My school is a secondary school in Vienna. More than 90% of the children don’t speak German as their mother tongue. The 25 students were 10 – 11 years old.

Subject of the collaborative activity in Biology wereThe "Big 5" Lion, Leopard, Black Rhino, Elephant and Cape Buffalo. 

First the students had to inform themselves about the five animals and select their favourite.
 Then they built groups basing on their interest.

The task was to design a presentation about the animal- each slide in a least three different languages- one had to be German the other languages depended on the mother tongues of the group members.

In the group the students had to select the facts, they wanted to present on their slides: living environment, way of living, food, strategy of hunt or escape, offspring, …
 The slide- although written in different languages- hat to have the same wording.
 So they had to create the slides in German together and then the slides in the other languages alone or with a partner.
 At last they had to connect the slides to one presentation, decide about the design and finally present it to their classmates.

Students in three different secondary schools in Vienna worked on the topic: discoverer and inventors.
 The students were between 12 and 15 years old.

In each class students have to find themselves in groups and had to decide which person had their interest. Then they had to research using books and the internet (at least some of the students had tablets).
 When they had the facts, they had to write questions and answers for an interview with the discoverer and inventor they had chosen.
 They had to decide who will be the interviewer, the inventor/discoverer, the director, who will make the video, …
 The next task was to film the interview- as often as it needed to make them satisfied with the film. 
 Some of the students adapted the video.

A few weeks later o video conference between two of the schools took place.
 The students presented their videos to the students of the partner school and discussed about the outcome.
 All in all there three video conferences took place.
 The students were very proud about their interviews.

Activity 2 is code 5. The students work in groups, have shared responsibilities, make substantive decisions and their work is interdependent.

2.3 The 4 Collaboration Questions

What do you think of the 4 major questions presented by Professor Deirdre Butler? Are they useful in helping you design a collaborative learning activity? Have you asked yourself these questions before when designing collaborative learning activities?
I think the 4 questions are very important:
 Most of all the question: Do they make substantive decisions?
 It’s not so easy to engage the students to do so and you have to train them to do it.

2.4 21 CLD Collaboration Rubric

How useful do you find the rubric Professor Deirdre Butler explained? Do you think it is useful in helping you understand the type and quality of collaboration taking place in the learning activities you design? Have you used this or similar rubrics before to help you design collaborative learning activities? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of it?

2.5 Collaborative learning scenarios

Check out the scenario template and 6 example scenarios in the resource section of this module. What do you think of the template? What do you think of the example scenarios? Do you find them inspiring? Can you see how you might adapt some scenarios to create collaborative learning activities for your own context? What do you find useful or less useful about these scenarios?

I think the presented scenarios are very useful and will help me by planning my collaborative activities.
I think activity 1 is code 3. The students work in groups and have shared responsibilities but do not make substantive decisions.
Activity 2 is code 5. The students work in groups, have shared responsibilities, make substantive decisions and their work is interdependent.

3.4 A sports teacher's experience of assessing students’ collaborative learning

What do you think about the various assessment methods used by Chrysa to assess her pupils’ collaborative learning? Do you think the questions she asked her pupils were helpful in getting them to reflect about their collaborative skills? What do you think about implementing peer assessment with pupils of a young age (6-11 year olds)? Are there special considerations to be taken into account? What about her final question she asks us and our expert to reflect on; do you find it challenging to know how best to assess the individual participation of a student in a collaborative activity?

·         What would you keep from their presentation?

·         Did I listen carefully?

·         Did I applaud and encourage the effort of other members?

3.5 An ICT teacher’s experience of assessing students’ collaborative learning

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

3.6 Collaborative learning and student peer reviews

When setting up student groups to work on a project, Anna often leaves students free to decide who they would like to work with and each team member’s role. However, when it comes to peer assessment Anna prefers to use a random name picking tool, as she believes this helps ensure objectivity and is more likely to encourage useful and constructive feedback among peers. Do you agree with these different approaches? Anna mentions a variety of digital tools which are helpful in implementing and assessing collaborative work, such as Edmodo, Scrumy, Tackks, Padlets, Google Forms etc. What are your experiences of these tools?

