Not all students learn in the same way or at the same pace. Therefore, not all methods will be effective for every student or class. Asking the students to participate in activities that allow them to hone that abilities to learn will help every student at least be given an equal opportunity to take part and succeed in the learning process.

            As classrooms become more diverse, classroom management can become increasingly challenging. Collaborative learning is one of the most effective strategies that teachers can employ in such classrooms. In this method, the teacher will create a learning environment in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together. Unlike individual learning, students involved in collaborative learning benefit from one another’s resources and skills ̶ asking one another for information, evaluating one another’s ideas, monitoring one another’s work. Correspondingly, it refers to a situation in which learners take on a common task where each individual depends on and is accountable to each other.

            Often, collaborative learning is used as a term for a variety of approaches that involve joint intellectual effort by students. Thus, collaborative learning is commonly illustrated when groups of students work together to search for understanding, explanation or solutions or to create an output or product of their learning. Collaborative learning activities can include collaborative writing, group output, joint problem solving, debates, study teams, and other activities. In these settings, students utilize worksheets and activity sheets designed to be more challenging than individual activities, and students quickly learn how they are able to solve problems or answer questions as a group that they might have struggled with on their own.

            Teachers have to use this method carefully, though. Many times, one person in each group does most of the work. As experience reveals, group decision-making can easily be dominated by the loudest voice or by students who talks the longest.

            The idea behind doing the group work is for each student to have a role that is important for the group as a whole. It strengthens students’ interactions with each other, a skill which can be used later in life, in the workplace.

By: Evelyn L. Perez | Teacher I | Morong National High School | Morong, Bataan