can be created and developed as online tools by groups, considering that all these documents can be updated.

Elisabete Carvalho, Maria Araújo, Olga Seabra, Paula Cavadas, Paula Usha_Portugal

2016-10-27 11:36:22 UTC

Paulo Martins_Portugal

2016-10-27 12:48:15 UTC

1.4. A foreign language teacher’s experience of collaborative learning

1.4.1. In your experience of collaborative learning, is behavior management and getting students to stay on track a challenge?

In my experience yes, because my students are very young (6-7 years old).

1.4.2. Do you agree that assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult, and what are your experiences of this?

I think it is not difficult, but we have to adapt the assessing tools to the level of the students. I think that there is not a specific formula that we can use with them all.

1.3.3. How do you monitor teamwork? Do you find the ways mentioned in this video (e.g. through self and peer assessment) useful? What about the online tools mentioned?

I assess the team’s final product, their group processes (e.g., ability to meet deadlines, contribute fairly, communicate effectively). And I translate the group performance into individual grades. In addition to evaluating the group’s output, I try to find ways to determine how groups functioned and the extent to which individuals contributed to the effort.

I never used the online tools mentioned. But I will analyze them.

sara, sassari, Italy

sarossa — 2016-10-27 13:42:24 UTC

i have very little experience of proper collaborative work. Assessment is very important, though, because students need their work to be recognised and valued, otherwise they won't be eager to take part in similar activities in the future. Online tools can be very useful but teachers should learn how to use them effectively, to save time and energy. Self assessment and peer assessment in my opinion can be a problem with younger students, but I have no evidence to support this, it's just an opinion.

LIDIA

2016-10-27 13:45:30 UTC

Elena FP, Italy

2016-10-27 13:53:14 UTC

Actually, behavior management IS my main challenge when it comes to any kind of team/collaborative work. I teach in a Vocational School and my students are often unmotivated, ill-behaved, not willing to do anything outside their 'comfort zone'. Another problem for me is assessing collaborative work, I know I could use checklists for example, but I'd have to make sure my students are taking them seriously enough.
I hope I can get some useful hints via this course!

Chris Healy, Ireland

2016-10-27 14:27:02 UTC

I recently got my students to engage in collaborative work when correcting tests. The students responded very well to this student led activity and i did not encounter any major behavioral issues. With this I think that it would be beneficial for the students to correct each others work on an on going basis, as long as I had a good rubric for them to follow.

Anita M.

anitam3 — 2016-10-27 15:12:31 UTC

Assessement in collaborative work is very important . I got my students to engage in sharing responsibility correcting each others in their different steps (activity results, language and communication, respect of rules and timing ...) It needs time , I know , but it is necessary before starting a new following step /activity

Arlindo Pereira , Portugal

2016-10-27 15:49:31 UTC

In my opinion the behavior management is difficult, especially with some students because they often do not meet the teamwork rules. I agree that collaborative learning assessing is difficult. I usually make direct observation grids and the groups utilyze the Padlet and I give feedback. The self and peer evaluation is also very important. I never used this tools.

Teresa Pires, Portugal

tcardosopires — 2016-10-27 15:56:37 UTC

My experience in collaborative work with students aged 8 and 9 years is based on the realization of group work, small groups, in which tasks are pre-defined so that students clearly know what function each group member . Later, each student should know present their work so that makes sense and enrich the overall work.
In this age (6 years) collaborative work is based on the construction of collective works (class) where each child takes a role and their task then makes sense within the whole.
It is not always easy to promote this type of tasks, as very young children tend to be very individualistic and not realize sometimes their role within the group.
Students with larger appetites and better work rate collaborate and encourage colleagues less skilled or more immature.
In recreational activities, check om collaboration is greater, as well as enthusiasm.

Jesus Leão, Portugal

2016-10-27 15:59:27 UTC

When talking about collaborative learning, with primary school children, behavior management is the biggest challenge.
The evaluation of collaborative learning is particularly difficult, since the performance of students in the group is hard to monitor. The teacher has to make a close monitoring to collect evidence.
Group work control can be done through self-assessment by students and evaluation by pairs by records / observation grids and taking into account the quality of the final product.
The online tools mentioned in the video, I know many, I use some of them at work with colleagues, but with young students, the use of technological resources should be well considered and well planned.
There are other tools that I use frequently with students, being more a great resource at our disposal, functioning as motivation and developing many skills (academic, personal, social, attitudinal, cognitive, ...).

Maria, Italy

mariadecarlo — 2016-10-27 16:24:28 UTC

I prefer to do a group evalutation because I think that this is an important moment formative for all. This is cooperative learning!!! Through circol time I check the individual students assisted by other members of the group. Besides me I make to their companions a question and then they propose a vote ... (I decide with their vote) ... that way everyone participating in the testing and not get bored. It 'a very important educational opportunity.

Anna, Italy

annagrignetti — 2016-10-27 16:24:38 UTC

Evaluate the cooperative learning is not simple!
Usually I do a group evalutation but also an individual one. The group evaluation is used to assess social skills , the individual for specific disciplinary skills.

Loredana, Italy

volpe_loredana — 2016-10-27 17:03:22 UTC

Behaviour management is really a challenging goal when you work with students aged from eleven to thirteen. I monitor teamwork ,in the first phase of the project, focusing my attention on their ability to cooperate, share ideas, negotiate and respect the timing assigned for the task

Nicola S. Italy

spotonicola — 2016-10-27 17:26:24 UTC

My students are quite motivated and, even if they are not used to collaborative learning activities, usually they follow teacher's instructions. So I don't think that in my school it would be difficult to cope with students engaged in collaborative practices. But it would be quite demanding to keep them on track and to check every single step of teamwork, especially with students that need more help.Online tools can be useful, but this kind of work needs a lot of time to be done: in order to give a feedback to every group the teacher has to work a lot at home! In my opinion, assessing collaborative learning is difficult too. In collaborative activities you have to evaluate the team work, but as an Italian teacher I am asked to give a mark to every single student too. The answer to this problem could be using observation grids to evaluate interpersonal skills and team collaboration: I know that Rubrics is a very useful resource. Students should have the opportunity of expressing their impressions about the pros and the cons of their work too. In order to evaluate what information students have learnt i think that oral and/or written tests could help. To sum up, the final mark should take into account the final product, how the team worked and what every member of the team has learnt in terms of academic content.

Caroline Breyley, Scotland

2016-10-27 17:42:17 UTC

My students are well motivated and enjoy working co-operatively and collaboratively which means that behaviour management is not an issue. Younger children learn alongside older ones who are good role models for how to work as part of a team. I do expect a level of self assessment from all the children even the youngest ones. Group assessment is more challenging and I try to take time to observe each group so I can see how they are interacting and how they are contributing. We do use some online collaborative tools eg word, powerpoint and sway which enable me to see exactly who has contributed what to a finished product but there is more to assessment than this I know!

Roberta Min

robertamini — 2016-10-27 17:44:09 UTC

Roberta Minì - Italy

robertamini — 2016-10-27 17:44:09 UTC

I've experienced for the last two years to manage behaviour through collaborative learning. As a teacher of English in a vocational school (14-19 years of age) the first problem to solve is creating motivation, as it seems always difficult to involve students in any types of activity. Through collaborative learning they realize that each of them is of great importance for the final work and they have starded monitoring each other. The most difficult aspect in guiding collaborative work is assessment as students very often work aiming to the grade more than what they are really learning, so through mind map they produce I evaluate them singularly and I use as well a grid to evaluate the final work.

Kinda Ibolya, Brasov, Romania

kinda_ibyci — 2016-10-27 18:34:32 UTC

I find a little more difficult collaborative learning, team work. I think that is also because the age of my students (3-6 years). It's very difficult for them to share, to listen and to accept someone else opinon or decision.

Cristina, Romania,

cristinapeicuti — 2016-10-27 18:40:50 UTC

I gree that assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult.

Natasa Vrapcevic, Serbia

vrapcevic — 2016-10-27 18:45:29 UTC

Collaborative learning is interesting, especially for young students. Sometimes in my classroom happens that some students do''n t want to work in a group, than I have to animate and motivate them, knowing their interests.

Nikos, Greece

nikosmouratog — 2016-10-27 18:46:35 UTC

I believe that collaborative learning is difficult to be monitored and therefore evaluated as its' manifestation depends on multiple dimensions and factors. For example, the learning environment, students' age, the aim and the style of the main activity, the multiple skills that are emerging and that these skills differentiate among the members, are some of these dimensions. Therefore, due to the lack of homogeneity among people, conditions and skills that exist it is pretty much a difficult attempt to do so.

Irena, Poland

irenagd — 2016-10-27 18:47:16 UTC

I agree that assessing collaborative learning is extremely difficult because the engagement, quality and amount of work done by different team members is various depending on skills, abilities, personalities etc. Therefore, I set serveys after team work asking them avaluate both individual and group activeness. Of course I observe their work during our classes but mostly my students are obliged to prepare outcomes athome , which is timeconsuming and demanding. That is why their selfassessment is vital for me.

Orsola,Ita

2016-10-27 19:40:59 UTC

I agree that assessing collaborative learning is particulary difficult,but it is very important too. The tools mentioned in the video and the teaching experience shown is really interessin

Nurcan , Turkey

2016-10-27 20:03:44 UTC

Collaborative learning is enjoyable and helpul. Students help each other , share knowledge and they create wonderful things. But assessment is a little bit difficult.

Patrizia Italy

2016-10-27 20:07:11 UTC

Collaborative learning is the best way to motivate students and I agree that assessing it isn't easy but ,at the same time, it is stimulating both for teachers and for students who can use their personal skills to contribute to the best results of the group in which they are working in.

Paola Arduini, Italy

paolarduini — 2016-10-27 20:25:43 UTC

I can say that even in first graders, children can work very hard in group and peer assesment is a tool that I often use ( well, that pupils use!)

Helena Louzeiro, Portugal

helenalouzeiro — 2016-10-27 20:31:18 UTC

I agree with some of the collegues, collaborative work is useful, because promotes some social skils, motivates the students, and they can sharethe knowlege with the others. But I also agree that the individual evaluation is difficult, because we can´t be near the groups all the time, and is hard to know if everyone had contributed to the final work or not.

Elisabete Carvalho, Maria Araújo, Olga Seabra, Paula Cavadas, Paula Usha_ Portugal

2016-10-27 20:49:06 UTC

Francesca, Italy

francescagiala — 2016-10-27 21:02:39 UTC

In my experience of collaborative learning I have obtained excelent results so the time for organization is useful for the development of the skills.

Teresa Faneca

teresafaneca — 2016-10-27 21:41:48 UTC

It is a work very interesting, but not very easy to develop because the behavior and all student involvement in experiments of this kind is difficult to assess. It is essential that students are responsible and autonomous in the use of online tools, as well as other concepts and be motivated for the implementation of collaborative work.

Elsa Pereira, PT

2016-10-27 21:42:02 UTC

The evaluation of collaborative work is very difficult as well as behavior management in the classroom when performing this type of work, specially with vocacional classes.
Normally I use direct observation grids to evaluate the results and all the work process. Sometimes i use padlet as a tool to check the tasks of the students.

Teresa Oliveira

toliv2 — 2016-10-27 23:46:43 UTC

In my experience, behavior management is more problematic with younger students. And for me assessing collaborative learning it is also difficult. I try to use checklists, peer assessment and selfassessment.

Dana Nistor / Romania

danadanistor — 2016-10-27 23:51:30 UTC

Collaborative learning in an online classroom can be the solution.

Valentina, Bulgaria

valia_tr — 2016-10-28 04:30:39 UTC

I agree with some of the colleagues opinion. And yes- the evaluation is not easy.

Marilena, Greece

becsa1 — 2016-10-28 05:47:57 UTC

In my experience, getting students to stay on track and having all members engaged and contributing is the biggest challenge. I haven’t found a solution, except from evaluating students individually. The rubric, a short report after each session and a peer review at the end, as mentioned in the video, would be very helpful indeed in monitoring the collaboration.

Olgica, Serbia

olgicaspasojevic — 2016-10-28 07:04:55 UTC

There are many difficulties in collaborative learning. Students motivation often depends on the topic. Self and peer assessment depends on the ages. It is very important to do some kind of evaluation with young students, and their competencies for self assessment will gradually increase.

Amélie Silvert

silverteacher — 2016-10-28 07:14:07 UTC

I have been practising "silent marking" while students are working in groups. They all need have a clear agenda and know what they have to finish and to learn. I evaluate their involvement and their interactions that have to always to be conducted in English The final assessment are either presentations, or speed debating sessions during which they have to have arguments. Arguments can not be made without knowledge. When evaluation is not possible in class, I make sure to interact online with the "quiet" students. Technology allows them to have a voice. I'm not worried about the noise, but more about silence in fact.

Eleftheria

2016-10-28 07:52:13 UTC

The biggest problem for me when my students work together on a project is behavior and asseement. I'm still trying to find ways around it.

