Collaborative learning: what is it and what are its benefits?

The times they Are a changing. Young people carry mobile phones and are born with an iPad under their arm, developing a level of self-learning and independence never seen before. Well, with teaching and especially in schools, exactly the same thing happens: there is also this constant interconnection to learn.

Collaborative learning is a rising trend in which primary school students learn to manage their tasks cooperatively, thus reducing the burden and authority that fell exclusively on the figure of the teacher.

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What is collaborative learning?

Currently, the world of work and professional demands more and more team work and dynamics, work groups and structures that are more horizontal than hierarchical. In this way, schools have been emphasizing the values ​​of collaborative learning for years to ensure, among many other purposes, that future generations are prepared for the new labor market.

Collaborative learning is part of a teaching model

which has been applied in classrooms for almost a decade, and basically consists of the cognitive development of students who understand the ages of 7 to 15 years making this learning a gradual development of interaction between the persons.

Furthermore, collaborative learning can promote integration between students from different cultures, religions and customs due to the multicultural character that modern societies are increasingly acquiring throughout the world.

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Benefits of this learning method

Below, you can find the 7 advantages that collaborative learning can offer.

1. combat anxiety

Often the personality and confidence of students has been undermined by the imposing authority of the teaching staff and the archaic models of teaching, especially primary school, which is where people absorb more information and begin to show concerns.

Involving children from an early age contributes to fostering greater self-confidence and esteem of them, allowing greater personal development that will be beneficial in the long term.

Thus, collaborative learning helps to reduce the dose of anxiety because it allows students to relax and work in a harmonious environment where they find enough time to think, rehearse and generate feedback among themselves, since the support of colleagues is a fundamental element of this method.

2. Allows you to optimize teaching

Due to the low teacher-student ratio that exists today (the result of overcrowded classes), collaborative learning allows schools to maximize all the resources they have to optimize the teaching process.

3. develop independence

As we have seen before, these learning dynamics considerably reduce the dependence that students have on the teacher, since, in the face of any problem or doubt to be resolved, the classmates offer the necessary type of assistance that was previously the exclusive task of the teaching staff.

Likewise, among the members of the cooperative group, they can develop a code of conduct, adequacy of the subject, vocabulary and even communication resulting from feedback between them students. This does not mean that in a specific case, the figure of the teacher does not intervene so much.

4. Power critical thinking

As long as students work and develop their activities in a collaborative environment, They will also learn to project their own thoughts and concerns with more freedom and daring, promoting reflection and development of skills metacognitive.

5. individual responsibility

As part of a team or work group, each member is considered individually responsible for contributing in the same direction to achieve the objectives of the group.

At the same time, the participation of each individual it must be with equal opportunities, in an equivalent manner and with the same degree of responsibility and protagonism as the rest of the members. This is the only way to eliminate a thought and make it individualistic.

6. Contributes to positive interdependence

This has to do directly with the objective or final goal that the group in question pursues. It is directly related to the individual tasks of each member who, aware of the collective interest, has to do everything possible to help and attend to the request of the other members when they need it.

In all groups there are better-prepared and less-prepared students. But the second can take advantage of the knowledge of the first, while the most advantaged can also enrich and strengthen their skills and abilities.

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7. Responds to a heterogeneous and multicultural society

Societies are changing, customs evolve and acquire an increasingly complex character. collaborative learning can take advantage of this kind of diversity and turn it into a powerful educational resource.

In this way, it is possible to take advantage of the variety and richness of experiences that the educational center can provide, thus allowing the evolution of intellectual abilities, promoting to improve the capacity of expression and communication, as well as increasing the capacity of verbal comprehension.

Where some see difficulty in managing a class of children from different cultures causing ghettos schools in some cases, cooperation becomes a necessity to respond to the "issue".