COLLABORATION CONQUERS!!!!!!

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

Two widely accepted principles about learning—learners construct their own knowledge and learning is an inherently social phenomenon—support the use of group learning. Working in small groups provides learners with opportunities to articulate ideas and understandings, uncover assumptions and misconceptions, and negotiate with others to create products or reach consensus. Group activities enable students to discover deeper meaning in the content and improve thinking skills. The most effective use of group work is that which engages students with higher-level content that is thought-provoking, difficult to understand, or has multiple interpretations.

Learning process

The terms collaborative learning and cooperative learning are often used interchangeably, but a distinction is helpful. Collaborative learning highlights the contributions of individual group members, stresses the sharing of authority, and leads to dialog and consensus building on topics without a clear right and wrong answer. Group governance and group processing remain in the hands of the students (Panitz, 1997). Cooperative learning is often thought of as a subset of collaborative learning that involves more teacher intervention. The instructor designs the task and a group structure for accomplishing the task, including the assignment of roles to group members. Students then interact under specific conditions set up by the teacher: positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual account ability, collaborative skills, and group processing (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 1998). Both collaborative and cooperative learning can take place with informal and formal groups, however both settings will require that the instructor plans carefully how the assignment is designed, monitored, and assessed.

Group structure

Short-term groups

These are temporary groups, with little or no time spent on assigning people to groups, getting into groups, or assigning roles. They last one session or less and are used to ensure cognitive processing and engagement in learning. Some informal short-term group activities include the following:

• Think-Pair-Share: Students are given a prompt (a question, problem, visual, etc.), and asked to think about the prompt individually and jot down ideas. Students then form pairs, talk about their responses, and formulate a joint response. Some pairs are called on to summarize their discussion for the class.
• Think-Pair-Square: Same as above, but two pairs of students join together to share and compare the results, rather than moving to a whole group discussion.
• Turn-To-Your-Neighbor Discussions: Students “turn to a neighbor” and brainstorm answers to a question or discuss a solution to a problem. Call on students for answers. Ask the class for a show of hands of who agrees or disagrees with an answer.
• Pair-And-Compare: During a two to three minute break in lecture, students form pairs and compare notes, rewriting the notes by adding information or correcting as needed.
• Small-Group Homework Check: Have students do their homework individually outside of class. During class on the day the assignment is due, have students form groups and then compare their answers to the assignment. The students in each group must agree on answers and turn in a group solution along with their individual work.

Some short-term group activities require a bit more structure and planning. These include the following:

• Jigsaw: This structure is useful when a topic or problem is complex and involves multiple perspectives. Each group member takes responsibility for one part of the problem, meets with students from other groups who have the same responsibility (expert group), and then teaches his or her part to the members of the original group.
• Roundtable: After the group is given a prompt, the group members take turns recording a response to the prompt on a single page that is quickly passed from one member to the next for a specified amount of time.
• Send-A-Problem: Problems or issues are identified by the groups or by the instructor. Each group proposes solutions to these problems or issues.
• Dyadic Essay Confrontation: In response to an assigned reading, each student writes an essay question and model response to that question. During class, students pair off, exchange essay questions, and each writes a spontaneous response to the question he or she receives. The pairs compare the spontaneous responses with the model responses for the two questions.

Long-term groups or teams

These groups are formed by the instructor and may stay together for an extended period of time (weeks or even the entire semester) to work on a broader task or project. One type of formal group is the student team—a stable group that works on major course projects and often involves peer evaluation. Some specific suggestions for getting started with organizing long-term group projects include the following:

• Develop a clear description of the project and what you expect.
• Decide what kinds of team compositions are critical for the project.
• Break the project down into smaller pieces, establishing a timeline, and having the teams submit progress reports on their learning and how they are working as a team.
• Provide students with a rationale for the team project. Include an explanation of the value and purpose of working as a team, and establish guidelines for how the teams should work together.
• Establish clear and fair guidelines for how the team project will be graded.