Vanesa,Croatia

2016-10-28 08:00:21 UTC

Assessment is one of the biggest problems in a collaborative learning. I personally don't do group assessment, only individual.

Maria. Italia

mariagranatiero — 2016-10-28 08:36:43 UTC

Vitality that this new generation

Kateryna Kramnychna, Ukraine

rocksy_12 — 2016-10-28 08:39:51 UTC

I like the idea of using the online tools. That is the easiest way of sharing the results of work for students in the classroom.

Elisabete Carvalho, Maria Araújo, Olga Seabra, Paula Cavadas e Paula Usha_Portugal

2016-10-28 09:54:39 UTC

Alena, Czech Republic

2016-10-28 11:15:02 UTC

I find the specimen project as a great inspiration how to get project-based approach into classroom. It enables to set own pace for each group, it requires a lot of facilitation especially at the beginning, I like the idea of checking work in progress via scrumpy app or communication via Edmodo. Assessing collaborative learning needs a different way of assessment then I´m used to. I know about rubrics and find them useful for collaborative learning assessment. For the time being when assessing the students project work I facilitate their work, give them feedback, their final evaluation is a grade, though. The pair/group usually receives the same grade.

Svetlana, Estonia

2016-10-28 11:19:44 UTC

If every student has E-portfolio, it is a good possibility to evaluate student's contribution to the project. Edmodo is a good resource for project's work.

Evangelia, Greece

Evangelia_Chasapi — 2016-10-28 12:01:25 UTC

Many aspects related to collaborative learning such as engaging the weaker students and making them having a central role, behavior management or getting students to stay on a track are challenging. In every collaborative activity I am trying to find solutions in every problem that will appear in order to make the experience more effective. I would really like to know how to use Edmodo or other online tools and this will be one of my next priorities.

Francisco Pinto, PT

franciscopinto — 2016-10-28 12:02:17 UTC

I think that keep students on task can be a major problem in collaborative learning. Scrumy can be a very useful tool.
The assessment can only be a problem if the students perform a self and peer assessment.

Erato, Greece

2016-10-28 12:14:23 UTC

For me the biggest challenge is to keep students motivated throughout the project. I believe that assessing collaborative learning is rather difficult, because i find hard to monitor teamwork effectively. I think that self and peer assessment would be very useful

Münevver, Turkey

2016-10-28 13:11:26 UTC

I think that it is not easy to get students stay in track in a group and motivate them to carry out a project or performance is rather difficult. I believe that team work is essential for students; however, all students do not contribute to their work equally. Some of them are really good at expressing themselves and organizing things and they do not hesitate to express themslves clearly while others stay silent and do not want to work actively. In a situation like this making assessment for their work becomes more difficult. If I know students more, it becomes easier to have an idea. Also, I use student logbooks to follow their learning process, self and peer assessment forms. What is I do take care most is the work itself...(I am sorry;)
I know the apps used in the video and I like Prezi and Edmodo. We used Prezi to make Presentations; but I havent used Edmodo in the classes yet.

Astrid Hulsebosch

AstridVE — 2016-10-28 13:54:21 UTC

I'm convinced that it's impossibile to concentrate about innovative teaching methods without considering classroom management. I have some blog, I follow to keep updated and i have created a pinterest boards with resources and ideas how to implement classroom management. Of course it's not always easy and there aren't real recipes, because above all it's a question relation and comunication. I try and I fall and  feeling that I'm learning together with my students how to manage in the best way.

Suzana Santos - Portugal

arlindopereira3 — 2016-10-28 14:01:56 UTC

Working togheter may be a way to motivate the students with more dificulties to achieve a competence or to understand a subject, but I agee that, assessing collaborative work is dificult.

Teresa Pombo, Portugal

teresapombo — 2016-10-28 14:34:13 UTC

I loved this testimony because I recognised some types of activities and tools I already use in my classes.
Since my students have 12-15 years old, sometime behavior management is quite difficult. I try that the group monitors their own work but, in fact, assessing group work is diffiocult, mainly, having evidence of each students activities and envolvement.. Self and peer assessmnet seem to be vert useful ways of doing so.

Dora Dellaporta, Greece

2016-10-28 15:18:00 UTC

In fact, behavior management and assessment are serious difficulties of collaborative learning.
If every team is obliged to present its work to plenary sessions of the class from time to time before the end of the project, the students focus on their work in order to do a good presentation.
Another idea is to do self evaluation and team evaluation using rubrics which the students themselves have determined.
The project and the ideas of Ms Laghigna were fantastic! Cong.!!!

Margarida Sousa PT

2016-10-28 16:10:35 UTC

Yes, it is a real challenge!
It is difficult because we have few experience. We only work in group, two or three times a year. It is not enough but it is the true.
I explain the work, the process, the rules of working in group, as a team, respecting ideas and voting for a decision.
I also explain the evaluation but it is very difficult to me.
The tools and all the ways of the video are of course ver useful!

Nana Paliashvili

2016-10-28 16:11:28 UTC

This is a interesting video and show us very well how to create independent learners. The online tools are a great way to make students get connected each other and share their work. With that, of couse, teacher can also monitor their team work.

Elisabete Cruz, Viseu

elisabete_cruz3 — 2016-10-28 17:13:56 UTC

Indeed, when students have access to the technologies, they become more autonomous. The real problem is to select and sum up all the information. There is the
time for the teachers to come up.

Antónia Brandão e José Ruão

dolores_brandao — 2016-10-28 17:16:50 UTC

In our experience of collaborative learning, behavior management and getting students to stay on track is sometimes a challenge. Not all the classes have a excellent behavior and then teacher, as the adult in the relationship, must motivate students and show them that it can be very pleasant work with colleagues not only but also, because a big number of competences can be improved.

In fact we agree that assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult, and experiences of this is not always very positive. Since we learned to use rubrics of evaluations (we also use Rubistar, because one of us has been in a PDW eTwinning were she knew the tool) is more easy to evaluate teamwork. Do the monitoring of teamwork is also a challenge and we eventually use the ways mentioned in the video (e.g. through self and peer assessment) useful. We know by name a big number of online tools mentioned, and we use sometimes titanpad, Google docs, padlet, kahoot, etc

viki dogani, greece

2016-10-28 17:50:17 UTC

collaborative learning is good for students, not difficult for them. Edmodo is a nice tool.

Clara Abegão, Portugal

acjesus — 2016-10-28 17:52:13 UTC

I've discovered that it's difficult to keep students focused when the lesson comes from the teacher. I´m lucky because I work with secondary grade students and I don´t have problems in behavior management. Eliminating dead time is the key and I must plan all the activities and define my learning objectives very well at home before I ask my students to engage the task, and I must develop an effective assessment system that aligns with the goals of the activity. I try several assessment approaches, depending on learning objectives and the students. Self-assessment is always used in groups who have demonstrated a high level of responsibility and skill at the cooperative learning process, as a way of promoting more self-reflection. I use it as an incentive, too. Peer-assessment is not always effective because, although most of the time students are in good position to “judge” their colleague’s performance, social dynamics may undermine the process. So, I always use process assessment and a product assessment. Process assessment is good because it helps motivate each student to put forth full effort and be cooperative and doesn´t penalize for others lack of effort and it helps motivate the all group to work through problems, collaborate and use the prescribed process format. Using Product assessment, I reward students for their personal contribution and I don´t penalize them for others lack of quality (I know that here I am not readily promoting cooperation skills…), and it also helps motivate the group to create a quality outcome.

Paula Ornelas

pmogmar — 2016-10-28 19:44:57 UTC

Well...I've come to implement the following strategies...I choose the leaders and they choose their peers alternatively...I give the leader a form with skills they have to evaluate and they must discuss between them their form of achieving their goals and produce their work within the boundaries I have determined...their assessment is monitored by the leader and they must validate it peerwise...

collaborative learning with the help of technologies is a very good solution

2016-10-28 19:52:56 UTC

Martha Karvounidou, Greece

2016-10-28 20:03:47 UTC

This year I am trying to integrate formative assessment in my planning and to involve my students in self-evaluation with the use of rubrics. I found it very useful.

Hanefi ZOBAR, Turkey

hzobar — 2016-10-28 20:24:12 UTC

I think assesing students is a little bit difficult during collaborative learning. Its not easy to identify indiviudally.

MargaridaCruz, PT

margarida_fcruz — 2016-10-28 20:24:58 UTC

Colaborative work doesn´t replace individual work. So we need to use both assesse
ment methodologies to obtain de best results

Lina Mosca Italy

2016-10-28 20:39:10 UTC

I am a foreign language teacher and for my languege it is very important that my students are motiveted. When they speak French I ask the other students to assess

the oral performance using a rubric I give them end so they are very interested to all lesson. �(��

Eduardo, Israel

2016-10-28 20:51:02 UTC

I have a bit, by which I mean not much, of experience getting pupils to qork collaboratively in the framework of Project Based Learning. I have found getting students to stay on track a challenge indeed. There is no doubt, however, that learning has been more meaningful than in a traditional framework. I have also got pupils to work colaboratively on Projects. Again, I have had the need to get some of my pupils to stay on task, but then that would happen even without project work. Alternative assessment poses its challenge, too, but aain, it is worth making the effort. As for technology, I have used mainlyMoodle and Google tools for a few years now.

Michele, Italy

michele_blandino — 2016-10-28 21:05:14 UTC

In this video many online tools are mentioned (rubistar, padlet, edmodo, popplet, etc). I'm very curious to get more information about some of them.

Michele

michele_blandino — 2016-10-28 21:05:16 UTC

Katerina Stafylidou, Greece

astafylid — 2016-10-28 21:21:01 UTC

When I assign collaborative learning activities in my classes, I circulate among students to offer my assistance when needed and in the process I try to make sure that they stay on track and they behave properly. By having rather tight time limits, they tend to feel they should not waste their time and risk leaving their task unfinished. Assessment is indeed difficult and although I am familiar with the online tools mentioned I prefer to monitor teamwork through peer-assessment.

Heidi, Germany

2016-10-28 21:37:19 UTC

Staying on track is a challenge, I agree. What I experience when planning, preparing and monitoring collaborative work is the lack of time at school, the days with timetables full of 4 or 5 different subjects a day, so 1 or 2 hours of project work isn't that much and when you want the students to write a summary about what they've done until then you need more time in the classroom. Self assessment or also peer assessment is useful and important. It needs to learn how to do.

Susana Varela, Portugal

7suslucas — 2016-10-28 22:21:15 UTC

Although evaluation is a continuous process where teachers and students evaluate their learning, in most Portuguese schools the written evaluation tests continue to occupy an important place on students’ evaluation.
My school is no exception! That’s why all the students of the same school year have to solve their evaluation tests on the same dates.
However, to formatively assess my students I focus myself on self evaluation and on peer assessment. I am also already using the assessment tool “Rubric”.

Susana Neves, Portugal

shesuhed — 2016-10-28 23:10:12 UTC

As a teacher of a group of students aged between sixteen and eighteen, I do not consider that the behavior control is a challenge. However, sometimes it is difficult for students to remain focused on the task, especially when they are working in group. To avoid dispersions, I usually ask the students, at the beginning of each new work, to develop a plan where they should predict the time they need to accomplish each task. Such planning is shared with me and at the end of each class the various groups must present the state of their work. In case of non-fulfillment of the tasks planned, they must present the reasons for it.

To observe and check the progress of the working’s group, I usually move around the classroom, supervising what the students are doing, giving them feedback and making suggestions. Depending on the task, I ask students to share with me their work for me to be able to comment on it in writing.

The evaluation of the collaborative work is particularly difficult. So, I usually initiate the development of a set of performance descriptors for each project I propose. These descriptors are reported to the students and sometimes are negotiated with them. These descriptors are the benchmark for students effecting their self-assessment and doing the evaluation of their peers and are the criteria used for me to do the evaluation of the group as a whole and of each of its elements. When the group works are completed, I confront the data of self-assessment and peer review with my own data and discuss them with the students.

Regarding the mentioned online tools, I only use often Google Docs.

Sharon - Australia

2016-10-29 00:00:16 UTC

I work with 7 year olds teaching content through a foreign language therefore behaviour management can be a challenge - however, we have set 'group rules' which each group must adhere to. Assessment is a challenge per se as I am teaching in a foreign language

Olga Keramida-Greece

2016-10-29 03:48:05 UTC

I am working with 4-6 aged kids so collaborative learning is really challenging

with my students it is easier, because the acitivities are focus on specific tasks. I can monitor through Edmodo or asking my students.

2016-10-29 03:49:50 UTC

Diana-Colombia

Despina Riniou, Greece

driniou — 2016-10-29 04:53:33 UTC

Keeping students on track is a challenge, I need to watch the video again to understand what exactly this teacher proposes about this. I monitor students work by asking them to answer some questions about their work at the end of the activity, one student per group answers the questions but the answers come from all the group members. The online tools look very interesting but I am not familiar with them.

