To better help students understand the material they are learning comes the technique of collaborative learning. Collaborative learning is when two or more people learn together and collaborate ideas. In the article "Collaborative Learning and the Conversation of Mankind," Kenneth A. Brufee states how many students did not want to receive offered help on their work. "These programs failed because undergraduates refused to use them. Many solutions to this problem were suggested and tried, then mandated programs that forced students to accept help they evidently did not want." It is pointless to force somebody to do something they do not want to do. I would suggest that these schools show the students the consequences of not asking questions to things they do not understand.
Collaborative learning is an excellent idea to help students learn to their full potential. By working with other students, one gathers different ideas and perspectives from different people to work with and form their own judgement. Having an array of different ideas allows room for broadening ones own horizons and seeing things from another point of view. Not only will this aid in the educational side of learning, but also the social. Working with another peer instead of a superior such as a teacher will allow the students to feel more comfortable. It will also take the pressure off of them so that they can fully express their ideas and not worry about saying the wrong thing.
Communication is a very essential tool to learning and understanding. The article states "To the extent that thought is internalized conversation, then, any effort to understand how we think requires us to understand the nature of conversation; and any effort to understand conversation requires us to understand the nature of community life that generates and maintains conversation." Having a basic conversation with another person is an easy way to broaden ones horizons. Such ideas as collaborative learning and peer tutoring makes learning and understanding material that much easier.
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I agree that peer collaboration is more effective than teacher-peer collaboration. Often, if a student is working with a teacher he or she may feel too intimidated to express what they feel. Because students think along a similar spectrum, discussing their ideas with them is less stressful. Since the student will converse more with another student, more intellectual stimulation will occur. Therefore, knowledge will grow, and its quality will be bettered.
ReplyDeleteIn the classroom it is definitely important for the professors in a college setting to create a place for students to be comfortable to express their ideas so that we are able to have important conversations and collaborations with our teachers to help us become experts on the subject. We as students can not create knowledge on our own on a subject on which we know nothing about, we need someone who knows the subject to guide us in the right direction.
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