3.7 Collaborative learning - What to assess and how?

Have you ever used existing rubrics and checklists to assess collaborative work? Have you ever constructed your own rubrics or checklists for this purpose? What about involving students in the design of rubrics, checklists or other assessment tools? What have been your experiences? What do you think of the tips given for constructing rubrics and checklists in the video? Are the guidelines and examples given in the CO-LAB Assessment Guidelines useful?

3.8 Answers to teachers’ questions on assessing collaborative learning

Dr. Luis Valente suggests self and peer assessment can help students to move away from seeing teachers as the only source of judgement about the quality of their learning, thereby helping them to become more independent learners. Do you agree, and what are your experiences of this? He also notes that research shows that self-assessment combined with peer assessment reduces the trend for ‘friendship dependency’, ‘benefit of the dominators’ and ‘benefit of parasitism’. Does this match with your experiences? What do you think of assigning a percentage weight to individual assessment as part of the summative assessment related to collaborative work? Any other thoughts on Dr. Valente’s suggestions?

3.9 Module 3 Learning Activity

Start working on creating one or more lesson plans integrating collaborative learning and assessment, which you intend to use with your students in the classroom before the end of 2016 or early next year. 

 Module 4’s learning activity will be to continue working on your lesson plan/s so that you can submit your final one/s at the end of the course, and implement it/them in practice shortly afterwards.

To design your lesson plan, please use the Learning Designer. 

Below is a list of criteria you should consider when creating your lesson plan and to use for your peer review of the lesson plans of two other course participants:

1. The lesson plan includes learning activities specifically designed to develop students’ collaborative learning skills: For example, at least two of the following criteria are included (see module 2 videos and resources – i.e. the 21CLD rubric and the example learning scenarios for further information and inspiration):

·         Students are required to work in pairs or groups

·         Students have shared responsibility

·         Students make substantive decisions together

·         Students’ work is interdependent

It is essential that the nature of the collaborative activities is fully described in the lesson plan, and clearly refers to one or more of the four dimensions mentioned above.

2. The lesson plan incorporates appropriate assessment tools to assess the collaborative learning activities mentioned, preferably including the student in the design of at least one of the tools: For example, one or more of the following are included as assessment tools (see module 3 videos and resources – i.e. the CO-LAB Guidelines for Assessing Collaborative Learning in the Classroom for further information and inspiration):

·         Rubric to assess a group 

·         Rubric to assess group members individually

·         Checklist for self-assessment of students’ collaborative skills

·         Checklist for peer-assessment of students’ collaborative skills

·         Digital tools facilitating self and peer assessment of collaborative learning

·         Mindmaps and infographics to assess group work and facilitate peer assessment

3. The lesson plan is well aligned with its learning outcomes: activities and assessment clearly link with the defined learning outcomes and allow the teacher to determine by the end of the lesson(s) if the objectives have been achieved.

4. The lesson plan is balanced: there is a good mix of activities with at least four different Teaching Learning Activities used (TLAs in the Learning Designer) and none of the Activities, except in the case of collaboration, taking up more than 35% of the time (see the pie chart for this).

 

What do you think about the ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model mentioned by Valentina? Do you find it an interesting approach, and is it one you have experience of? Valentina mentions the need for teachers to bring their best skills and practices to the team while remaining flexible to adapt them in case others suggest better ways of working. Do you agree with this and what are your experiences of acting upon the constructive criticisms of other teachers?

4.3 A secondary teacher’s experience of teacher collaboration

Have you heard of all the platforms and digital tools mentioned by Reyhan in the video, and what are your experiences of using them for teacher collaboration? Do you agree that not all teachers have the required skills to take advantage of digital technologies? Reyhan mentions social media networks, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as particularly useful spaces for teacher collaboration and professional learning. What are your experiences of social media networks for teacher collaboration and professional learning? What emerging digital technologies are you aware of that can help teachers collaborate more efficiently?

4.4 The benefits and challenges of teacher collaboration

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

4.5 Skills and conditions needed for teacher collaboration

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

4.6 How technology can facilitate teacher collaboration

Do you use technology specifically for the purpose of collaborating with other teachers? Would you say that the nature of your digital collaboration with teachers is equivalent to ‘sending and displaying’, as mentioned in the video, or more about processing, analyzing and sharing? Why do you think this is and can you give examples? Which digital tools would you recommend for teachers to use for collaborating and why?

4.7 Irish teachers’ reflections on teacher collaboration

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