Team formation

This depends on your purpose for using groups. Teams usually have three to five students who are assigned to the group randomly or purposefully by you. Capstone projects may require a larger number of students. Student-selected groups are not generally recommended.

Random selection

You can form random teams by any of the following methods:

• Simply having students “turn-to-your-neighbor” or “form teams of three.”
• Counting off—24 students would form groups of four by counting off from one to six. All of the ones would become a group and so on.
• Using color-coded cards or playing cards—students pick up cards as they enter class and all students with the same color (or same number) work together.

Instructor-selected teams

For longer or more complex projects, instructors may want to create heterogeneous teams that distribute students into different groups based on ability, strengths, experience, gender, ethnicity, or some other characteristic. Instructors first learn about the students and then form teams according to the plan. You can learn about your students in one or more of the following ways:

• Collect student data sheets that include the following: 
• Course-related information: Major, courses taken in the discipline
• Experience: Work, travel
• Personal information: Where they live, phone number, e-mail address, interests
• Administer questionnaires with questions relevant to the project: 
• Strengths: Self-rating on ability with computers, writing, organization
• Learning styles
• Have students prepare a resume. Doing this may be most appropriate when the students are likely to have a resume already prepared.

Preparing for group work

• Think carefully about how students will be physically arranged in groups. Will it be easy for groups to form and for all students to be comfortable? Also think about how the layout of your classroom will impact volume. Will students be able to hear one another clearly? How can you moderate the activity to control volume?
• Insist on professional, civil conduct between and among students to respect people’s differences and create an inclusive environment.
• Talk to students about their past experiences with group work and allow them to establish some ground rules for successful collaboration. This discussion can be successfully done anonymously through the use of note cards.

Designing the group activity

• Identify the instructional objectives. Determine what you want to achieve through the small group activity, both academically (e.g., knowledge of a topic) and socially (e.g., listening skills). The activity should relate closely to the course objectives and class content and must be designed to help students learn, not simply to occupy their time. When deciding whether or not to use group work for a specific task, consider these questions: What is the objective of the activity? How will that objective be furthered by asking students to work in groups? Is the activity challenging or complex enough that it requires group work? Will the project require true collaboration? Is there any reason why the assignment should not be collaborative?
• Make the task challenging. Consider giving a relatively easy task early in the term to arouse students’ interest in group work and encourage their progress. In most cases collaborative exercises should be stimulating and challenging. By pooling their resources and dealing with differences of opinion that arise, groups of students can develop a more sophisticated product than they could as individuals. See our teaching tip “Group work in the Classroom: Small-Group Tasks” for some ideas.
• Assign group tasks that encourage involvement, interdependence, and a fair division of labour. All group members should feel a sense of personal responsibility for the success of their teammates and realize that their individual success depends on the group’s success. Knowing that peers are relying on you is a powerful motivator for group work.
• Allocate essential resources across the group so that group members are required to share information (e.g., the jigsaw method). Or, to come up with a consensus, randomly select one person to speak for the group, or assign different roles to group members so that they are all involved in the process (e.g., recorder, spokesperson, summarizer, checker, skeptic, organizer, observer, timekeeper, conflict resolver, liaison to other groups).
• Another strategy for promoting interdependence is specifying common rewards for the group, such as a group mark.
• Decide on group size. The size you choose will depend on the number of students, the size of the classroom, the variety of voices needed within a group, and the task assigned. Groups of four-five tend to balance the needs for diversity, productivity, active participation, and cohesion. The less skillful the group members, the smaller the groups should be (Gross Davis, 1993).
• Decide how you will divide students into groups. Division based on proximity or students’ choice is quickest, especially for large and cramped classes, but this often means that students end up working together with friends or with the same people.
• To vary group composition and increase diversity within groups, randomly assign students to groups by counting off and grouping them according to number. Another idea is to distribute candy (e.g., Starburst or hard, coloured candies) and group students according to the flavour they choose.
• For some group tasks, the diversity within a group (e.g., gender, ethnicity, level of preparation) is especially important, and you might want to assign students to groups yourself before class. Collect a data card from each student on the first day of class to glean important information about their backgrounds, knowledge, and interests. Alternately, ask students to express a preference (e.g., list three students with whom they would most like to work or two topics they would most like to study), and keep their preferences in mind as you assign groups.
• Allow sufficient time for group work. Recognize that you won't be able to cover as much material as you could if you lectured for the whole class period. Cut back on the content you want to present in order to give groups time to work. Estimate the amount of time that subgroups need to complete the activity. Also plan for a plenary session in which groups’ results can be presented or general issues and questions can be discussed.
• Try to predict students’ answers. You won’t be able to expect the unexpected, but by having some idea about what students will come up with, you will be better prepared to answer their questions and tie together the group work during the plenary session.
• Design collaborative work in multiple orms: pairs, small groups, large groups, online synchronously, online asynchronously, etc. Some students might be better at contributing after they have had time to digest material, while others might be better at thinking on the spot. Other students will defer to others in large groups but actively contribute in pairs. All roles should be valued and included.
• Design a group project in which the students work in phases: For instance, starting with a project idea, then moving to project development, followed by preliminary project outcomes – and requiring students to “check-in” at each phase before delivering the final project. Not only does this help ensure that the groups won’t wait until the final deadline is upon them to work on their project, but it also enables the instructor to touch base with every group and to offer guidance, support, or mediation, if needed, during the process.
• Develop an element of the project that allows group members to make their own choices: In my teaching, I usually give students the freedom to choose a topic area that interests them within the scope of the course or that is the most relevant or meaningful to the team members. This decision helps create a sense of ownership and enhances the students’ level of engagement, both of which are crucial for working on large group projects, and especially for those requiring students to carry out the work in phases throughout the term (see, for example, Enghag & Niedder, 2007, on the theoretical basis for student ownership of learning).