Isabel, Sp

2016-10-29 07:51:25 UTC

It was at the beginning. My students prepare materials for Early Childhood and Primary Education. We prepared an evaluation rubric covering the product (if it is appropriate and suitable for the group of age they were assigned, if the language is correct, ect.) and the process (they have to fill in another rubric explaining how well they dealt with the tasks). This second one is filled in individually and confidentially.

My pupils are aged 10-13 so every new experiences is a challenge fro me and them. I monitor every step of teamwork and I think that through self and peer assessment very useful. Rubric covering is really interesting and useful for organization

2016-10-29 07:51:53 UTC

Valeria Manfreda
Italy

Marco Martinelli, Rome, Italy

radagast1974 — 2016-10-29 08:50:51 UTC

Thank you so much for sharing. I have a similar experience about the potential and the challenges of these activities. On the challenge side, I also found that the environment may become loud and lose sense of purpose. Your idea of making them accountable for every small session is interesting.
I am not sure if I would want to assess in a summative way (e.g. with a grade) their collaboration skills. Educational culture, in Italy and elsewhere, is already too grade-oriented, to the expense of constructive feedback and what you call "discreet guidance".

Stefania, Italy

lastefi07 — 2016-10-29 09:30:26 UTC

In my normal experience behavior management is a challenge because generally my students have to listen and to be silent (I mean, when they study other subjects!). So when I enter the classroom and start my "active" lesson, which means talk with the teacher and their peers, my students tend to confuse my intention. But I have the skill I need to make them change their mind :) .
I still have not a specific experience in collaborative teaching thourgh technology, but I would not assess students' collaborative skills. I consider collaboration a skill which must be learned and improved step by step.

Ester Degennaro-Italy

esterdegennaro — 2016-10-29 09:39:08 UTC

I use all the collaborative online tools mentioned in the video. Self and peer assessment are useful to monitor teamwork

Elena B. Italy

teacherEB — 2016-10-29 11:36:55 UTC

Congrats to Anna Laghigna for her great project. I immediately searched how Scrumy works, thank you for the suggestion. The Assessment is big challenge but by means of good rubrics it can be solved, let’s try

Enrica Maragliano - Italy

EMGe — 2016-10-29 11:55:50 UTC

I think that eTwinning projects if well planned are really useful experiences for PBL. It is true that assessment of team work it is not easy. Last week we hosted Enzo Zecchi as speaker at an eTwinning regional event and he gave us some hints and tips about assessment of PBL activity. But teachers are not formed to do that and when we use this approach we are out of our comfort zone, so we must be supported in this activity. I found really very useful the MOOC we attended last Summer about PBL, that was also giving a scaffolding about assessment of PBL projects. But I think we have still to learn a lot... also from each other...

Leila Lehtmets

lehtmets_leila — 2016-10-29 11:57:00 UTC

For me, as a kindergarten teacher, to stay on track is a real challenge. Little kids’ attention is short, they lost their interest quickly, they have not enough experience and skills to solve problems etc. I must be present at the same time for all groups, to encourage every team to talk, to ask, to find solutions, to lead. Assessment is also difficult, because they usually answer simply No or Yes, they are not able to analyze very well yet. Mentioned online tools are very useful for older students, I can’t use these for 4-6 years old kids exactly like on the video, but tools are useful for me.

Cristina, Romania

voicuelena18 — 2016-10-29 13:09:35 UTC

I think behavior management and guiding students is for every teacher a challenge, because it is important to assess very carefully each students and be aware of each aspects of their work. Students must know from the beginning what the expectations are, what should act during project and in relation with other students, with their teammates. Teacher have to facilitate the dialog, the help students to find good solutions, to be active and responsible.

Elisabetta, Italia

classedieli — 2016-10-29 15:36:22 UTC

Io ho valutato il lavoro collaborativo con rubriche valutative e schede di automonitoraggio ma sono alla ricerca di altri strumenti che mi soddisfino di più.

Vanda Batista, Portugal

2016-10-29 16:20:31 UTC

As a school teacher I think managing the behavior of children (7 and 8 years) is sometimes complicated, require much guidance for the tasks. I design with them maps of simple concepts so as not to disperse during the activities.

Andrea Z., Switzerland

ziateacher — 2016-10-29 16:22:54 UTC

It is quite a job for us teachers to make every single student (mine are between 15 and 19) show the desired behavior when collaborating.
On the other hand, it is our students' own decision and responsibility (one of the key competences in our school system) how much and how intensely they want to collaborate with others or perform in class, so why should we bother
as long as students are given clear guidance and objectives, transparent assessment criteria and deadlines?
As to assessment, in the past I used to give 1/3 of a mark based on my observations in the course of the project, 1/3 mark came from the students themselves (self-evaluation of their input and degree of collaboration etc. - they turned out to be rather strict with themselves; not using rubric) and 1/3 of the mark concerned their presentation/ paper/ results.
I am not too fond of peer assessment, since immature students tend to give their classmates a too 'friendly' mark (or the opposite), but I will integrate it in future.
As to the tools mentioned: I work with Google docs a lot (we use moodle as e-learning platform) and have used prezi for my own presentations, but not asked students to work with it.

Lívia, Portugal

2016-10-29 16:49:24 UTC

Teamwork is the key word in this situation. First, you must motivate to this type of work which is already difficult. Then, expect all students to work with the same level of effort and, above all, trust them. If they say they all work, we have to believe they all work. I've used Wikis a lot. There's always a record of the students who change, download and post something on the page. I have to try the tools on the video. Assessment is always difficult, it doesn't matter if it's individual or group assessment. I'm sure it is always great to make it easier.

Jole, Sicily

2016-10-29 16:52:58 UTC

Evaluation questionnaires both the group and individual self-assessment questionnaires are the tools I use ... I'd like to expand my knowledge on this topic because it is always difficult to assess.

Odete Pinho

modetepinho — 2016-10-29 17:00:19 UTC

I agree that assessing collaborative learning is difficult because when the students works in group there is some that works more that others. All the studensts has to be responsible for their tasks.
It is difficult to work of collaborative learning with students between 5 and 7 years old.

Michal

2016-10-29 17:24:43 UTC

From my point of view, assessing collaborative learning can be a real challenge. There are students who enjoy team work, work hard, but unfortunately, some students aren't used to collaborative learning and they think it's time to have fun when they are supposed to work in teams.

Ionela Lazea, Romania

kameeliah16bis — 2016-10-29 18:04:30 UTC

I work in a kindergarten where we don’t have grades, so for me is very important to have an accurate and realistic assessment system for the collaboration activities.

Anna Ciaramella Italy

ciaramellaanna — 2016-10-29 18:17:03 UTC

Yes I agree that the collaborative learning evaluation is difficult, especially in primary school because children are still not so mature to know how to do a proper evaluation.
As for the control of teamwork in primary you use other ways than those mentioned in the video, the important thing is get the same results

Carmela Cundari - Italy

melcunda — 2016-10-29 18:19:50 UTC

Collaborative teaching and learning, in my opinion, is much more difficult with younger students. Talking about behavior, for instance, students, expecially younger students, usually have to work silently and quietly, that's why when they meet a different way of learning (like collaborative learning and group-work) they "forget" to adjust the volume of their voices. Also about assessment I think self evaluation with rubrics and peer reviews are a pretty good way to assess secondary school students, but they can hardly be used to assess younger students. I agree with Anna that is challenging to assess long-life skills like collaboration, personal responsibility, leadership, time-management and organisation. I usually observe my students while working and use a gride where I put kind of marks to evaluate how they are working together.

Paola Mattioli/Roma

pmattioli — 2016-10-29 18:56:56 UTC

Collaborative learning evaluation is difficult when we go to judge the final product without think to the students skills. We have to try self and peer assessment in collaborative practices

Anna Rosa, Italy

ar_b — 2016-10-29 18:58:36 UTC

I usually explain that every dimension of our lives is important (individual dimension, group dimension, social dimension) and learning to recognize skills of vulnerable students is not easy but it is a key element of learning process.

Online tools mentioned are used in my school too and they are very engaging.

Giorgia, Romania

giorgiagroza — 2016-10-29 19:06:53 UTC

Very interesting project, but a lot of hours of working to prepare the materials. It is suitable for ages begining with 14. Collaborative learning evaluation is difficult, wspecialy when the curriculum contains a lot of activities.

Hülya, TURKEY

hulyaos31 — 2016-10-29 19:08:20 UTC

I think my students like these activities but we need much more time for each step. In the class my students follow all instructions step by step in activities so I think it is not difficult to keep them on a track. However we need more time and more qualified plan. I think assesing collaborative learning will be diffucult.
In each activities and in each team work, we have to prepare detailed rubrics to evaluate the students. The final mark should be the average of the marks of team of the students. Also we can give a checklist, so they can check what they did or not.We can evaluate students on both their contributions to group processes as well as the final product.We have to give detailed explanations of what we expect.

Reneta Raicheva, Bulgaria

2016-10-29 20:06:20 UTC

Amazing project...thank you, dear Anna! Congrats for the great ideas! Nice methods of CL in foreign language classes. Here's our practice regarding to
it - learning via sticks & cups...enjoy! :)

Antonia, the Netherlands

chanja — 2016-10-29 20:50:03 UTC

Wow, I wish I was already at her stage of PBL. I do agree with her that the assessment remains a difficult stage. As I am a beginner at PBL I do not have ready answers for Anna.
In our school the students need a lot of guidance and structure so each step of the project requires a thorough preparation.

Veronica, Italy

2016-10-29 21:07:05 UTC

I loved Anna's video and hope to be able to motivate my students as well as she does hers. I agree that using digital tools to redirect is a more discreet way of facilitating progress and it is usually appreciated as Anna says because students really feel that I'm interested in their progress rather than just finding an opportunity to give them a mark. It is sometimes challenging to get used to a class which has to make more noise in order to work well in the various groups. Adapting to the idea of student-led learning as opposed to teacher-led learning can be quite difficult. I too would like to know how to assess the more collaborative and personal skills PBL develops. Thank you Anna.

Despoina Amarantidou, Greece

damarant — 2016-10-29 21:38:43 UTC

An excellent project! Students always surprise me with their abilities. I have been working on PBL for about a year and I always try to get new ideas and inspiration.

Kamilla/Poland

adllerchen — 2016-10-29 23:30:00 UTC

Congratulation Anna! Great job!
Project evaluation is very difficult. The involvement of pupils is different. Good practice is self-evaluation and team-evaluation.

Sue AUS

suzanne_durick — 2016-10-30 03:09:23 UTC

I agree that assessing collaborative learning is more complex. Like Anna I often get the group to rate each other on their work ethic, motivation and compatibility etc within the group. this is done either throughout the process or at the end as summative assessment.
Through collaborative documents you can also ask students to initial the part of the assessment which they were responsible for if appropriate. I like shared google documents as you can see who is doing what - again formative assessment along the way.
Like Anna from Italy says, primary children often do need a lot more support working in groups - but I think starting young is a great way to embed PBL.

Maria Laura Italy

mammolimlaura — 2016-10-30 08:36:51 UTC

Thanks to Anna for thsi very interesting report on CL. I will follow her suggestions I agrre with her about the Italian system of Asssessing. In my opinions we won't have time of assessing all skills if we stay in such a system

Fatih TOY / Turkey

mrtoy — 2016-10-30 09:11:58 UTC

I totally agree that assessing collaborative learning is particularly diffcult especially for middle school learners aged between 10-14. The students at those ages can be misunderstood by peer assessment and I have never tried self assessment in my classes, because they can sometimes be reluctant to express their actual feelings. Online tools mentioned in the video are excellent and particularly I have been using Edmodo with my students and students can track the flow of the classes via Edmodo and also parents can be informed about the class activities, but Edmodo is just keeping the communication between me and my students for now. I have never thought using Edmodo in a collaborative project like the awesome one in the video.

Daniel Caridade, Portugal

dcaridade — 2016-10-30 11:58:24 UTC

I find it a bit challenging sometimes to keep the students on track inside the group work, mainly since the students aren't used to work like this, and tend to try and skip steps in their planning, focusing mainly in the end product, not aknowledging the importance of the work progress. Since the students are responsible for choosing their own group mates, I give them all the same grade. I try to make available at the end of each class, with this group dynamic, a partial evaluation of the work done by all the groups, to let them know how are they're doing and which aspects (behavior, organization and contribution to the project) they should fine tune for the next session. I find this method very effective in allowing the students to self regulate their own and their group mates participations. I haven't used the online tools mentioned, but was interested in Scrumy (pity it doesn't have a portuguese version).

Helene Stavropoulou, Greece

elenistavro7 — 2016-10-30 12:05:36 UTC

I totally agree that behavior management and getting students to stay on track is a challenge for the teacher. In my daily practice, I foresee activities specially prepared to motivate my 12-15 years old
students. I loose a lot of time to prepare them, and I devote a large part of the cours to practice them. Moreover, it does not always succeeds!!!

