COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IS BETTER: 1 reasons and one bit of research

“…O! It drives all joy away;
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little
ones
spend the day,
In Sighing and Dismay.”
William Blake,”The School
Boy”

What you want Baby, I got What you need Do you know I got it? All I'm askin' Is
for a little respect"
Aretha Franklyn

16 Teaching is expensive; Collaborative learning is inexpensive

Why do managers who would not blink to authorize a multimillion dollar new technology infrastructure project find no budget for training departments? Because there are less tangible results for training and more difficulties to get everyone on board about it.

Even when money is spent on learning, organizations normally overspend on traditional teaching rather then on collaborative learning. That makes collaborative learning look like it’s not a good investment. If the old advertising saying: "I do not know which 50% of my budget is wasted" would apply to traditional teaching, would the number be higher or lower than 50% in your organization?

Organizations are more accustomed to spending on teaching. They are almost resigned to it and would rather spend their budgets on expensive teaching and invite “keynote speakers” than giving voice to the many internal experts or financing relatively inexpensive “learning space” retreats, “internal knowledge circles” meetings or simple off-site sessions for “project lessons learned".

Which one is easier: inviting "the expert" to talk or getting twenty managers away from their offices to talk about ways to improve their organization? While management-celebrities need no explaining, the second option, though inexpensive, is much harder to sell in its simplicity and possible far-reaching results.

A RESEARCH: COLLABORATIVE VS. COMPETITIVE LEARNING
A common observation is that people are unable to work productively together – in meetings, for example. With so many examples of group work as ineffective and conflict-ridden, how does collaborative learning make people suddenly work well in groups, become open to possibilities, and have fun? Why in a collaborative learning session do people suddenly interact more productively and are stimulated by the content?

Johnson and Johnson, the fathers of collaborative learning researched the subject and demonstrated that: Cooperative learning strategies work better than individualistic or competitive ones. The strategy and experience of Cooperative learning scores higher in the following areas:
Ability to motivate to learn more about the subject area being studied;
Ability to create of a positive attitudes toward both the subject area and the instructional experience;
Ability to work productively in a group and collaborative competencies;
Ability to understand how a situation appears to another person and how that person is reacting to it. (Called “cognitive and affective perspective-taking” with the opposite as egocentrism);
Ability to promote constructive socialization and expectations toward more rewarding, pleasant and enjoyable future interactions among students.***
***(Additionally to think critically and use higher reasoning strategies; to generate beliefs that one is personally

COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS Adriano Pianesi 2006