Introducing the group activity

• Share your rationale for using group work. Students must understand the benefits of collaborative learning. Don't assume that students know what the pedagogical purpose is. Explicitly connect these activities to larger class themes and learning outcomes whenever possible. 
• Have students form groups before you give them instructions. If you try to give instructions first, students may be too preoccupied with deciding on group membership to listen to you. 
• Facilitate some form of group cohesion. Students work best together if they know or trust each other, at least to some extent. Even for brief group activities, have students introduce themselves to their group members before attending to their task. For longer periods of group work, consider introducing an icebreaker or an activity designed specifically to build a sense of teamwork.
• Explain the task clearly. This means both telling students exactly what they have to do and describing what the final product of their group work will look like. Explaining the big picture or final goal is important, especially when the group work will take place in steps (such as in snowballing or jigsaw). Prepare written or visual instructions (e.g., charts, sequential diagrams) for students. Remember to include time estimations for activities. 
• Set ground rules for group interaction. Especially for extended periods of group work, establish how group members should interact with one another, including principles such as respect, active listening, and methods for decision making. Consider making a group contract. 
• Let students ask questions. Even if you believe your instructions are crystal clear, students may have legitimate questions about the activity. Give them time to ask questions before they get to work.
• Within a group project, include a component requiring individual students to submit non-onerous individual work: For example, the project could include a personal reflection piece (e.g., e.g., Huang, 2011a), in which each member individually reflects on the process and product of his or her own portion of the group work. Apart from the pedagogical benefits of learners engaging in individual reflection (Pavlovich, Collins, & Jones, 2009), this task or component will inevitably provide insights about the division-of-labor issue commonly raised by instructors and students alike. Both learners and the instructor can glean a great many insights from those individual reflection pieces, which instructors can take into account when assigning either project or final grades, depending on their individual approach to assessment. This process also enables students to gain greater understanding about what worked well and what could be improved.

One important matter to keep in mind when implementing the reflection component is the need to ensure that we, as instructors, clarify what we mean by “reflection” in order to minimize a potential mismatch between our expectations about reflective learning and our students’ understanding of what it entails. What we’d like our students to do is to engage in critical reflection – that is, thinking that involves different levels of reflection, rather than simply restating or describing what they did, or what I have called “non-transformative” reflection.