I agree that assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult for my students aged between 12-15. Whenever I tried to asseess collaborative learning, I had the impression that I was passing beside the point. In my country, we lack the necessary culture as well as the necessary tools to assess the team work of students.

Il find very useful the ways mentioned in this video (through self and peer assessment), but the teacher does not always have the opportunity to apply them because of the organization of studies at our country which raises a lot of obstacles.

The tools mentionned in the video are magnificent and I'll use them. Thank you a lot for this !

David Doherty Co. Donegal Ireland

daviddoherty — 2016-10-30 12:51:12 UTC

Module 1: Loved the peer assessment rubric from the video and will definitely put my thinking hat on in relation to Summative assessment of collaborative work

Maria José, Portugal

epacsb_mjsousa — 2016-10-30 12:54:42 UTC

The management of space in the classroom is interesting and does not indicate a problem because students engage easily. Nevertheless, the evaluation of this type of work is not easy. I know tools used but have difficulty making the peer assessment or a reflective self-assessment

Sophia Kouzouli, Greece

sophiakouz — 2016-10-30 13:52:36 UTC

I totally agree with the ways mentioned in the video! I have often used online tools to promote self and per assessment. I think they are appropriate for the age and interests! Thus, they receive it better and appreciate it!!

2016-10-30 14:16:35 UTC

Vitalija, Lithuania

2016-10-30 14:41:06 UTC

I do agree that assessing collaborative learning is difficult.. It's very difficult to weigh the amount of the work done in the group. Usually I use summative assessment (behaviour, organisation, collaboration, personal responsibility, leadership, time-management, etc.).Students know for what they will be assessed beforehand and they regulate their own and their group mates participation while working. I usually watch my students while they are working and fill in a grid where I write marks to evaluate their group work.I don't use IT tools for assessment.

Ljiljana Lez-Drnjevic, Croatia

LjiljanaLD — 2016-10-30 15:01:31 UTC

Totally agree with most of the participants. But most important is to prepare the project working and to regulate the process.

Marlis Schedler, Austria

2016-10-30 15:28:41 UTC

i think, its good to report the things, the students have done. I do agree it is important to give feedback during the process, so they can make it better. Summantive feedback is to late.

Tiziana- ITALY

2016-10-30 17:15:45 UTC

Anna has done a great job and I know she has been involved in working in a different way as we have done some MOOCs online where the focus was on modern web 2.0 and digital storytelling .

I think that PBL and collaboration need to be implemented in our daily activities but if we use rubrics we can manage. Today we have a lot of modern tools which can help us. It is up to us to start using them and helping the learners to work better:

- teachers monitor the students online while working in the first steps
- students know how they will be assessed
- self-assessment and peer assessment are important
- we should all realize that working in group is important and critical thinking skills are now part of our life - teachers and schools need to work on the best practices to implement work in class and at home
Some ideas for Italian teachers who would like to use rubrics thanks to ENZO ZECCHI

https://enzozecchi.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/vademecum-en-post-kluzer_v2-_3_.pdf

http://www.lepidascuola.org/il-metodo/valutazione/#

2016-10-30 17:16:12 UTC

Sabrina Petrillo, ITALY
Watching Anna Laghigna’s video I couldn’t help considering how difficult it is managing my students’ behaviour in a similar situation, since foreign language learners usually carry out speaking activities in groups or in pairs so that teachers have to monitor teamwork as for oral production in a friendly atmosphere walking around the classroom. Since it is not easy to be able to listen and give feedback to the pairs or groups of students, I usually note down in a table any mistakes they might be making as well as examples of good use of language so that I can go over the most frequent mistakes I noted down beforehand with the whole class. At the end of the speaking task, I ask learners to correct the language mistakes I had noted in my table.

Francesca, Italy

francescapulvirenti1 — 2016-10-30 17:26:11 UTC

My students are younger then the ones in the video, so I have to devote part of the lesson to the rules of behavior inside the group and to the role of each member of the group. I use a rubric for self assessment similar to the one in the video. I also ask the members of each group at the end of the work to discuss together and express a shared evaluation of the group work, each member's work inside the group and the final product.

Paulo Cavaco, Portugal

cavacopaulo — 2016-10-30 17:27:04 UTC

I think that assessing collaborative learning is not particularly difficult. First of all, it requires that the teacher and the pupils establish together the classroom rules: which is the behaviour that pupils have to have. When pupils are used to work in a collaborative learning envirement in classroom, they respect each time more the established rules. At the beginning, it is not easy for the teacher to monitor teamwork in classroom. He may feel himself confused, thinking that he is not able to control the group and to monitor the work in progress. But the teacher will each time other create estrategies that will help him to monitor the teamwork.

Emilia, Romania

Emilia_T22 — 2016-10-30 17:48:40 UTC

Yes, behaviour management and getting students to stay on track can be a challenge especially when working with students from primary school and students aged 10-14.Collaboration can't be successful if there isn't respect, communication and the desire to listen to your mate, to help each other when working in a group.I agree that assessing collaborative learning is difficult and a little bit subjective.I have noticed in this video that the teacher used some online tools to collaborate as Google Doc, Titanpad, mindmaps; Prezi for presentations, rubistar to assess projects- tools that I have experimented and I recommend , too.
I think it's a good way that the teacher gave feedback online, commenting their work-this works better with teenager students.

Sónia Castanheira, Portugal

sonia_castanheira — 2016-10-30 18:51:19 UTC

Accessing Collaborative Learning is particularly difficult for students between 13 - 15 years old since when they work together the tasks are not executed equality by all elements of the group. Nevertheless, in older students this does not apply once they have a better focus capability.

Katarina,Serbia

2016-10-30 19:14:06 UTC

An excellent project.But suitable for older students.Collaborative learning evaluation is difficult.It is difficult to work evaluation with children between 7 to 12 years old

Chiara A.

chiarastella_albanello — 2016-10-30 19:49:52 UTC

I think the collaboration with colleagues is essential for such work. The acquisition of student skills is essential and determines a constant and consistent work. Often the guys are motivated but depending on the proposed activity. Project that has intrigued me

Katarzyna Kwiatek-Grabarska, Poland

2016-10-30 20:39:31 UTC

Fantastic example of very good project with great sollutions. When I try to do some work based on project learning I have still some feels that sommething goes wrong and we don't do everything to the end. I feel some mess around me, that I can't restrain it... My students are about 14. Maybe they are not enough responsible or maybe I can't lead project enough good....

Lúcia, Portugal

lucia_paulino — 2016-10-30 20:54:39 UTC

Collaborative Learning may be very challenging when it comes to behavior management. Specially with 12-15 year-old students, sometimes it is hard to keep them all focused on their task, as some are more responsible than others. The idea of a check-list at the end of the class is interesting because the students feel like they need to show some work and the teacher knows what point of their assignment they are in.

Assessment is another challenge, since you have to take into consideration not only the final product but also the process. Teamwork must be monitored to see how students interact and how they are contributing. Therefore, I use observation grids and assess the final work and presentation. Self and peers assessment also play an important role, since students really listen to their classmates opinions and reviews.

Is still have to try some of the tools mentioned in the video.

Annamaria/Italy

anidigre1 — 2016-10-30 20:57:31 UTC

It's a interesting experiment led by an excellent teacher in a Italy Region very

Annamaria/Italy

anidigre1 — 2016-10-30 20:57:32 UTC

It's a interesting experiment led by an excellent teacher in a Italan Region much attend to educational purpouse. What's are Inquary-based learning and webquests?

Ioana, Romania

Ioanan — 2016-10-30 20:57:33 UTC

I think collaborative learning assessment is more difficult, and the tools mentioned in the video are useful.

Richard - Netherlands

r_hulsebos1 — 2016-10-30 21:00:37 UTC

A great project. I agree with some of the participants that it can be quite difficult to evaluate the workprocess with younger students. It is something they have to learn, so that takes time.

The online tools mentioned are great. Especially Docs and Prezi are great tools for assessment. Getting the student stay on track is always a challenge.

Jose Teixeira, PT

2016-10-30 21:25:03 UTC

In my opinion, behaviour management may be really challenge with 12-5 years-old students. Sometimes is not easy to keep them focused on a task.

Assessment is particularly difficult, since you have to carry on individual summative assessment. Teamwork must be monitored to see how students work. Self and peers assessment play an important role, because students really care about their classmates opinions and reviews.

I have to try some of the tools mentioned in the video.

Anabela Brígida/Portugal

abrigida40 — 2016-10-30 21:31:41 UTC

Unfortunately I haven't had a big chance to implement collaborative learning at school because in our country school system is still very focused in the curriculum and final grades. As a result of all the changes implemented at the pace of changing in the government teachers are still stuck to "the old times" a lot.
Also my students are younger and in early years in learning a foreign language.
I'm really enthusiastic about the possibilites of change we are facing now allowing schools to implement the change they want.
So, most of my experience in collaborative learning is developed in European Club I manage, with voluntary students, in developing eTwinning and Erasmus+ projects.
This way we can organize our work in a different way, build content together and collaborate to achieve our goals... not worried with the curriculum and grades.
I agree with most of my colleagues/members in the course opinion that assessment is really the most difficult not only to design by the teacher but also to understand by the students and implement because of their parents (who most of the time are used to grades in tests and don't trust any other way).
Hope to learn a lot here to see it coming my way.
Also as an English teacher I'd like to congratulate Anna's work with her students.

Silvia Pozzo Balbi, Italy

pozzobalbi_silvia — 2016-10-30 21:36:42 UTC

I teach German at middle school to 11-13 year old students: In my experience, behavior management and evaluation of collaborative learning are particularly challenging issues. That's the way I tried to manage them. First thing I built mixed abilities groups and gave each student a definite role, according to his/her abilities ( Writer, Time Checker and Quiet Captain, Researcher, Messenger...). Then I told them that the final grade would result from the average of three elements: The way they have carried out their personal task (to increase individual accountability and personal engagement), the written final product (same grade for all group members) and the oral presentation (personal grade). At the end of every work session I gave them a general feedback about the way they were working, in order to give them a chance to improve next time. I used
Google doc or moodle to comment and/or correct their written work. This organization didn't fix all problems, but it increased the students' awareness of their behavior and helped them to collaborate better.

Cinzia. Italy

cinzia_spogli — 2016-10-30 21:59:58 UTC

This work is very interesting and I agree with the final question: how can we assess all this, whereby we are asked to give students individual grades based on different kind of tests?

Ivana, Slovakia

luptacikova_ivana — 2016-10-30 22:16:42 UTC

To stay on track a challenge it's very important for students to have a project plan and to get feedback from teacher which can help to push them in to rigth direction. During collaborative learning students gain knowledge and skills, attitude and it's very hard to assess skills by grade. So I use summative assessment in project at the end. But throughout project work I use formative aseessment and peer-assessment. I know mentioned online tools but I've never used its so far. It looks like a good idea and I will try on my next group work.

Georgina, Ireland

2016-10-30 22:49:58 UTC

Keeping students on task can definitely be a challenge, especially if you have large classes with mixed ability students. I agree assessing students collaborative work can be difficult. I liked the teachers use of rubrics. I find the very useful as a check list for students to self asses before submitting a piece of work. I like Edmodo but prefer Schoology as I find it has more functionality.

Arminda Pereira, Portugal

armindapereira1 — 2016-10-30 23:57:47 UTC

In my experience of collaborative learning, behaviour management is a challenge with 12-15 years old students because it is not easy to keep them focused in the task. First the teacher need some strategies to incorporated group work:
• Introduce group work early in the semester to set clear student expectations.
• Plan for each stage of group work.
• Carefully explain to your students how groups will operate and how students will be graded.
• Help students develop the skills they need to succeed in doing group activities, such as using team-building exercises or introducing self-reflection techniques.
• Establish ground rules for participation and contributions.
• Consider using written contracts.
• Incorporate self and peer assessments for group members to evaluate their own and others contributions.
The teacher have always to provide feedback on group productivity throughout the process as well as on the group product. The teacher can evaluate students on both their contributions to group processes as well as the final product, create a detailed explanation of what your expectations are, provide scores for individuals as well as groups, use rubrics (Consider asking students for feedback and including some of their ideas to the rubric), incorporate peer and self-assessment at various milestones (This is a good way to check in on the assignment progress as well as the group dynamics) and always communicate clearly to students at the beginning how you will calculate their grades.
Regarding the mentioned online tools I use often prezi and Google Doc.

Nazaré Firmino, Portugal

nazare_firmino — 2016-10-31 00:15:20 UTC

I think behavior assessment is a challenge with younger students. Getting students to stay on track is possible if teacher has a project plan. I use observation grids, self and peers assessmente to evaluate their own and others contibutions. I know the referred online tools but I use Padlet more often.

