Collaboration and Teamwork
People who work in teams demonstrate a sense of ownership, exhibit strong communication skills, and produce dynamic results. There is tremendous value in combining thoughts and actions, in sharing tasks according to learning or working styles, and in the synergy of teamwork. Teams perform best when teammates bring a variety of abilities, experiences, personalities, and problem-solving approaches to the group. Differences can add depth, create strength, broaden the group, and bring balance.
Teamwork and collaboration in the classroom are best used when you want to create learning situations that are more open-ended, that include some research or exploration, or when you want the students to apply knowledge in new and different ways.
Tips for fun, quick, and easy strategies you can use right away to teach content while promoting teamwork among your students.
Promoting Teamwork
Determine an action each student can do that relates to a letter in an acronym such as TEAMWORK. For example, the “T” may stand for “trim” a picture from a catalog, the “E” may stand for “enjoin” the picture to a sheet of paper, the “A” may stand for “affix” (glue) the picture to the paper, and so on.
Divide students into several groups of eight and assign each person within the group a letter and corresponding action from the word TEAMWORK. Have them form an assembly line of sorts where each person completes his or her assigned action. Give them a time limit and debrief: What worked well for your team? Where could communication improve? What would you do differently next time?
After the discussion, let them complete the assembly line again. Debrief again, discussing what worked better this time and what it means to work on a team.
You can modify the activity for your content area by choosing words from your unit of study and having students perform actions relating to the word or words.
For instance, if you are teaching MacBeth, you might assign each student a letter and have them share words, round-robin style, related to each letter in the name MacBeth. A typical round may sound something like the first student saying “murder,” the second saying “army,” the third saying “cesarean,” and so on until all students have shared a word relating to their letter (and the play) for as many rounds as you indicate. Once they have played a few rounds, challenge teams to create a coherent sentence composed of their M, A, C, B, E, T, and H words.
Here is another way to use a teamwork activity. If you are teaching how to count by twos, for instance, the first student on a team says “two,” the next says “four,” and so on until you call time. The team who reaches the highest number without mistakes is the winning team. Encourage students to coach each other since everyone must work together to achieve the goal.
Team members work in their own areas of interest, expertise, and strength. The tasks of group members may vary considerably although all group members are participating in the process and working toward a common end.
Check out our related on-site graduate course Collaborative Inquiry for Students: Preparing Minds for the Future™
Promoting Skills for the 21st Century
Embed Skills for the 21st Century into your classroom learning experiences. The Learning and Innovation Skills of Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Communicating, Collaborating, Information Literacy, and Media Literacy as well as the Life and Career Skills of Leadership, Initiative, Self-Direction, Responsibility, Productivity, Accountability, Flexibility, and Social and Cross-Cultural Skills can be integrated into the various instructional activities, learning activities, cooperative activities, and collaborative inquiry activities student experience on a daily basis. These skills enhance our students’ abilities to be successful students, life-long seekers of knowledge and information, and skilled and employable future workers. As you develop learning activities for the classroom, ask yourself which Learning and Innovation Skills or Life and Career Skills can be embedded in the instructional experience. Students who are practiced in these skills have a clear path to being successful, informed, caring, and productive citizens.
Did you know?
Team problem solving is one of the key competencies employers seek in new hires (Isaksen & Tidd, 2006; Wagner, 2008).
Successful group collaboration embodies the competency to contribute actively to the group process and listen to and learn from other group members (Remedios, Clarke, & Hawthorne, 2008).
Collaborative learning is most apt to be successful when students within a collaborative group bring different information and perspectives to a problem (Kinchin & Hay, 2005).
References
Isaksen, S. G., & Tidd, J. (2006). Meeting the innovation challenge: Leadership for transformation and growth. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
Kinchin, I., & Hay, D. (2005). Using concept maps to optimize the composition of collaborative student groups: A pilot study. JAN Journal of Advanced Nursing, 51, 182–187.
Remedios, L., Clarke, D., & Hawthorne, L. (2008). Framing collaborative behaviors: Listening and speaking in problem-based learning. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, 2(1), 1–20.
Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap: Why even our best schools don't teach the new survival skills our children need—-and what we can do about it. New York: Basic Books.