The goal is to encourage students to move beyond simply recalling what they did either individually or together within the group and instead to reflect on their personal discoveries about their own learning and the process of working collaboratively (i.e., understanding, analyzing, and evaluating the process and the product of their group efforts), and, importantly, to “verbalize” what they would do differently the next time around (i.e., pointing to the future).

• This component is an example of what is called “writing/speaking to learn” (Manchón, 2011). For this task, it’s important that students not be required to follow any formatting or style guidelines. The reflection should be an informal piece of writing, much like a diary entry, and can be in any modality (e.g., writing, audio recording, video clip) that suits the characteristics or preferences of individual students to allow for their individual expression. For some additional simple guidelines about implementing learner reflection, refer to Huang (2011b).

Monitoring the group task

• Monitor the groups but do not hover. As students do their work, circulate among the groups and answer any questions raised. Also listen for trends that are emerging from the discussions, so that you can refer to them during the subsequent plenary discussion. Avoid interfering with group functioning — allow time for students to solve their own problems before getting involved. You might consider leaving the room for a short period of time. Your absence can increase students’ willingness to share uncertainties and disagreements (Jaques, 2000).
• Expect a lot of your students. Assume that they do know, and can do, a great deal (Brookfield & Preskill, 1999). Express your confidence in them as you circulate the room.
• Be slow to share what you know. If you come upon a group that is experiencing uncertainty or disagreement, avoid the natural tendency to give the answers or resolve the disagreement. If necessary, clarify your instructions, but let students struggle — within reason — to accomplish the task (Race, 2000).
• Clarify your role as facilitator. If students criticize you for not contributing enough to their work, consider whether you have communicated clearly enough your role as facilitator.

Devote a segment (30 minutes or so) during class before all group projects begin to implement two important steps.

Step 1: Get to know each other. The first 10 minutes can be a period for all students to find and meet with the group members they have either been assigned or have self-selected. They should then spend some time exploring each other’s communication styles, which may arise from personal or culture-related differences (Lewis, 2006), to help them better anticipate different communication preferences and approaches to group work. This time can be spent sharing responses to guiding questions or statements, such as “I would describe my communication style/personality as …,” “I tend/prefer to deal with conflict by …,” and “I would appreciate my team members doing/not doing ….” (Huang, 2014). Guiding questions are especially helpful for groups that are culturally and linguistically diverse.

Step 2: Establish group norms. During the next 20 minutes, encourage each group to negotiate its own group norms (derived from Step 1) and ground rules. During this time, members of each team should elucidate, negotiate, and establish roles, responsibilities, and expectations. This process makes explicit the specific contributions and ownership of responsibilities that each team member negotiates and agrees to.

• Below is a sample checklist that instructors can modify and use to facilitate this process and help prepare each group project to succeed (Huang, 2014). You can revise the items to suit a project or provide the list as an example for each group to use in creating its own list. The list can also be revisited during each check-point mentioned earlier and adjustments made as needed. Upon completion of the project, instructors can request the checklist(s) to be submitted (but not graded), along with other deliverables that are due,
• Prepare students to expect the unexpected: Rather than directing their every concern to you, students should be encouraged to become problem solvers not only by identifying problems, but also by developing solutions and choosing and evaluating the best ones so as to balance personal learning with the group’s project goals. At the same time, you’ll want to create and maintain a culture of openness that lets your students know you are readily available to provide guidance when groups reach an impasse.
• In any group work situation, it is always possible that compatibility issues will arise between or among team members, as well as conflicts or problems with unequal distribution of work. however, can easily be implemented to help minimize the likelihood that conflicts will develop that could negatively affect learning and outcomes. They may also help instructors and students in dealing with the specific common challenge of students who are not pulling their own weight in group collaborations, while maximizing the benefits of a group project not only in terms of content, but more, if not most, importantly, in learning how to work with others – a valuable life lesson that’s best learned through experience.