Carlos Matos, Portugal

2016-10-31 01:22:03 UTC

The collabarative work depends of the number of the students involved in the same class. It is much more effective in small classes.

Sandra Teixeira, Portugal

2016-10-31 01:34:26 UTC

The collaborative work is an excellent way to develope children's awareness, but it takes more time to obtain significant results. It's effective in small classes, mostly because of the space that we usually have in schools. The evaluation is very easy. I circulate among the students, when they're working, to observ the interactions, the doubts and questions that students have. That way I can help them interacting with each other. At the end, they have to present their work to the rest of the class. This presentation allows me understand the understanding of each student on the theme.

Letizia,Italy

2016-10-31 05:23:05 UTC

I am absolutely amazed by Anna's fantastic work and I totally agree with her in the difficulty of moving from group and formative assessment to individual and sommative one. However I am sure this is the right direction I have to follow to update my methodology and be closer to my sts' needs.

Eros Grossi, Italy

2016-10-31 08:03:30 UTC

I've really appreciated the Anna Laghigna's work (and I remember I saw part of it maybe in some Facebook's Italian teacher group). At the same time, this activity made me think at the difficulties the teacher has to face: i.e., how can teacher enter into group's dinamic without being too intrusive? If I see a kid who doesn't interact with other group's members (and if inside the group, there aren't colleagues who help him), how can I change the situation? I think these are the real issues...

Ana Maria Bostan, Romania

bannyem — 2016-10-31 08:23:44 UTC

As a foreign language teacher i give my students the opportunity to collaborate. the group work is effective especially when i create a group where there are talented students and less talkative ones. I often ask the best ones to be teachers for a day for those in the classroom who are not so good, and the motivation is higher on both sides.

Songul Kurt/France

songulkurt_80 — 2016-10-31 09:22:16 UTC

Project Based Learning is a great approach to foster student creativity, critical thinking, independent learning . It is so much effective for them to gain lifelong learning process. I also try to implement PBL in my lessons, giving them chance to work collaboratively, to create their own learning material, using ICT effectively and to take their own responsibility of learning. PBL is challenging of course, and it is hard to keep the students' learning on track, it requires so much time to lead the process, of course, however, nothing is fruitful without effort,I would like to develop PBL , explore much more!!

Italy

2016-10-31 09:50:15 UTC

Project based learning is amazing and interesting!

LjiljanaLD — 2016-10-31 09:54:21 UTC

paolamschool. Italy

2016-10-31 10:03:58 UTC

I teach in the primary school and because of the age of pupils the team work is done at school where I can easily follow all the steps. Until now I could not use on line tools, so I usually go from a group to another checking and helping their work. I never thought about using maps to resume the work done, I usually use it at the beginning to start and give a guide line of the steps to follow. I will try.

Dulce Freire, Fernanda Cunha, Marco Fernandes e Vítor Silva, Portugal

2016-10-31 10:54:06 UTC

In our school there isn’t the habit of engaging students in this way. Neither we teachers are prepared for this, as described, we know now.

We have much to learn.

When we propose to students carrying out group work (rarely) we will give them the freedom to choose the elements they want to work with that’s the only decision they make in addition to how the present final product. We provided them a topic / theme and although we observed and register who is engaged and helps colleagues, and do intermediate issues to ensure that everyone learns what is required of them is that at the end of the class is sent by mail its findings to ensure that they work. We know it is not easy to see how and to what extent our students are actually progressing and to what extent contribute to the success of the group / last job / learning, especially when working with students that present difficulties in the field of language, lack of autonomy and reveal low expectations for the future. In most cases, it is not behavior that prevents the development of collaborative work, but the lack of goals from the students themselves.

However, there are behavioral cases, sometimes resulting incompatibilities among their peers often jeopardizing the success of the activity. What to do to overcome these situations? What we have done is to interfere in this situation working as a moderator because the students reveal themselves unable to resolve the conflict. We do well?

It looks that monitoring the students’ progress of the working group, is a complicated task. The use of tools such as those in the video (scrumy ...) will be a great help.

To implement this way of working in our classroom will not be easy, because the Portuguese evaluation system also relies heavily on written and individualized evaluation and the diagnostic and formative assessment, despite being planned and implemented supposedly, are not a common practice.

Chiara Sabatini/Italy

chisab72 — 2016-10-31 12:25:32 UTC

I usually give my sts feedback both in class and online and I find this particularly motivating . I only rarely use self and peer assessment which I'm definitely going to improve together with planning with rubistar which I only came to know last year and I sometimes used.

Maria Grazia, Italy

mgstefanelli — 2016-10-31 13:43:39 UTC

A teamwork at school refers to students working together, often on an assignment or an activity. It implies something about how the students are working together. It’s not always easy to approach this method so I do believe it is necessary for students to work toward the goals of the team, to contribute to an informal, and tension-free work environment, to be enthusiastic about working with the team, to accept feedback on performance, to communicate with others in the group, and to be eager to try new approaches. I always tell my students to have these kinds of behaviour when a project begins or starts a discussion of how I would like the group to work together.

Tamar Chalakheshashvili

tamarigia — 2016-10-31 14:49:31 UTC

Georgia
Students like to work on the project. I teach the Russian language as a second foreign language. The video was interesting for me, I learned a lot and got to experience. I use a variety of technologies into the classroom. Motivation, the level of education increases. Often I spend in class group work. The students know in advance the types of assessment and not difficult for us to evaluate the work.

Ann McHugh

ann_mchugh — 2016-10-31 15:06:41 UTC

My students are first and second years, aged 12-14, and I find it difficult to keep the students on track when doing work in groups. I also find it difficult to keep the different groups working at the same pace - one group could take twice as long as others to complete a task. I think I need to give staggered instructions to remedy this.
Assessment of the group is difficult unless you are watching the group work - it can be easy to assess the students' contribution, but more difficult to assess the final product for each individual student.
The online tools to plan, such as scrummy.com and to give feedback seem to be very useful.

Ana Schade - Portugal

ana_vaz — 2016-10-31 15:30:05 UTC

The evaluation of collaborative learning is particularly difficult, since the performance of students group tends to be noisy and difficult to monitor. The teacher has to make a closer monitoring to gather evidence. Therefore, self and peer evaluation cannot be desmissed. Moreover, the evaluation of the process should also not be forgotten. There are many apps to assess all student work, in a formative perspective.

António Gonçalves, PT

2016-10-31 15:30:53 UTC

Collaborative learning is a type of learning more active by the students. The classroom environment in collaborative learning is more dynamic and noisy than a traditional classroom.
The evaluation on collaborative learning should involve:
- A self-assessment and peer assessment.
- A monitoring of the work of each student (onenote, teamup..among others).
To assess individual skills can perform quizzes (Socrative, google forms ..)

Isabel Rato, Portugal

2016-10-31 15:55:47 UTC

The evaluation of collaboration is not easy. Self and peers assessment are important. The tools mentioned in the video are useful. It seems interesting make partial evaluation of the work done to give feedback.

Maria Kontoula, Greece

earthsciencekro — 2016-10-31 16:12:31 UTC

This video was beneficial from me . I saw procedure and tools that will help me in my class . What I had to enhance is how to assess individually the students of the teams. Another thing that is something that makes me feel anxious is how to get my students on track

Garbiñe Marticorena, Spain

gmarticorena — 2016-10-31 16:33:40 UTC

Evaluating collaborative learning is not easy: students get noisier and when working as a group some work more than others. Apart from that, in case some of this work takes place outside school, it is really difficult to evaluate that. That is why we need to rely on students’ feedback.

I think is essential to set some rules and strategies before starting the project / group work.

Venceslau Teixeira

venceslauteixeira — 2016-10-31 16:46:02 UTC

Vila Nova de Cerveira - Portugal
As indicated, one of the biggest difficulties for teachers is the behavior management of the various elements of the groups and ensure that students achieve the proposed objectives. Thus, activities that use collaborative learning are not drawn according difficult to assess, the most important will be the teacher prepare instruments to verify the different steps of the work developed by the students. This review may contain different forms, such as peer review, self-assessment, filling intermediate reflections and final discusões and exchange of views between group, to thereby allow the remaining students from other groups appreciate the work by others. However, even with this preparation by the teacher, not all activities are developed according to our perspectives, which will make it difficult to review. Monitoring should continuous, circulating among different groups by checking the work produced and answering questions, opinions and other approaches made by the students.
Google translation

Isabel Costa

costaisabel60 — 2016-10-31 17:05:59 UTC

In fact, I believe that behavior problems are mostly avoided by good work plan. The important thing is to plan activities so that students are constantly motivated, but also busy with tasks that meet the key skills for their development. The management of working groups is also very important and the decision-making on changes in group membership should be based on the evaluation of the teacher, but also in self-assessment and peer assessment.

Vasso Lalakidou

2016-10-31 17:45:31 UTC

I think that the difficulty is only at the beggining. I have used Edmodo, Titanpad, Padlet, etc. with my students and the Learning Designer during the previous MOOC I have attented at the European School Academy. I think that they are all useful to constitute a full project for collaborative work.

Kinga Mańkowska, Polska

k_mankowska59 — 2016-10-31 17:56:46 UTC

From my own experience I know that, it’s very challenging to maintain children’s discipline and focus - especially in kindergarten. I also agree with opinion, that assessment of group work is hard. I generally used self-assessment system of groups and students but I think, that a lot of time and practice is needed to ability of students to use that skills in right way.

Jasna Šojer/Croatia

jasna_sojer — 2016-10-31 18:26:11 UTC

Behavior management can be problemin PBL but once when students learn how to work collaboratively, it will be ordinary for them. Also there are a lot techniques for classroom management and group dynamic.Also it will take time to teach students how to asses collaborative learning.

Els Teerlinck Belgium

els_teerlinck — 2016-10-31 19:19:04 UTC

From my experience it's very diffcult to let the children focus on their work, especially when they are working in groups. My kids are only nine years old.

Catarina Rodrigues, Portugal

2016-10-31 21:03:50 UTC

Behavior management and getting students to stay on track is a big challenge for any teacher. But if we think about children aged 5 to 10 the challenge is bigger. Teamwork and collaborative learning will be great if they work on a project. In fact, the biggest challenge is the assessment part. Teachers aren't prepared to assess teamwork. However, this video is very useful

Silvia Zorzi, Italy

2016-10-31 21:40:23 UTC

Thanks Anna to share your work! It's very interesting and you give me a lot of suggestions.
I agree that assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult; I have designed some rubrics, but I still have to learn a lot. I don't use the two online tools, I want to try them!

Sara Viotti,Italy

sara_viotti — 2016-10-31 21:58:45 UTC

Congrats for tour hard work. I know how Difficult can be introducing a new practice in a school.when assassing your students you are expected to put marks...

Zsuzsanna Hamlin, Hungary

zshamlin19 — 2016-10-31 23:05:31 UTC

Thank you Anna Laghigna for your utterly informative video.
I am an ESL teacher myself and I know collaborative learning is the way to go. I also face the challenges mentioned in the video. Time management, behaviour management, keeping students on task and of course assessment. My other problem is that if I give control over to the students, the language used in my classes is not the target language any more and that means less practice.
Thank you for the ideas to solve some of the difficulties above and I am also waiting for further help.

Maria Isabel Pinto, Portugal

2016-10-31 23:19:34 UTC

From personal experience, I believe that, on the one hand, group work assumes a motivating and interactive aspect of the group members, other students do not focus so easily and more dispersed, more talk. Note that my group of students is located in the 9 / 10years old.
Also the self-assessment and hetero is a difficult process for this age level. They even know who else struggled in the group, but have difficulty in assuming that did not work enough and did not contribute to the final product of the work. When something does not go so well, there is a tendency to blame one or the other element and assume that it was the fault of the working team. Usually students choose between them, an element as a representative, but not always this element can control the dynamics of the group. The teacher is called to intervene in the resolution of some problems that arise. It takes persistence and training to work in a team and learn to collaborate with peers!
We will get there!

Vanessa Ridolfi, Italy

vanessa_ridolfi — 2016-11-01 05:58:08 UTC

A teacher who is seen as a tutor and not a a strict evaluator is much better. Students feel more comfortable, they work by activating their interpersonal, teamwork and problem-solving skills, within a more motivating and engaging environment.

Camelia

andreaman75 — 2016-11-01 07:11:42 UTC

A teacher should be an awarded actor . He has to have the most expressive abilities to persuade his students to learn .

Evelyne

litenglish222 — 2016-11-01 07:23:03 UTC

I also quite often organize real life collaborative activities for my students .I give them a deadline and they know that their final output will be graded so it keeps them motivated and focused . Of course , they can get quite loud but as long as they are working , I don't mind .
I use padlet from times to times but I also sometimes ask them to create a blog and to share the link in wiki so that they can have access to each other's work .

