AMPLIFYING SOME CONCEPTS

In our last class of Assessment, We were talking about the concept of collaboration and collaborative learning, but the time was not enough to discuss about what cooperative learning is and what the differences between those terms are.

When the class finished I was confused with the definitions of the words, so I came back home and decided to look for the concepts and the differences, and I want to share this information in my blog because it would help us to clarify and amplify our ideas about cooperative and collaborative learning.

After reading the definitions of the concepts, I picked up some and wrote them on a chart, and here are some of the results:

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Collaboration is a philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle. -Collaborative learning is a personal philosophy, not just a classroom technique. In all situations where people come together in groups, it suggests a way of dealing with people which respects and highlights individual group members' abilities and contributions. (Panitz 1996) -Rockwood (1995) states: collaborative learning is connected to the social constructionist's view that knowledge is a social construct. -Collaborative learning is based on the idea that learning is a naturally social act in which the participants talk among themselves (Gerlach, 1994). It is through the talk that learning occurs.

Cooperation is a structure of interaction designed to facilitate the accomplishment of an end product or goal. - Cooperative learning is defined by a set of processes which help people interact together in order to accomplish a specific goal or develop an end product which is usually content specific. It is more directive than a collaborative system of governance and closely controlled by the teacher. (Panitz 1996) - Rockwood (1995) defines: Cooperative learning is the methodology of choice for foundational knowledge. - Cooperative learning involves students in a major task and gives responsibility to all the individual learner in the learning process.(Paulsen 2003)

Now, I have a clear idea about these methodologies and learning processes.

Here are some links, where we can find and read more about collaborative and cooperative learning; the first one is a slide share presentation that gives definitions, characteristics, comparisons and advantages about the concepts mentioned.

http://www.slideshare.net/carolzinhanep/webinar-1-9071080

http://celt.ust.hk/teaching-resources/cooperative-and-collaborative-learning

http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/deliberations/collaborative-learning/home.cfm