Ending the group task

• Provide closure to the group activities. Students tend to want to see how their work in small groups was useful to them and/or contributed to the development of the topic. You can end with a plenary session in which students do group reporting. Effective group reporting “can make the difference between students’ feeling that they are just going through their paces and the sense that they are engaged in a powerful exchange of ideas” (Brookfield & Preskill, 1999, p. 107).
• Oral reports: Have each group give one idea and rotate through the groups until no new ideas arise. Or have each group give their most surprising or illuminating insights or their most challenging question. You can record ideas raised to validate their value.
• Written reports: Have each group record their ideas and either present them yourself or have a group member do so. One variation on this is to have groups record their conclusions on a section of the blackboard or on flipchart paper that is then posted on the wall. Students then informally circulate around the room and read each other’s answers. Alternately, you can ask students to move around the room in small groups, rotating from one set of comments to another and adding their own comments in response. Another variation on written reports is to have students write brief comments on Post-it notes or index cards. Collect them, take a few minutes to process them or put them in sequence, then summarize their contents.
• Model how you want students to participate. When responding to students’ answers, model the respect and sensitivity that you want the students to display towards their classmates. Be ready to acknowledge and value opinions different from your own. Be willing to share your own stories, critique your work, and summarize what has been said.
• Connect the ideas raised to course content and objectives. Recognize that groups might not come up with the ideas you intended them to, so be willing to make your lecture plans flexible. Wherever possible, look for a connection between group conclusions and the course topic. However, be aware that misconceptions or inaccurate responses need to be clarified and corrected either by you or by other students.
• Don’t provide too much closure. Although the plenary session should wrap up the group work, feel free to leave some questions unanswered for further research or for the next class period. This openness reflects the nature of knowledge.
• Ask students to reflect on the group work process. They may do so either orally or in writing. This reflection helps them discover what they learned and how they functioned in the group. It also gives you a sense of their response to group work.
• 
  

Benefits of Getting Students to Participate in Classroom Discussions

Participation is one of those workhorse instructional strategies—easy to use, straightforward, expected, and often quite successful at accomplishing a number of learning goals. It’s good to remind ourselves of its many different uses, especially on those days when getting students to participate feels like pulling hens’ teeth.

Participation adds interest—It’s hard to maintain students’ focus and attention when all they hear is the professor talking. It helps to hear another voice as well as an answer or another point of view.

Participation engages students—A good question can pique their interest, make them wonder why, get them to think, and motivate them to make connections with the content. This benefit is magnified when teachers play a bit with the question, when they repeat it, write it on the board, and don’t call on the first hand they see.

Participation provides the teacher feedback—When students answer or try to explain, teachers can see the extent of their understanding. They can correct (or help the students correct) what the students haven’t got right or don’t see quite clearly.

Participation provides the students feedback—When teachers ask questions or otherwise seek student input over a topic, they are letting students know something about the importance of certain ideas and information.

Participation can be used to promote preparation—If an instructor regularly calls on students and asks questions about assigned reading or what’s in their notes from the previous class session, that can get students (at least some of them) coming to class prepared.

Participation can be used to control what’s happening in class—If a student is dozing off, texting, quietly chatting, or otherwise not attending to what’s happening, that student can be called on or the student next to the offender can be asked to respond.

Participation can be used to balance who’s contributing in class and how much—In the vast majority of cases, it is the teacher who selects the participant. If teachers will wait patiently and not always select the same student, if they look expectantly to others and confirm verbally and nonverbally the value of hearing from different people, they can influence who speaks and how much. Participation even helps teachers control how much they talk.

Participation encourages dialogue among and between students—Students can be asked to comment on what another student has said. A question can be asked and students can be invited to discuss possible answers with each other before the public discussion.

Participation can be used to develop important speaking skills—In many professional contexts, people need to be able to speak up in a group. They may need to offer information, ask questions, or argue for a different solution. People don’t learn to speak up in a group by reading about how to do it—it’s one of those skills best developed with practice. And it’s one of those skills that develops better with feedback. If participation is being used to teach students this public communication skill, they will need feedback.