Stefania, Italy

stefaniadeplano — 2016-11-01 09:39:52 UTC

Thank you very much for sharing this video Anna! I also normally use teamwork projects similar to the one you presented in the video. They’re really effective, usually students collaborate a lot, they often have a lot of fun, they show a lot of creativity, the weaker students are always involved and able to get good results with the language. Yes, assessing this kind of collaborative tasks is quite difficult, I also use a mixture of self and peer assessment through rubrics I suggest and they are sometimes modified in collaboration with the students. We also use mainly Google docs and Prezi a lot but we are experimenting other collaborative web tools, last year we worked a lot with Mindomo, mind map creation tool, https://www.mindomo.com/ to collect and present main ideas after watching a video, for example.

I’ve never used https://www.scrumy.com/ , I’m going to try it soon. This was a very interesting video for me because I also teach English to Italian teenager students. It was useful and comforting to share the problematic issue of assessment in this type of tasks :-). Thank you again!

Manuela Lúcio, Portugal

f865 — 2016-11-01 11:03:40 UTC

I believe that when this methodology is used, the teacher role is to support and encourage the students to find their solutions to the problems they find along the process. There are students who try to give up if they believe they are not able to develop the tasks. However, with encouragement from the teacher and peers they usually end their task and feel happy with themselves,

Agata Kuźmiek - Poland

2016-11-01 12:33:33 UTC

A very important thing is to plan its activities in such a way that students are constantly motivated to work and busy with their designated tasks that help them to grow. The working groups and the ability to manage them properly is very important. Changes in the composition of groups of several people and double should be based on an assessment of teacher and peer evaluation.

Poonam, India

2016-11-01 14:13:06 UTC

Nice strategy Anna! However, its important to set time limits and share a rubric with the students in the very beginning so that students know how they shall be evaluated

Natália Ferreira, Portugal

2016-11-01 15:15:28 UTC

The evaluation of the collaborative work is a difficult task. Usually I use checklists and ask students a plan of action and do "situation points." With these elements try to evaluate the learning process. At the end evaluate the quality of the final product.
After work, students do self assessment of the process and the final product and evaluate the work of their peers. For such use questionnaires and checklists.

Dimitra Zorba,GREECE

dimitrazoro1 — 2016-11-01 15:23:33 UTC

Learning by Doing and Group work are the best ways to learn.Team work help my students to get to know each other better and build up team spirit.Of course the teacher must set the limits.Behavior management and getting studens to stay on track is a big challenge for any teacher.The biggest challenge is the assasment part of the teamwork.

A.Leen

annetteleen — 2016-11-01 15:24:16 UTC

If the students have clear targets that they understand it is easier to keep them on track. Assessing collaborative work in mixed ability groups can be difficult and I try to give an individual task based on the group work for homework so that individuals can also be assessed

Filipe Mira, Portugal

2016-11-01 15:34:10 UTC

I think that collaborative learning is motivational for students but I think the hardest thing is to maintain the same level of commitment of all students.
I think that the tools and the evaluation mentioned in the video are very useful for learning.

Emília Silva, Portugal

emiliasilva2 — 2016-11-01 15:56:49 UTC

When i ´m using PBL i keep tracking of their work in the end of each lesson. This ensure that students are really working on the project.

Lorraine Cardona from PR

lockycardona — 2016-11-01 16:14:58 UTC

I always use many methods for controlling group behavior but when they work in groups the problem of moderating their behavior. Always come to play, I usually monitor if their talk is work related and work on the volume and interaction because they feel emotion and they want to contribute so they all talk at the same time or shout their ideas and this is the most difficult part for me, although I always choose a leader and he/ she is responsible for conduct is difficult to make it work at first, but as they go along the year you can see a real difference in their attitude toward the group work and they easily work with every task and any member. It's always a work in progress not a done deal, but some progress can be seen if we put effort and enforce rules. Be clear on the goals and progress expected.

Angeliki Kougiourouki, Greece

akougiou — 2016-11-01 18:03:26 UTC

The management of pupils’ behavior is very important for me while developing a project. I try to move around and facilitate them in order to achieve equal members’ participation and work in groups. When discussing the pros and cons of collaborative work and product, seems that they can figure out who worked and who didn’t. As for the tools mentioned in the video I used almost all of them and some others while developing my eTwinning projects.

Pedro Elias, Portugal

pedroelias — 2016-11-01 18:48:37 UTC

To get students to follow the path, it is best, in my opinion, well define the different stages of the project and using technological tools to track their work. Depending on the project we can, at the end of each phase, make a short quiz to assess their knowledge and make some adjustments.

Marta Pereira, Portugal

2016-11-01 18:50:25 UTC

In my experience of collaborative learning, i see that sometimes the student's behavior is not the best, depends on the class with which we are working. It is also difficult to evaluate the work, because sometimes students are not honest when we resort to self and peer assessment. Usually i closely observe the work that each one develops and I ask questions during the work's execution. At the end i usually make a work's presentation which me and the other students ask some questions. I hope this course helps me to implement colaborative learning more efectively. I don't use the collaborative tools mentioned but some of them seems very interesting.

DEBORA

debora_defina — 2016-11-01 18:54:41 UTC

I would like to do an experience like this. It is very important to improve my competences about organisation and managing of a class of students in a secondary school

Belgin Saka, Turkey

belgins — 2016-11-01 19:17:04 UTC

I work like this sometimes...

Costanza, Italy

costanzaboresi — 2016-11-01 19:34:05 UTC

I use both self and peer assessment and I find them very useful for collaborative learning. I also use Rubistar to create rubrics in order to evaluate not only the outcomes but also the metacognitive aspects of the project and the improvement of soft-skills.

Stavroula Lada, Greece

pde4424 — 2016-11-01 19:35:33 UTC

It is important to monitor students work and be a facilitator in the classroom rather than be the ex cathedra teacher. It is not easy because the teacher has to be very well organized, have planned before all the aims, the activities and the outcomes of his project, and of course, and inspire the students to think creatively. Anna's work is really inspiring because she combines a great plan, she carried out the project efficiently and she used different web tools. I use many web tools myself for my class, especially for my eTwinning projects. Nevertheless, there is a long way ahead, so I can improve my pbl teaching.

Stavroula Lada, Greece

pde4424 — 2016-11-01 19:41:41 UTC

Marta, Portugal

2016-11-01 21:26:17 UTC

With students from six and seven years is very important define the rules and explain very well what is intended to work. To remain involved is needed that the work is meaningful to them.
During the tasks sometimes there is noise but it is a healthy noise of the work, in which they exchange ideas and discuss opinions (albeit very basic). Learn to respects the opinion of others. They learn how to listen. With this class due to age usually develop simple activities related to the enviorenement study.
Evaluation is not always easy ... I am often taking gried notes that I had prepared, also it is privileged self evaluation and hetero group evaluation.

I think the tools and the evaluation mentioned in the video are very useful for learning.

Cristina, Pisa, Italy

2016-11-01 21:39:05 UTC

Congratulations Anna! A great work behind this project! I am also a foreign language teacher of English and I use some of the tools you illustrate. I do agree with you on the most challenging difficulties: students may easily be distracted in class and assessment. I also think that in cooperative projects there must be a single mark for everyone. Since you use rubrics, you can evaluate each student's work individually during the different phases of teh project or submit a final individual test on what each groups has produced. This is just an idea....anyway.

Grazyna, Poland

sp171wesola — 2016-11-01 22:28:13 UTC

It is almost always a challenge to get students on track. They are easily distracted if the project is difficult for them. I am paying more attention now to teach the time keeper task. I go from group to group and see how the students perform the activities or check their work done with the use of ICT.
I find assessing team work very difficult even though we have clear criteria. Maybe 2 grades for individual work and group work would be better. My students like descriptive assessment but some demand just a grade. They like peer assessment but generally they want about 50% of the grade.
I have never used scrumy or rubistar, tried edmodo but not worked with it.

Jaime Martins, Portugal

joncmartins — 2016-11-01 22:28:57 UTC

I use self and peers assessment. Using peers assessment obliges all the students to pay attention to all the PBL works presented in the classroom. However, it is difficult to assess these works, because not all the students work in the same way . It is difficult to keep the students on track when are doing collaborative work.
The online tools become really very useful to plan and give feedback of what students are working.

Laurentina Soares, Portugal

2016-11-01 23:23:04 UTC

In my experience in collaborative learning I define some rules, but my main function is to leader and help them to find the solution (objective of the project).
Put the students in competion with eachother is very good to, because it´s a motivation for them.
Evaluate the work os the students it«s a hard work, because the teamwork sometimes don«t work.
I think the work showed in these video is very good, I like the way that was make de evalation,
I already use some of the tools mentioned, but I don't know Scrumy and RubiStar.

Chrysoula,thessaloniki

2016-11-02 06:24:31 UTC

I totally agree with other participants. Using collaboration learning activities,it has such many diffucilties to access.But it is useful to use it in our class. I like the video and the activities and i want to use in my class.

Helena Paixão, Portugal

helenagpaixao — 2016-11-02 08:42:55 UTC

Students enjoy being the "teacher", so they work in groups and present their work in the end. They have to respect a schedule we agree at the begining and i use self and peer assessment. I would like to use digital tools since it motivates students but my school doesn´t have computers in most of the classroom.

Cinzia Masia, Italy

attasonitabas — 2016-11-02 09:09:30 UTC

I'm trying to involve my students working more and more in groups because I think it is the best way to let them improving abilities and competences. Personally, I think that it is not so easy to check and evaluate the collaborating learning because when they work in groups it is not so easy to really know if they are effectively cooperating together. I monitor their work going from one group to another and asking them to report their work at the end of the activities. I tried to do peer assessment but I think that they are not rielable enough.

Cinzia Billa, Italy

michelangelo_policarpo — 2016-11-02 10:58:39 UTC

WOW! Beautiful video and activities!!! I did know many tools as Prezi, Googledrive, Edmodo and Titanpad. I started to use Edmodo with my students. The main difficulty is to manage with 7 different classes, especially when you have students who do not have any ICT access (they are few, but... existing!). All this is very motivating especially for Foreign Language teaching.
Let's see critical points: 1)Assessment is often based both on oral and on written tests. These tests are supposed to be OBJECTIVE and INDIVIDUAL. I think that such a project based sequence of activities should be necessarily fallen by a written test which may help self-reflection integrating group oral tests. The feedback given on Edmodo is a way to evaluate the progress in written skills. This means a lot of time both for students and for teachers.

Simona, the Czech republic

simonabrothankova — 2016-11-02 11:11:54 UTC

It is true that behaviour management is more difficult but if students are fully absorbed in what they are doing, they do not speak unnecessarily. They nearly always stay on the track as they know they will have to present the result of their work and if they do not use the time at school, they must finist at home, which keeps them on track. I provide them with constant oral feedback. As for assessment, there are always the more active ones who deserve the top mark and those who just follow, That is why I do not assess the work, it is just compulsory to perform it.

Denisa

DenisaDascalescu — 2016-11-02 12:55:17 UTC

One of my evaluating intruments that I use often is observation and I also use to ask them how they support each other in the procces.

Atanasija, Croatia

atbilic — 2016-11-02 14:15:39 UTC

The pupils tend to be a litle louder while working in groups, but they are trying to keep up to our rules of conduct in classroom. In that way the are perceptive of other work groups and work atmosphere. I don't assess work of each member of the group but only their assignment. Each member of the group have to evaluate own involment and self - assesment and provide some examples for their improvements if there is a need for.

Ioannis Velonakis, Greece

ivelonak — 2016-11-02 15:43:03 UTC

In my experience, during collaborative learning behavior management and getting students on track is a challenge, since the students tend to be more inconscious when collaborating with others. On the other hand, it is worth-trying since they may become more interested in the topic and they build up team spirit. As far as monitoring teamwork, I find self and peer assessment useful, as well as the online tools mentioned, especially prezi, google docs, google drive and hangouts.

Salomé, Portugal

2016-11-02 20:05:43 UTC

It is very important to establish rules and assign responsibilities to students.
Work in partnership, respecting opinions, to listen and partihar plays a key role in learning.

Ângela and Tânia, Portugal

taniaalves23 — 2016-11-02 20:16:03 UTC

In classes with children of first class (age 6-7 years), it is not always easy due to the limited autonomy they have. To monitor teamwork is necessary to create rules, work routines. We use self peer review to assess the projects developed. The tools mentioned in the video, we believe that will be useful to use in the classroom.

Angela Capezzuto

angilu56 — 2016-11-02 22:22:52 UTC

In my eTwinning projects, collaborative learning has given good results especially for the inclusive aspect. Normally with a well-structured project plan and activities, all students, regardless of any personal problems they might have, will be able to join in and get the best out of the task. However, as Anna Laghigna has stated, the biggest challenge is assessment. I have experimented with assessment using a competence assessment grid made by a group of Italian eTwinning Ambassadors and a self-made numerical equivalent...everything is obviously "work in progress", including the grid. We're pioneers in this type of evaluation of competences.

