Apprendimento cooperativo e collaborativo - Confronto

Collaborative versus cooperative learning: A comparison of the two concepts

Introduction

We have been searching for many years for the Holy Grail of interactive learning, a distinction between collaborative and cooperative learning definitions. I am getting closer to my elusive goal all the time. I believe confusion arises when people look at the process associated with each concept and see a certain amount of overlap or inter-concept usage. I will clarify the definitions of collaborative and cooperative learning first by presenting my definitions of the two terms and reviewing those of other authors who have helped clarify my thinking and second by presenting and analyzing the educational benefits of collaborative/cooperative learning techniques.

Constructivist epistemology

The underlying premise for collaborative and cooperative learning is founded on constructivist epistemology. Johnson, Johnson & Smith (1991) have summarized these principles in their definition of a new paradigm of teaching. “First, knowledge is constructed, discovered, and transformed by students. Faculty create the conditions within which students can construct meaning from the material studied by processing it through existing cognitive structures and then retaining it in long-term memory where it remains open to further processing and possible reconstruction. Second, students actively construct their own knowledge. Learning is conceived of as something a learner does, not something that is done to the learner. Students do not passively accept knowledge from the teacher of curriculum. Students activate their existing cognitive structures or construct new ones to subsume the new input. Third, faculty effort is aimed at developing students’ competencies and talents. Fourth, education is a personal transaction among students and between the faculty and students as they work together. Fifth, all of the above can only take place within a cooperative context. Sixth, teaching is assumed to be a complex application of theory and research that requires considerable teacher training and continuous refinement of skills and procedures.”

Definitions

The following will serve as a starting point for this discussion. A basic definition of the terms collaborative and cooperative, reduced to their simplest terms, is presented:

• Collaboration is a philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle where individuals are responsible for their actions, including learning and respect the abilities and contributions of their peers.
• Cooperation is a structure of interaction designed to facilitate the accomplishment of a specific end product or goal through people working together in groups.

Cooperative model in practice

Before we proceed with the theoretical underpinning of each method, it would be helpful to describe the differences between the two paradigms in terms of an actual class.

In the cooperative model, the teacher maintains complete control of the class, even though the students work in groups to accomplish a goal of a course. The cooperative teacher asks a specific question such as, “What were the five causes of the start of World War II?” The teacher provides additional articles for the students to read and analyze, beyond the text, and then asks the students to work in groups to answer the question. The groups then present their results to the whole class and discuss their reasoning. A follow-up question may then be posed to the groups to analyze the United Nations to determine if this has been an effective organization to prevent world wars and to make recommendations on possible changes needed to make the UN more effective. The teacher might use specific structures, such as a Jig Saw model, to help facilitate the group interactions. He/she might require a specific product such as a term paper or report, class presentation, and an exam at the end of the topic. The students do the work necessary to consider the material being covered but the teacher maintains control of the process at each stage.

Impact of technology on collaborative learning

Recently, with the advent of a Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) technology and the Internet, researchers on computer-mediated collaborative learning have suggested that the fusion of collaborative learning and CMC technologies is mutually beneficial, since CMC technologies remove many barriers to collaborative learning.

David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson’s article ‘Cooperation and Technology’ go into detail about cooperative learning (its relationship with collaborative learning) and technology’s potential to play a role in facilitating learning that takes place in group environments. What follows is a summary of that article.

Three theoretical perspectives

• Behavioral
  • Groups stimulate and punish.
  • Groups offer more pros than they do cons.
• Cognitive / Constructivist
  • Knowledge and Learning are social in nature.
  • Learning comes from figuring out unexpected occurrences together.
• Social Interdependence
  • Cooperative
    • Group as a 'dynamic whole'
    • Positive Tension
    • High levels of interaction
  • Competitive
    • Negative Tension

Four types of cooperative learning

• Formal - Teacher-planned
  • Learners given explicit roles and goals.
  • Learners monitored.
  • Learners prompted to reflect on process, personal and group contributions. Groups may exist for one class period or several weeks.
• Informal - Temporary groups with short-term goals.
• Base Groups - Long-term (months to a year)
  • General support for overall academic success.
• Academic Controversy
  • Elicit controversy between students.
  • State case for each side.
  • Withstand questioning from opposing viewpoint.
  • Come to consensus.

Cooperative learning in online education

Cooperative learning was proposed in response to traditional curriculum-driven education. In cooperative learning environments, students interact in purposely structured heterogeneous groups to support the learning of oneself and others in the same group.

In online education, cooperative learning focuses on opportunities to encourage both individual flexibility and affinity to a learning community (Paulsen 2003). Cooperative learning seeks to foster some benefits from the freedom of individual learning and other benefits from collaborative learning. Cooperative learning thrives in virtual learning environments that emphasize individual freedom within online learning communities.

Cooperative learning explicitly builds cooperation skills by assigning roles to team members and establishing norms for conflict resolution via arbitration. Cooperative learning should also provide the means for group reflection and individual self-assessment.

Definition and benefits of cooperative learning

"Cooperative learning (CL) is an instructional paradigm in which teams of students work on structured tasks (e.g., homework assignments, laboratory experiments, or design projects) under conditions that meet five criteria: positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, appropriate use of collaborative skills, and regular self-assessment of team functioning. Many studies have shown that when correctly implemented, cooperative learning improves information acquisition and retention, higher-level thinking skills, interpersonal and communication skills, and self-confidence (Johnson, Johnson, and Smith, 1998)." --Deborah B. Kaufman, Richard M. Felder, Department of Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University--Hugh Fuller, College of Engineering, North Carolina State University

Collaborative model in practice

In the collaborative model, groups would assume almost total responsibility for answering the question. The students determine if they had enough information to answer the question. If not, they identify other sources, such as journals, books, videos, the internet, to name a few. The work of obtaining the extra source material would be distributed among the group members by the group members. The group would decide how many reasons they could identify. The collaborative teacher would not specify a number but would assess the progress of each group and provide suggestions about each group’s approach and the data generated. It might also occur to the students to list the reasons in order of priority. The teacher would be available for consultations and would facilitate the process by asking for frequent progress reports from the groups, facilitate group discussions about group dynamics, help with conflict resolution, etc.

The final product is determined by each group, after consultation with the teacher. The means of assessment of the group’s performance would also be negotiated by each group with the teacher. Some groups might decide to analyze the UN, as the cooperative group was directed to do, or they might try to come up with a completely new organization. They might go back through history to determine how other periods of peace were created. The process is very open-ended while it maintains a focus on the overall goal. The students develop a very strong ownership for the process and respond very positively to the fact that they are given almost complete responsibility to deal with the problem posed to them and they have significant input into their assessment.

The underlying premise for both collaborative and cooperative learning is founded in constructivist theory...