Participation gives students the opportunity to practice using the language of the discipline—Most faculty have spoken astronomy, accounting, psychology, gerontology, political science, whatever the field for years, and they’ve forgotten how much of the language is new, different, and difficult for students. Participation gives students the chance to practice using a different vocabulary.

INDUCING ACTIVE LEARNING.....

Shaping the Environment

Reserve a classroom that will accommodate the kind of participation you have in mind. Starting on the first day of class, arrange the room in a way that encourages active engagement. When it is time to reserve a classroom, keep in mind not only the number of student chairs you will need, but also whether these chairs should be moveable. If you lead frequent discussions, consider moving the chairs into a circle or “U” to ensure that students can see, and speak to, one another. If you are teaching in a large lecture hall, consider asking students to move so that they are concentrated near the front of the room. Move the chairs back to their standard configuration at the end of class (in University-managed classrooms, see the diagram posted near the door).

Make clear from the beginning your expectation that students will participate. On the first day of class, explain what you see as valuable about class participation. Indicate that you want to do all you can to ensure that the classroom dynamics and activities support full participation, including calling on students who do not raise their hands and sometimes asking frequent contributors to allow others to have a chance. Ask students to inform you if you can make any changes to improve the classroom dynamics and rates of participation.

On the first day of class, give students a clear idea of what to expect regarding participation. If you plan to lecture each day with pauses for questions and discussion, do so on the first day; if you plan to lead more extended discussions, then do so on the first day.

Consider whether you will assign a grade to students’ performance in discussions so that they understand the importance of participating. If you do plan to grade participation, inform students of the specific criteria that you will use. For example, will you evaluate the frequency and quality of their contributions, as well as how effectively they each respond to others’ comments? Will you include in each participation grade the student’s performance on informal writing, online discussions, minor group projects, or other work? Grading student participation is especially important, and usually essential, in discussion courses

Learn and use students’ names. Students will be more engaged if they believe that you perceive them as individuals, rather than as anonymous members of a group. Encourage students to learn one another’s names, as well; this strategy will increase the possibility that they will address one another by name and direct their comments to one another, not just to you.

Planning

In a discussion course, assign to your students some of the responsibility for increasing participation by all. For example, on the first day of class, you might tell students your goals for class participation (e.g., informed and lively discussions in which everyone participates) and ask them to come up with a list of guidelines that will help the class reach this goal. Typically, they will generate excellent guidelines such as “do not interrupt others when they are talking” and “critique the ideas; don’t criticize the person.” Post this list on the course Web site and hand it out in class. Students who feel invested from the beginning in making the discussions successful will be more likely to work together to increase participation.

Consider requiring students to lead discussions or to submit discussion questions before class. Provide guidance and assess student performance on these tasks (assigning a score, for example, that forms a part of the class participation grade.)

In discussion courses in which you are having trouble getting students to participate, consider asking students to submit anonymous comments on class participation as well as suggestions on how to get more people involved; often, they will let you know that there are problems with the classroom dynamics that you may not see yourself (such as that some students resent the “domination” of discussion by one or two others) or that the structure of the discussions has become too predictable or formulaic.

Use a variety of teaching methods, including lectures, discussions, and small-group work. If you are teaching a lecture course, set aside time during each lecture to ask and answer questions, to ask students to solve a problem, or to discuss an issue. Pause every 15-20 minutes for this purpose. When students learn to expect these opportunities for discussion or questioning, they will listen more actively to the lecture. If you lecture for 45 minutes before you pause for questions or discussion, your students will have been taking notes for so long that they may find it difficult to switch modes quickly. Furthermore, they may well have forgotten questions, comments, or unclear concepts from the earlier parts of class.