Rosália Ribeiro, Portugal

rosaliaribeiro_ — 2016-11-02 22:43:46 UTC

I think the biggest challenge is to keep students on track.
The strategies presented by the colleague in the film are very interesting. When my students work in groups, I ask them to present me the list of tasks that are predicting accomplish the following week. I ask them to distribute the tasks among the group members and that at the end of each week they take stock of what they materialize, through a checklist.
Of course, often the group work implies a noisier classroom, but I confess that, within limits, to me is a good sign and it's the moments where more I can appreciate the real competence of my students.
In fact, evaluate the collaborative work is not easy task. It requires the teacher to adopt different strategies for monitoring and collecting information. Peer review is a useful strategy. The self and peer assessment is also useful.
Of the tools mentioned in the video I know and use with my students Google Drive, Prezi and Edmodo. I also use tools for create checklist (eg Smarthsheet) and mental maps (eg LucidChart, Mindmup, Popplet, Cacoo).
Usually, the evaluation criteria of the different domains involved in a particular project are negotiated with students . In the evaluation criteria proficiency levels are defined by different descriptors. Students follow the descriptors to self assess and assess their peers.
As the colleague who shares her experience in the film, I also have concerns about the way how can we design activities to monitor teamwork, personal responsibility
and leadership, plan the assessment of collaboration and other interpersonal skills.
I know a tool that can help us - Partners in Learning Rubrics for 21C Learning Activity Design.

Maria Rizza/ Sicily

2016-11-02 23:56:54 UTC

Yes, One of the challenges that a teacher faces when shifting from teacher-centred to learner-centred activities in class , is how to control. Students can get pretty loud while collaborating or they may easily get off track, So the teacher has to be vey alert and constatly control that the work is done to avoid wasting of time. In this case the techonology can help. I do use google drive or Padlet to let students share ideas and the materials they find, It is also useful for me to see what is being done; and if there is need to correct or guide their work in the right direction. So, it is effortful for the teacher because has to keep control of the students work. Another challenge is assessing collaborative work, Of course I assess the group work, but I also have individual assessment; this is what the students expect becuse they are interested in getting their individual score, Unfortunately they give a great imposrtance to scores. I have tried to carry peer-assessment, too, but it was not a good expereince. My students think that it is the teacher work to assess them, so they criticize peer –assessment, although I explain them that it is important to evaluate their classmates work in order to improve their learning. May be I should give them a rubric or more precise guidelines for peer assessment.I have tried to use Socrative and Kahoot for assessment.Again My students have a very traditional model of learning in their mind to appreciate this kind of innovative methods. This is my experience.
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erikahobrecker — 2016-11-03 01:51:40 UTC

Erika , Colombia
The biggest challange I have faced during project work is calculating TIME. Some tasks take longer than others and because each student works at his/ her own pace, some get off track. I have also found that playing music while the students work is very positive

Adina Marcu,Romania

adinamarcu9 — 2016-11-03 14:59:13 UTC

I have a class with students about 7 years old.They can have autonomy but it is important to be monitor.I use self peer review when they work in pair and they make the tour of galleries.The tools from video are useful also to use in my classroom.

Monika/Hungary

2016-11-03 16:24:38 UTC

In my experience of collaborative learning, is behavior management and getting students to stay on track a challenge. I agree that assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult. I find the ways mentioned in this video (e.g. through self and peer assessment) useful.

María Napal/ Spain

mnapalf — 2016-11-03 22:17:13 UTC

Most of the time, cooperation and group dynamics are difficult to evaluate because they're invisible for us. Often, the final product (at best, some partial deliverable tasks) is the only evaluable evidence we can count on. So I like the idea of the "white box" (as opposed to the "black box" team work usually is), which I learned in another course about educative education: the idea is to use social media to make all the processes - decission making within the group, arrangemente of the work...- transaparent to the teacher.

Alessandra/Italy

2016-11-04 13:27:43 UTC

Well Anna, I experimented the same challenges. We are not used to evaluating competences others from those inherent to the content of the discipline. I try to plan inside a module in collaborative working a small part which is direct responsibility of just a student so that I can assess his/her performance individually. Peer assessment is ok and also the online tools mentioned but in any case I'm afraid there is no magic tools to solve all the challenges because every class is unique and needs particular measures, and every teaching methods has its pros and cons. All in all what is relevant is the progress the students achieve.

Angela/ Italy

angelina_giacchetti — 2016-11-04 18:50:33 UTC

the biggest challenge, for me, is make members of group more responsible. in my experience of collaborative learning, 90% of students ends his part correctly. about assessing collaborative learning I hope this course shows me further useful tools, like rubric

Mafalda Basto/Portugal

mfldbasto — 2016-11-04 20:35:29 UTC

Instead of responding to the questions, I’d prefer to express my admiration about the testimony given by Anna Laghigna. I find it quite natural and realistic, sharing problems, concerns and solutions regarding most of us.

2016-11-05 08:48:27 UTC

Domenica Marino, Italy
To facilitate the evaluation of cooperative work it is useful to organize little groups composed by a few pupils with specific roles, prepared grids for observation and evaluation of the reports and learning contents.

It 'important to provide a double assessment, an individual one and a team one, possibly applying, at different stages of the work and in various skills.

A good balance would be considered 30% collective and 70% individual, where the collective part could also be a mean of the votes of all members. It could be entered a "bonus" for the capacity to positively react; this capacity can be monitored with special grills and should be a constant element in the group discussion.

Maria, Greece

tyxi48 — 2016-11-05 12:12:40 UTC

Behavior and time management is always a challenge. I usually set brief tasks easy to conduct and I also use online tools, as wiki, google docs, padlets etc to evaluate everyone's contribution.

Riina, Estonia

2016-11-06 09:18:47 UTC

That's true that behaviour management is a big challenge. But I have small classes and useful i can manage them well. But I don't have any experiences with big groups. In this cource I hope to get some knowledges and ideas how to plan the assessment of collaboration. I monitor the team work, I share google doc. it's very easy way to do. But I looked the Scrumy. It's very simple to use and share it to others.

Jose, Portugal

2016-11-06 17:45:57 UTC

I agree that it could be a great challenge to implement behavior management and getting students stay on track because of classroom complexity and diversity. Using checklists, grids with rubrics, team reports and group self assessment, and peer reviews in project milestones is useful and I use to do it with my classes. All online tools are useful and I try to do the same using Moodle platform activities such as feedback, mindmaps, quizzes, wikis, coices, checklists, forums, glossaries, databases and assignments; as well as Googleapps tools such as drawing, documents, spreadsheet, presentation and forms. In this way is less confusing and more centralised tools and access because sometimes students loose access and don't remember where they have their digital things... howhever I let them use other tools as a way of being creative and more responsable of their learnings :)

Monica Boccoli, Italy

mobocco — 2016-11-06 17:49:00 UTC

In my opinion, the assessing collaborative learning is one of the most sensitive part of the work. Not only is the assessment rubric helpful for educators, but also for students.

Simona, Romania

simona_ratan — 2016-11-06 18:05:57 UTC

To any project the teacher is who makes the team to work.Establishes deadlines, sets clare goals .Collaboration make them more responsible.

Sirkku / Finland

sirkku_alin — 2016-11-06 19:20:52 UTC

Assessment is a key question in all learning processes. As we move from teacher-led processes to more student-centered methods, should the evaluation methods change, too. So far the major change has been that the teacher is not the only one who does the assessment, but the challenges are very much like the teacher in the video said: we still lack good tools for an ongoing comprehensive assessment of skill development.

Marta, Portugal

istruka — 2016-11-06 22:00:30 UTC

In my opinion, behaviour management is a big challenge when using a type of task students aren't used to, as in my case. They tend to think that because they aren't in their usual places they can play and chat with each other. But if we set clear goals and set a deadline then they will work. Assessment is another difficulty but very important. Peer assessment is important so they can feel what was right or wrong with their work and therefore get better. As for online tools, I cannot say anything because I've never used them.

Cristina,Tenerife,Spain

2016-11-06 22:47:09 UTC

I agree that assessment is the key in learning activities and that we have to develop different skills ourselves to introduce alternatives to traditional assessment. I'm in the process to achieve it.

Fayna McNulty, Spain

faynally — 2016-11-07 00:31:30 UTC

First of all, I would like to thank Anna for her video, which I thought it was very realistic with the actual situation of many schools I know.
She presented a very interesting idea on how to teach something so tough as Shakespeare to teenagers,. They were really engaged with the topic!! Usic ICTs, of course if you have them at your school, are very motivating.
The questions she posed at the end of the video are the main questions, I think, we all have as teachers: how to assess collaborative learning and social interpersonal skills and how to design activities to monitor teamwork, personal responsability and leadership.
I usually try to design my activities focusing in Bloom´s taxonomy; starting from bottom to top. Then, I monitor their participation and take into account self-assessment and peer-assessment, as well as giving them the chance to evaluate their own team work. I give them time to analyze how they worked together, the problems they found and faced, how did they managed or not, possible solutions now that they have finished, what would they have changed and what have they learnt by working together.
Of course, all this is difficult when you are working with the little ones, as they are not used to respect each other and listen to others. In this case, I start with the basics: mutual respect, learn to listen and try to reach an agreement. By practising, the more activities they face in team work, the more they will develop this skills and the better they will be doing in time. :-)

Cristina Fuertes, Spain

2016-11-07 08:21:40 UTC

From my point of view, feedbak is a key factor in learning process. Self assessment and peer to peer review are also elements for helping students stay on track. Tem work is challaging but not easy. One idea can be create group's agreements.

Marília Bação, Portugal

mariliabacao — 2016-11-07 22:22:22 UTC

I think all the activity is very challenging and when students are not used to work in group it's more difficult. In the school where I work, working in group is not very usual. It's a traditionnal school and inovation is not very easy here

Nelly, Romania

anamarianeli — 2016-11-07 23:09:48 UTC

Collaborative learning is behavior management and getting students to stay on track a challenge.
It is more difficult to assess the contribution of each student, but they like very much to work in teams.

Rita Felix, Portugal

rrodaf — 2016-11-07 23:34:37 UTC

Behavior management is quite a challenge. Students easily escape the suggested path and the level of commitments is very different among students.
Assessing this type of work is quite difficult mainly we have a large number of pupils in a classroom.
I usually use grids with skills to evaluate, but it's a bit subjective.

I also have the habit to ask for self assessment and peers assessment . I never used online tools to do this assessment.

Thomas, Austria

2016-11-08 08:19:50 UTC

To my mind one of the hardest jobs for the teacher is to keep the students/pupils on track. Assessing collaborative learning is another very tricky part. Monitoring teamwork, to my mind, can only be judged/assessed by the outcome of the groupwork. I think the approach of self and peer assessment might be very useful.

Pedro Nunes, Portugal

pedronunesnomundo — 2016-11-08 14:28:12 UTC

In my experience, behavior management is a big issue when it comes to CL!
It's not obvious to introduce CL to students as a valid learning method.
Students tend to consider alternative methods to "classic classes" not real classes where they are called upon to give their best effort and energy.
Monitoring routines and assessment tools creation are very relevant in keeping students focused. Peer assement, mostly...

Palmira Serrano, Portugal

palmiraserrano — 2016-11-08 19:04:02 UTC

Keeping students on a track is always a difficult task for the teacher, but when the work is done in team and in project work it is achieved. It is not only the teacher's task to monitor the work, but also the group.

Assessing collaborative work is very important and also difficult. It should not only be the teacher doing the evaluation, but all the elements of the group, because they can only improve their final product.

I think the online tools presented in the video are useful even though I only use Prezi.

Gülşen Korucu,Turkey

gulsenkorucu — 2016-11-08 23:55:33 UTC

During the lesson, we don't have have enough time to monitor and assess the group work.Also , they need to prove their collaboration concretely.So web2 tools are really great solution for us.I use virtual class such as Edmodo also collaborative tool such as prezi,google docs ,tackk and padlet.They show us the process ,outcome and peer assessment easily.I love using them.

Maria Vasilopoulou, Greece

mbasilopoulou — 2016-11-09 03:33:45 UTC

Behaviour management is a big challenge while working collaboratively as students can very easily get off track. I usually monitor team work circulating in class and discreetly make useful observations or comments. Most of the times students start working in class and continue their work at home meeting each other. This is preferred due to lack of time or even technological facilities in school. Online collaboration is something I try to implement where I offer feedback assess their work. This could be done mainly through Google.dos, or padlet.As far as peer or self assessment go, they not widely used but I'll try to change this.

Barbara, Slovenia

barbara_valic — 2016-11-09 17:39:40 UTC

Behavior management is a challange and I try to find solutions that most suits for children that have difficulties in collaboration with others. I teach self assesment and monitor peer assesment that is very useful. I haven't tried to use online tools yet.

