Academics

“Collaborative learning is an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together. Usually students are working in groups of two or more, mutually searching for understanding, solutions or meanings, or creating a product. 

Collaborative learning activities vary widely, but most center on students’ exploration or application of the course material, not simply the teacher’s presentation or explication of it”.

Why use cooperative learning?   To..

• promote student learning and academic achievement
• enhance student satisfaction with their learning experience
• help students develop skills in oral communication
• develop students skills
• promote student self-esteem

5 Elements of cooperative learning

1. Positive interdependence
2. Face-to-face interaction
3. Individual and group accountability
4. Interpersonal and small group skills
5. Group processing

A flipped classroom is an instructional strategy and a type of blended learning that reverses the traditional learning environment by delivering instructional content, often online, outside of the classroom. It moves activities, including those that may have traditionally been considered homework, into the classroom. In a flipped classroom, students watch online lectures, collaborate in online discussions, or carry out research at home and engage in concepts in the classroom with the guidance of a mentor.

The flipped classroom intentionally shifts instruction to a learner-centered model in which class time explores topics in greater depth and creates meaningful learning opportunities, while educational technologies such as online videos are used to ‘deliver content’ outside of the classroom. In a flipped classroom, ‘content delivery’ may take a variety of forms.

Role-playing is the changing of one’s behavior to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role.

• To refer to the playing of roles generally such as in a theatre, or educational setting;
• To refer to taking a role of an existing character or person and acting it out with a partner taking someone else’s role, often involving different genres of practice.

Think-Pair-Share (TPS) is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an assigned reading. This technique requires students to (1) think individually about a topic or answer to a question; and (2) share ideas with classmates. Discussing an answer with a partner serves to maximize participation, focus attention and engage students in comprehending the reading material.

Benefits:

• The Think-Pair-Share strategy is a versatile and simple technique for improving students’ reading comprehension.
• It gives students time to think about an answer and activates prior knowledge.
• TPS enhances students’ oral communication skills as they discuss their ideas with one another. 
• This strategy helps students become active participants in learning and can include writing as a way of organizing thoughts generated from discussions.

This method is learner-centered with intense interaction between participants as they build their knowledge and work together as a group to examine the case

The instructor’s role is to facilitate the students collaboratively analyze and address problems and resolve questions

Interactive Learning is a hands-on, real-world approach to education ‘Inetractive learning actively engages the students in wrestling with the material

It reinvigorates the classroom for both students and faculty. Lectures are changed into discussion and students and teachers become partners in the journey of knowledge acquisition

Students strengthen their critical thinking and problem-solving skills using a much more holistic approach to learning