If you are teaching a discussion course, integrate short lectures into the lesson plan in order to introduce concepts, clarify and order ideas, and help students make connections. Use small-group discussions, informal writing assignments, and online discussions before or at the start of class to prompt student thinking about the discussion topic. These strategies can be effective ways to provide reflective learners and shy students a means of developing ideas that they can then contribute to the class discussion. Commenting on the insights that quieter students contribute in small-group discussions and on informal writing assignments and online discussions can encourage them to speak up in the larger group; you might comment on a student’s written work, for example, “this analysis is insightful; the entire class would benefit from hearing your ideas more often” .

Organize each class session to include opportunities throughout to ask and answer questions; prepare initial and follow-up questions ahead of time. Use questions to assess student learning, to signal to students which material is the most important, and to help students advance their knowledge and thinking. Encourage students to ask questions throughout the class (approximately every 15 minutes), not just at the end.

If grading student participation, plan to give students a preliminary participation grade, as well as a brief written evaluation of their performance. If you will grade class participation, give students preliminary grades as early as 3-4 weeks into the semester and at midterm so that they will know where they stand. Your written evaluation can be designed to encourage the quiet students to talk more often and the verbose students to hold their comments to give others a chance to participate).

Listening and Responding

Use verbal and non-verbal cues to encourage participation. Do not rely on the same volunteers to answer every question. Respond to frequent volunteers in a way that indicates that you appreciate their responses, but want to hear from others as well. Move to a part of the room where quiet students are sitting; smile at and make eye contact with these students to encourage them to speak up. By the same token, when frequent volunteers speak, look around the room rather than only at them to encourage others to respond (see below).

Reduce students’ anxieties by creating an atmosphere in which they feel comfortable “thinking out-loud,” taking intellectual risks, asking questions, and admitting when they do not know something; one of the best ways to do this is to model these behaviors yourself.

Give students time to think before they respond to your questions. Do not be afraid of silence. Give students 5-10 seconds to think and formulate a response. If 10-15 seconds pass without anyone volunteering an answer and the students are giving you puzzled looks, rephrase your question. Do not give in to the temptation to answer your own questions, which will condition students to hesitate before answering to see if you will supply “the answer.” Patience is key; do not be afraid of silence. The longer you wait for students to respond, the more thoughtful and complex those responses are likely to be.

Often, there is at least one student in every class who will quickly raise her or his hand to answer nearly every question. If you consistently call on this student, those who require more time to formulate answers will simply learn to wait for this student to answer.

Listen fully to your students’ questions and answers; avoid interrupting. Resist the urge to interrupt when you think you know what the student is going to say or ask. Often, well-meaning and enthusiastic instructors make incorrect assumptions and leave their students’ actual questions unanswered or misrepresent what the students had planned to say.

Provide specific, encouraging, varied responses. Point out what is helpful or interesting about student contributions. Pick up on comments that were made but not discussed. Do not use the same, standard praise to respond to every comment. When students hear “good point” again and again, they start to lose motivation. Ask follow-up questions to prompt students to clarify, refine, and support their ideas. When a student gives an incorrect or ill-conceived answer, respond in way that challenges the student to think more deeply or to reconsider the evidence. The best way to shut down participation, and learning, is to embarrass a student.

Repeat student responses to summarize or clarify ideas. Use this strategy when a student’s comments are vague or “all over the map,” but do not over-use it, leading students to rely on you to “translate” or validate their ideas.

Redirect comments and questions to other students. Encourage students to respond to one another, rather than merely to you. When a student is speaking, look around the room, not just at the student who is speaking; making eye contact with other students lets them know that you expect them to be listening and formulating responses. Provide students with a model of civil discourse by demonstrating respect for, and interest in, the views of others. Learn to limit your own comments. Particularly when facilitating a discussion, hold back from responding to every comment; otherwise, students will learn to wait for you to respond rather than formulating their own responses.

Place the emphasis on student ideas. Encourage students to share their ideas and use those ideas (with attribution) whenever you can. Referring back to a comment made by a student in an earlier class demonstrates that you have thought about and appreciated what your students have to say.