Marianthi Arvanitidou - Greece

1canislupus22 — 2016-11-09 19:26:03 UTC

If we had to choose one word to symbolize the changes in second language teaching over the years, it would be communicative : the idea that the surest path to engagement in learning a second language lies in students – even beginners – communicating in that language

Sanela Jukic, Croatia

2016-11-09 21:26:44 UTC

The hardest thing about collaborative and project based team work is the assessment.
I would really like to learn more about that in this course.

2016-11-10 09:17:55 UTC

Cynthia Coelho, P

Ana Nojkovska

spasovska_ana — 2016-11-10 12:04:43 UTC

Sometimes we don't have enough time to organize everything as we would like to do it. Plus in my school we have too many students( classes with 30 students or more) which makes it even more difficult.

Mimma, Italy

mimma_gioia — 2016-11-10 13:17:32 UTC

This work is very interesting. Unfortunately I haven't had a big change to implement collaborative learning at school. I think that Project based learning is a great approach to implement student creativity, critical thinking and independent learning giving them change to work collaboratively, to create their own learning material and to take their own responsibility of learning.

Wilson Canelo/Colombia

2016-11-10 13:28:50 UTC

Indeed it is a real challenge because the environment learning in my lab is novel for pupils. I agree that assessment collaborative learning is difficult because sometimes the interest of each pupil is different. But negotiating ideas is the most valuable in the time of tracking and it is an evidence of assessment. another tool, of course for assessment, is the use of ICT. Some pupils show their abilities using ICT when sharing what they have learned to their peers.

Emilia Dan - RO

edan7077 — 2016-11-10 19:03:06 UTC

I want to work with my students this way . I find it hard because I'm not interested colleagues
find hard colleagues of other disciplines to engage in interdisciplinary collaborations
in future to develop the discipline taught me . I wish this old

Lucia, Italy

lustri55 — 2016-11-10 20:05:53 UTC

I have had experience of collaborative learning with CLIL and eTwinning projects. It's not easy to assess and monitor the groups. I have done it during the different steps of the work (to check the students' attitude,interest,ability to work in group, to keep up to the deadlines... )
and at the end by means of a grid to check content and knowledge. I worked with teachers of different subjects such as Art, Geography, Law...and we had to consider the involvement of the students but also their ability to communicate and what they had learnt.

Rui Vieira - Portugal

miguelvieira_com — 2016-11-11 12:41:32 UTC

I think it is very important to try using colaboration learning activities. Even if they are dificult to prepare and take time to do it. Nevertheless they are very useful it class.

I watched the video and the activities: i find it very useful to collaborative learning, in a way to make the students more interested, and I think the students make more effort to learn and to work together.

I think all the online tools refered are very usefull.

Cristina Abegão

2016-11-12 19:49:44 UTC

The big problem is time and behavior management. Getting students on track is another main problem. I think all the tools based on online activity are very useful but my classroom is not prepared for this type of work.

Chrysoula,Greece

xrysoulazioga — 2016-11-13 06:18:29 UTC

Very intersting to use collaboration ideas.We use in my class very much,edmodo,Google Drive and other tools

Anna Maria, Italy

mattielloannamaria — 2016-11-13 09:07:08 UTC

The most difficult thing about collaborative learning is assessing in my opinion. In my experience I assess the group working skills and the final product of the team. I also ask to my students to evaluate themselves, but I haven't create evaluation rubrics for them till now. I'll try them in the future.

Cristina Antal - Romania

cristiantal44 — 2016-11-13 10:47:41 UTC

Sometimes assessing collaborative learning is difficult! It'a a true statement but we must recognise collaborative learning is interesting, too. I am trying to fill the time and not giving the oportunity to behavior problems.

Bella Montero - Indonesia

bergara_bella — 2016-11-13 15:56:30 UTC

Students disengaging and getting off track during group work are indeed some of the challenges that teachers face when managing collaborative work. Assessing teamwork can only be based on observation and the teacher needs to see every group in action and try to assess the teamwork by a set of rubric. Peer assessment can be slightly biased especially when students evaluate their peers whom they are not in good terms with. I would rather ask another teacher to assess with a rubric the team performance of the student groups. The online tools mentioned in the video are indeed helpful. I have been using Edmodo tp channel all my posts and messages to my students in a focused education network platform, Edmodo just serves this purpose.

Honorata Pereira - Portugal

honoratapereira — 2016-11-13 19:28:58 UTC

As I said earlier I work on projects, so I divide the students into groups based on their personal preferences. That said, we discuss the problems that each group encountered, and from here we define objectives and I select the necessary bibliography and, at the same time, we work the prerequisites that allow students to acquire the necessary skills to elaborate each project. In this way, we design the methodology and apply it. We discuss and analyze the results, draw conclusions and publish as scientific work in Portuguese and the abstract in English. Subsequently, each group prepares a presentation of the project, in ppt or prezzi, to colleagues.
The biggest difficulty I have is to build the methodology, because not always the methods are only of physics or chemistry, we have many methodologies of biology and electronics, so in this case I contact universities or research centers and then. So I have another problem that is to adapt the methods to secondary education.

Virgínia Esteves, Portugal

virginiaesteves — 2016-11-13 21:38:19 UTC

Assessment is the worst part of education. I really like teaching and doing project works and I agree that the way of education is collaborative work and project based learning. It is a great challenge but we have different students in front of us so we have to take theses challenges. Assessing this type of learning method is too difficult but many times I ask why is assessment so important if students reach the goal! There are so many important things to take into account during the project work not only accademic but also other values that are so important for their future life. Students should have clear tasks and they should focus on the final project the are suppose to reach and the teacher will be there to help. There are so many tools online that can help this type of methodology, students should be given several tools that they can use depending their interests. For sure collaborative work is worse to do!!!!!

Lidia, Romania

lidiaristea2004 — 2016-11-14 14:44:43 UTC

Marina - Italy

2016-11-14 16:44:08 UTC

Congratulations on your project! I'm a foreign language teacher too. I teach Russian and last year I decided to propose the students to use some of the tools in the video and also mind maps to share their opinions about the project we were working on. It was about the future school trip they were going to start. Since I worked with students aged 17-18, it was not that difficult to have them concentrated and not noisy, but it was difficult to assess all the competences they were actually showing. I decided to assess their written comments, their performance, that I registered, and an oral report recorded in the language laboratory. I don't know if it was that effective, I decided to involve more occasions in order to have a more complete image of their work. This course is important for this problem as well, that's why I decided to join it. Thanks for sharing your experiences

Gina-Lithuania

2016-11-14 20:08:49 UTC

This work is very interesting and This work is very interesting and I agree that assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult.

Jeane de Fatima, Brazil

jeanedefatima — 2016-11-15 12:15:58 UTC

Um trabalho onde a ser um detetive para um dia e explore todas os locais da cena apresentada, usando o Google Docs como informativos, anexando seus pontos de vista, criando oportunidades de interação e estimular a criatividade. Excelente actividade.

Dina Andreea, Romania

dina_andreea55 — 2016-11-15 14:34:37 UTC

I enjoyed this video because it really opened my mind in what modern methods of teaching are concerned. I think that it is very difficult to assess students during collaborative learning, but it is not impossible, feedback is the first way of evaluating the students progress.

Isabel Cabo - Portugal

alunoscooperantes — 2016-11-17 00:16:51 UTC

In my experience of collaborative learning, students behave better and get involved in the tasks. Assessing collaborative learning is particularly difficult, but isn´t impossible. If we have some kind of monitoring we can control the progress in teamwork.
I liked very much assessments ways mentioned. I never used googledrive with students, but want to use it soon.

Paula Duarte, Portugal

2016-11-17 17:39:02 UTC

The forms mentioned in this video are useful for evaluating the collaborative work and online tools mentioned as well. Depends on the teacher's use of available tools. But it is not an easy task for the teacher.

Stefania N., Italy

user_noninost — 2016-11-18 14:16:56 UTC

I am so lucky because I have taken part in an on-site course held by Anna Laghigna. She's shared her expertise, tools and great enthusiasm. It is certainly easy to feel how students' motivation and self-awareness as learners increases while doing well-organised group work. However, assessment (in order to comply with Italian assessment system) is not easy at all. According to my experience, shared and peer assessment are powerful tools to engage students in the assessment process.

Cristina Parente, Portugal

CrisParente — 2016-11-19 16:15:20 UTC

I completely agree with Anna Laghigna when she says that students learn better by doing and by working in groups. Learning by doing is the same as having more active, engaged and self-confident students.Their behaviour is connected with the way we teach. I have some experience of collaborative learning; students behave much better when they collaborate with each other. Assessing collaborative learning isn't easy until we get used to it. Quality feedback, self and peer assessment and formative assessment are useful tools as well as the online tools.

Anna Bormida

annabormida — 2016-11-20 09:42:38 UTC

Genova, Italy
I agree with Anna Laghigna (and Cristina Parente who right these words) when she says that students learn better by doing and by working in groups.

Learning by doing is the same as having more active, engaged and self-confident students.Their behaviour is connected with the way we teach. I have some experience of collaborative learning; students behave much better when they collaborate with each other.

I think that the assessment of collaborative learning isn't easy until we get used to it.

Quality feedback, self and peer assessment and formative assessment are useful tools as well as the online tools. The use of assessment rubric is very important because it helps teacher to define what expects frm students anhelp students to involve in the process.

Honorata Pereira, Portugal

honoratapereira — 2016-11-20 14:15:10 UTC

I agree with Anna Laghigna whwn she says that students learning better when working in groups. Thus for the learning to be meanigful it is necessary to have some care when we divided the class into groups, it is important that the elements of the group have the same interests and capacities that complemented each other.

Oguz, Turkey

2016-11-20 19:54:54 UTC

It's nice to watch and think on, difficult to apply and monitor in our classrooms , though.

Renata Večerková, CR

vecerkovar53 — 2016-11-20 21:00:36 UTC

I do not have much experience with collaborative learning, but I think that self and peer assessment is really useful and often use it. I would use rubrics to assess the teamwork.

Marina, Italy

ruggieri_marina — 2016-11-21 11:27:31 UTC

I completely agree with Anna, students learn better when they are involved in what they are doing. Groups mustn't be too large, and the space of the room must be well organized. Each students must know what he is working to. I agree that assessment is not easy, we have to evaluate the group's work as well as the single student's one, it's not so easy..

Patrizia, Italy

patrizia_brion — 2016-11-22 14:54:28 UTC

I agree with Anna Laghigna because the students learn better when they are involved in what they are doing. Groups mustn't be too large, and the space of the room must be well organized. Each students must know what he is working to. I agree that assessment is not easy, we have to evaluate the group's work as well as the single student's one. The peer assessment is very useful. The on line tools are essentials work tool, but they aren't known.

Amélia, Portugal

ameliamagalhaes — 2016-11-22 18:16:26 UTC

I like to teach and doing project works and I agree that collaborative work and project based learning is the right way of education. It is a great challenge because we have different students in class but we have a commitment to them. Assessing this type of learning method is too difficult and many times I ask myself why assessment is so important if students reach the goal! There are so many important things to take into account during the project work not only academic but also other values that are so important for their future life. Students should have clear tasks and they should focus on the final project they are supposed to reach and the teacher will be there to help them to overcome their difficulties. There are so many tools online for this methodology. Students should be given several tools that they can use depending their interests. For me, assessment is the hardiest part of education.

I think you have to have good class management and students who are willing to learn in new ways. If there is a lot of behavior issues collaborative learning sometimes doesn't work at as some students may "slack off"

2016-11-23 18:13:12 UTC

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn" As stated by Confucius, involving students actively in the learning processcan guarantee the success, even if it requires a long time. It is especially true in foreign language learning which is aimed at communication and awareness of the process and of learning strategies.

paulina_rozmus — 2016-11-27 20:17:37 UTC

Claudia, Italia

claudietta_ciucci — 2017-01-22 06:46:12 UTC

I share the educational work of Anna Laghigna, cooperative work allows everyone to participate and play a role in the learning task. The evaluation is not simple, but if you work in small groups and respect certain rules of cooperative learning, children are able to evaluate themselves. Even pupils with special educational needs benefit from it.

Ahmet Faruk YILDIRIM - TURKEY

ahmetfaruk76 — 2017-11-02 07:16:37 UTC

Project Based Learning and teaching activities are very important for our students. Hence our students learn so many things as a group.İn this learning activities that is implemented is to work as a team .So that we should evulate our students either individual or as team performan

Alexandre, Brazil

alexandre_barros_vieira — 2017-11-05 19:48:08 UTC

For sure keeping students on the right track when doing project-based Collaborative activity is difficult! Oh boy! Well, sometimes, as a teacher you have to remind yourself that you you are the one who promoted all that fuss! It means, most of time, they are engaged and motivated and losing track is part o the process, so we have to bring them back to the main points. :) The idea of having a check-list at the end of the activity is great! I usually have this check-list on the board to check what we have covered on that class.

Emel

2017-11-08 16:05:30 UTC

I want speak English fluently