AEDT 563

Resources on Educational Groups

First off, I don't know where it came from, but I have a distinction in my handwritten notes from class between collaborative, cooperative, and competative group work. If anybody's heard of this before just now, you may have heard it the same place as me so please tell me where that was?
jacksoa1@seattleu.edu
Thanks.
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I can't find a single thing about competition in reference to group work. I've got some ideas, but nothing I could substantiate with bibliographical references. In cooking up our own descriptive criteria, I propose two distinctions for starters:
- Internal vs. external - competition between members of the same group vs. competition between groups
- good-natured vs. antagonistic - competition similar to banter between friends vs. competition where rivals have a deeply-felt personal stake in the outcome.
That said, here's this:
collaboration and cooperation in adult education
- can take place at the Agency-level: Schlessman-Frost, A. (1994). Collaboration in Adult ESL and Family Literacy Education (http://www.cal.org/ncle/digests/SCHLESSM.HTM) - This identifies a dynamic called 'coordination' which is not directly relavant to our content framework, but I'm presenting it as I think it lends itself to analogies that we can use in designing, adapting, and evaluating learning group activities.
- or at the Classroom level: Palintz, T. (1996). A Definition of Collaborative vs Cooperative Learning. Retreived 4/19/03 from http://www.lgu.ac.uk/deliberations/collab.learning/panitz2.html. My take on this piece follows:
  
  Collaboration is fundamental and enduring - a personal philosophy - student centered.
  Cooperation is superficial and short-lived - a set of processes - teacher centered.
- On the internet, the terms 'collaborative' and 'cooperative' seem to be used largely interchangeably. I think it safe to assume that the same is true in the educational literature generally. Here is some more material - notice it offers two definitions of collaborative learning only.
  CSCL & Model of Instruction (http://www.uib.no/People/sinia/CSCL/web_struktur-957.htm)
  The pertinent passage is quoted below:
  
  Koschmann (1997) provides two definitions, and at the same time he comments on that it is easy to recognize examples of collaborative learning, but it is difficult to provide a precise definition. The first definition is that collaborative learning is a reculturative process that helps students become members of knowledge communities whose common property is different form the common property of the knowledge communities they already belong to. (p. 13). The other definition is the mutual engagement of participants in a coordinated effort to solve [a] problem together. The first definition highlights what collaborative learning is meant to accomplish and resonates with the view of learning as entry into a community of practice. The second definition points out a commitment to learning through doing, the engagement of learners in the cooperative (as opposed to competitive) pursuit of knowledge, the transitioning of the instructors role from authority and chief source of information to facilitator and resource guide.
- The most authoratative treatment I've found on the distinction between collaborative and cooperative learning comes from the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research at SOE-UW-Madison (http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/nise/cl1/CL/question/TQ13.htm)
I think this should give us enough to work with on defining the destinction clearly. As to pro's and con's or suitable applications, here's some general resources that might help:
- Kolb - that's the title of this web page: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/learning/styles.html
  The author's an Inventory Control Lead in a Starbuck's roasting plant, so I'm not sure why he has all this stuff up on his web-page. I guess he's just into it, and there's something to be said for that kind of enthusiasm. This page analyses learning with respect Kolb, Meyers-Briggs, and Multiple Intelligences. It's a huge document, and you may not have time to read it all, but with Internet Explorer you use the 'Find' utility on the 'Edit' drop-down menu to find occuranes of the word 'group' and then most of these are embedded in meaningful passages that relate group activities to learning styles/theories.
- Learning Communities by Jeanne Bitterman (http://ericacve.org/docs/marsick/marsick4.pdf)
  Pending further exploration, I think the main point to be taken is that learning communities often form relatively spontaneously. With any luck, it will list characteristics of such groups that we can try to emulate in formal, classroom settings.
  In Europe and the United States, people increasingly and spontaneously seek out one another through virtual and face-to-face means in order to satisfy self-identified needs around recreational activities, sports and crafts, health advocacy, or survivor, spiritual, and consumer interests. The rise of so many groups provides the individual with an almost staggering potential for multiple identificfation. Almost everyone particpates in many learning communities: natural groups of people drawn together by mutual interests that often cross socioeconomic, cultural, functional or organizational boundaries. The learning community literature is vast, sometimes elusive, and hard to synthesize. In today's postmodern world, questions can be raised about the meaning of community given the break up of unifying belief systems and the rise of individual meaning systems that are not explained by meta-narratives (St. CDlair 1998). This chapter speaks to the nature of a learning community, the way in which people learn and communicate in such groups, and critical assessment of information that is gained in such communities. The chaper's focus is primarily on communmities formed by lifestyle choices.
- Sample, J. (1984). Nominal Group Technique: an Alternative to Brainstorming. Journal of Extension, 22/2. retrieved 4/27/03 from http://www.joe.org/joe/1984march/iw2.html.
- Rebori, M. (2000). Two techniques to foster collaboration within a group. Journal of Extension, 38/4. Retreived 4/27/03 from http://www.joe.org/joe/2000august/tt4.html.
  * Concensus Framework
  * Ground Rules
- That's all I got for now, but more may just follow.
- sure enough: Classic example of cooperative learning for contrast with collaborative learning. (http://www.unt.edu/cpe/partnership/lrubric.htm)