Active student participation does not happen naturally in university courses; it must be carefully planned and encouraged. Set aside time throughout the semester to assess student participation in your course and to develop strategies for improvement; administer midterm student evaluations to help you with this process. Consider asking a colleague to observe your class; often, outside observers can discern patterns that hinder participation but that may not be apparent to participants. Take notes during and after a semester so that you have a record of what went well and what you would like to change the next time you teach the course in order to increase student participation.

References

1. Dillenbourg, P. (1999). Collaborative Learning: Cognitive and Computational Approaches. Advances in Learning and Instruction Series. New York, NY: Elsevier Science, Inc.
2. Chiu, M. M. (2000). Group problem solving processes: Social interactions and individual actions. for the Theory of Social Behavior, 30, 1, 27-50.600-631.
3. Chiu, M. M. (2008).Flowing toward correct contributions during groups' mathematics problem solving: A statistical discourse analysis. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17 (3), 415 - 463.
4. Mitnik, R., Recabarren, M., Nussbaum, M., & Soto, A. (2009). Collaborative Robotic Instruction: A Graph Teaching Experience. Computers & Education, 53(2), 330-342.
5. Chiu, M. M. (2008). Effects of argumentation on group micro-creativity. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 33, 383 – 402.
6. Chen, G., & Chiu, M. M. (2008). Online discussion processes. Computers and Education, 50, 678 – 692.
7. Chiu, M. M., & Khoo, L. (2005). A new method for analyzing sequential processes: Dynamic multi-level analysis. Small Group Research, 36, 600-631.
8. Chiu, M. M. (2004). Adapting teacher interventions to student needs during cooperative learning. American Educational Research Journal, 41, 365-399.
9. Harding-Smith, T. (1993). Learning together: An introduction to collaborative learning. New York, NY: HarperCollins College Publishers.
10. Vygotsky, Lev. (1997). "Interaction between Learning and Development". W.H. Freeman and Company, New York.
11. Gokhale, A.A. (1995). "Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking". Journal of Technology Education.
12. Paradise, R. (1985). Un análisis psicosocial de la motivación y participación emocional en un caso de aprendizaje individual. Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Educativos, XV, 1, 83-93.
13. Dillenbourgh, P., Baker, M., Blaye, A. & O'Malley, C. (1995). The evolution of research on Collaborative Learning. Retrieved February 19, 2008, from CSCL-A brief overview
14. Kyndt, E., Raes, E., Lismont, B., Timmers, F., Cascallar, E., Dochy, F. (2013). A meta-analysis of the effects of face-to-face cooperative learning. Do recent studies falsify or verify earlier findings? Educational Research Review.
15. Smith, B. L., & MacGregor, J. T. (1992). "What Is Collaborative Learning?". National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment at Pennsylvania State University
16. "Wisconsin's Guiding Principles for Teaching and Learning".
17. Kelly, J. (2002). "Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge by Kenneth Bruffee: A Critical Study" Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council --Online Archive.
18. Prince, M. (2004)."Does Active Learning Work? A Review of Research". J. Engr. Education, 93(3), 223-231.
19. Lou, Y., Others. (1996)."Within-Class Grouping: A eta-Analysis". Review of Educational Research. 66(4), 423-58.
20. Alexander, J. (2009)"Examining the Effects of classroom Discussion on Students' Comprehension of Text: A Meta-Analysis". Journal of Educational Psychology. 101(3). 760-764.
21. Fall, R., Webb, N., Chudowsky, N. (1997)."Group Discussion and Large-Scale Language Arts Assessment: Effects on Students' Comprehension"
22. Lee, Hyunkyung (2014). "Collaborative Learning in the Workplace: Practice Issues and Concerns". International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning. doi:10.3991/ijac.v7i2.3850.
23. Singh, P.J. (2009). "The nature and effectiveness of collaboration between firms, their customers and suppliers: a supply chain perspective.". Supply Chain Management: An international Journal. doi:10.1108/13598540910954539.
24. Stacy, Elizabeth (1999). "Collaborative Learning in an Online Environment". Journal of Distance Education.
25. Chickering & Ehrmann (1996). "Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever". AAHE Bulletin.