Do Students Prefer Collaborative Or Individual Work?

Do children prefer collaborative or individual work? Is collaborative or individual work more effective in promoting a disposition for deep thinking and understanding? Ritchhart, Church and Morrison authors of Making Thinking Visible endorse that listening to and evaluating the ideas of others is incredibly valuable for constructing personal understanding. But do I see evidence of this in my classroom? This dilemma has been puzzling me for a number of years and therefore became the focus for my Cultures of Thinking Inquiry Action Project (CoT Project).

My CoT Project was conducted under the guidance of Mark Church from Harvard University. Mark describes how the development of thinking and understanding is a fundamentally social endeavour that takes place in a cultural context where there is a constant interplay between the group and individual. He advocates that social situations provide experience in communicating ideas and opportunities to understand the thinking of others.

Project: My dilemma of practice was focused on whether students prefer collaborative or individual work. It is important to note that this project took place in a Year 6 accelerant mathematics group. I had four key contributing questions:

• Is collaborative or individual work more effective for teaching and learning?
• Does collaboration help students learn from one another?
• When is individual work important for personal consolidation of skills?
• What is the role of individual assessment in a collaborative learning environment?

The study was comprised of three steps:

1. Class survey about working collaboratively and working individually.
2. Two activities learning a new skill (ratio and spatial patterns), the first was done individually and the second was done collaboratively.
3. A follow up survey to compare the two experiences.

Results: The results from my project were varied, but revealed some interesting patterns about student’s perspective on collaborative and individual work.

Collaboration: Firstly collaboration was highly valued by the class. Students found it worthwhile hearing the thinking of others to aid them in their own understanding.

‘I find group activities very worthwhile, as I can learn from two or three sets of mistakes; not just mine. Also, I enjoy learning from my peers and if I don’t understand a question or task, I can ask for help from someone who has a similar frame of mind to me.’

However, not all students enjoyed or valued collaborative work.

I rarely ever work with another person because I feel that I can get it done a lot quicker and don’t have to explain to others what I am thinking even if I show my working.

Student Survey: I find group activities in Maths the most valuable for my learning

Learning From Others: Secondly students will only learn from others if they are open to new ideas and respect the opinions of their peers. When students respect and value one another, they perceive learning collaboratively and effective and efficient.

‘I found it quite worthwhile because since we worked together we could both think of it from more than one view. We can talk and find the answer in the quickest way possible.’

When students did not value the ideas of others they did not value collaboration.

‘I’m not a group person because I don’t enjoy having to rely on others. I like to work the way I want to.’ Sometimes people who contribute aren’t actually trying to contribute in order to explain something and instead just ask questions. When this happens I don’t learn from it’.

Student Survey: In Maths I learn from the contributions of others

Assessment: Thirdly students valued group work, even if the subsequent assessment task was individual. Students described how they would remember a friend’s explanation of a topic when answering questions I a test.

‘Working in groups sometimes helps me understand the concept. I find that I have learned the topics for tests when I have had to work on them in groups.

However, some students found individual assessment more difficult after a collaborative task.

‘It’s harder in the way that I am straightaway feeling like I should ask one of my friends for help to work it out as that is what I would normally do.’

In Making Thinking Visible the authors describe how meaningful collaboration is dependent on respect and interest in one another’s thinking. Individualised practice is helpful for consolidating skills, but can be less effective in developing understanding and advancing deep learning (Briggs & Moore, 1993). Thus the results of my project and evidence of research encourage educators to pursue collaboration in order for students to develop robust understanding and innovation.

Question for you: What do you see as the benefits for collaboration in your classroom?