The Power of Collaboration

Collaborative learning is a method of active learning that relies on the principle of two or more students coming together to work towards a common goal.

These are some of the benefits:

• Improved performance: research shows that collaborative methods are much more valuable than individualistic methods in building student performance and progression.
• Embedded learning: collaboration embeds knowledge more powerfully through listening and sharing. A student is more likely to remember something learnt with and from a peer than something broadcast from the front of the classroom. The dialogue and discussion over new ideas and approaches to solving the task set make it more memorable and require a deeper level of skills.
• Confidence building: well-planned collaboration allows all students to recognize and value the importance of their own contributions. It emboldens them with the confidence to teach and learn from others – not only their peers, but their teachers too.
• Improved psychological health: A more collaborative approach could lead to better emotional maturity, well-adjusted social relations, strong personality identity, ability to cope with adversity, basic trust and optimism about people, and independence and autonomy.
• Inclusivity: Effective collaboration recognizes the merit of everyone in the group, allowing each child to work to their strengths and gain support from others when needed.
• Well-rounded citizens: this may seem a bold claim, but as mentioned at the beginning, what we learn in childhood, we take into adult life. Collaborative practice can become so inculcated in a person that they take their skills not only on to further education and work, but into their personal lives too. The more people are equipped this way, the more harmonious society can become.

Collaboration is not an easy skill but it is a skill practices in the 21st century. There are many programs, such as open plan offices, carpools, Vancouver Bike Share , Cars to Go,  Startup Programs

All these programs demonstrates how the world in which we live increasingly shares resources, ideas and information for the common good.