About Teaching: Active and Collaborative Learning

Enhancing Student Learning through Active and Collaborative Strategies

Research on student learning shows that students learn best when they are motivated and engaged in their learning, because they find connections between what they are learning in the classroom and their own lives. Furthermore, they can articulate their learning and how it relates to issues that matter, and they are provided with frameworks that help them understand what they have learned, questions that remain unanswered, and practice in self-assessment for lifelong learning.

For these reasons, researchers and practitioners are incorporating active and collaborative pedagogies to promote student thinking, critical analysis, motivation to learn, as well as fact acquisition. Moreover, these strategies can assist faculty in reaching students with a variety of learning preferences. Active and collaborative learning pedagogies require faculty to take on different roles in the classroom. For example, you might create learning activities that explore and/or emphasize key concepts presented in the lecture. In these situations your expertise is used in facilitating the learning process through critical inquiry.

Incorporating active and collaborative learning into your course need not be cumbersome. If you are new to these pedagogies you might start with a few small changes to explore which one is best for your teaching style and audience. As you become more familiar with these strategies, your active and collaborative learning projects can become more ambitious. Faculty members who use these pedagogies regularly find that they are rewarding because they can promote stronger student engagement and significant learning in their classes.

See the links below for more information on active and collaborative learning

Characteristics of Active Learning

• Incorporating Active Learning
• Active Learning Tools

Collaborative Learning

• Reframing Student Roles in Collaborative Learning
• Tips for Facilitating Learning in Student Group Activities
• Group Contract Assignment
• Group Evaluation (download .doc example 1 example 2 )
• Example Peer Review of a Research Paper

Additional References

Characteristics of Active Learning

• Engages students beyond reading, listening, and note-taking
• Promotes deep learning, not just acquisition of facts
• Develops higher order thinking skills (e.g. analysis, synthesis, evaluation) through intentionally designed activities
• Often involves interaction among students
• Requires students to take greater responsibility for their learning - they have to invest in class to succeed
• Teaches students to monitor their own learning and discover what they do and do not understand
• Helps students build competencies (e.g., problem-solving, critical thinking, communication) as well as content knowledge

Relate the activity to your learning goals and objectives.  Be clear in your mind about how the strategy you select matches your desired outcomes for knowledge acquisition, application of concepts, and competency or skill development.  Much of your success is dependent on integrating the activity into your content and goals, not simply creating an "add-on."

Communicate your rationale to your students.  When using a new learning activity, clearly describe the learning goals and how the activity will assist them in reaching those goals. 

Keep it simple.  Have two or three main goals for the class and assess whether the students are achieving those goals.

Remember that this may be a shift for both you and your students.  Just as your role becomes one of facilitating the learning process through critical inquiry, your students will need time and guidance as they practice the shift from passive to active learning.

Be prepared to make adjustments if your plans do not work as expected the first time.  Understanding which active learning strategies work best for you, your students, and your courses is a process that improves with time.

Minute Paper - at the end of class, ask students to answer a question or reflect on something from that day's class to turn in.

Useful Minute Paper Questions:

• What was the most important idea, concept, or point you are taking away from today's class (this week's class)?  This can be very illuminating for both you and the students.


• What do you understand now that you didn't before today?


• What was the most difficult or confusing thing in today's class (this week's class)?


• Give an example of how _______ can be used to explain _________.


• What's one question about today's course material you want answered?

The Fish Bowl - ask each student to write one issue or concept they want clarified on a card and place it in a fish bowl (cardboard box, hat, etc.) as they enter class.  During class, you can select cards from the bowl to clarify these issues or concepts.  This gives students who are hesitant to participate an opportunity to ask questions

You can also do this activity at the end of the class.  Reviewing the feedback from the class as a whole gives you insight on the distribution of questions and concerns across the students in your class.  At the next class, you can clarify the issues that were shared by the greatest number of students.  

Interactive Lectures with Clarification Pauses - after 10 -15 minutes of lecture, circulate around the room for two minutes while students review their notes alone and then in pairs.  Then follow up with oral or written questions from students.  If you prefer, you might use "clicker" technology to create interactive opportunities with your students.

Promoting Active Listening - After student A has given an answer, ask student B to summarize in their own words the points made by student A.  You can also ask a student to rephrase a difficult point you have made.

Response to Demonstration - oral or in writing.  Student may complete the following sentences:    I was surprised that ...  I learned that ...  I wonder about ...

Writing Discussion Questions - Students, at some point during the class, are asked to write a question that will solicit thoughtful discussion on the issues at hand. Or ask them to think about what you've just discussed, and write a suitable quiz question.

Think, Pair, Share - Ask question or pose situation, have students write 1 or two lines about the question, then talk to partner for 1-2 minutes.  The professor should circulate in the room to hear the discussions and help encourage student to stay on task.

Critical Reading - Have students read a paragraph or short piece.  They write down the most important point. Or have students cite an example of inference, or good analysis, or an unanswered question from the text, then compare their thoughts with a peer. Poll the class.

On-Line Writing Partners - Assign students into pairs or groups of 3.  Have each student write weekly (bi-weekly) about class readings, discussions, and related current events.   This assignment can involve analytical writing, asking questions, integrating ideas across texts and discussions, etc.  Students then share their writing with their partners who respond with their ideas, responses, and perspectives.  This works well on blogs or in Blackboard CE6.  Ask students to periodically share their learning with the larger class.    

Pass a Problem - Ask students a complex question which requires higher order thinking.  Groups get 10 minutes to think about the problem and write a paragraph about the problem.  This is put it in a folder and passed to another group.  Groups get another 5 minutes to rethink the question, and write again. These thoughts are put in the folder with the original entry.  Repeat.  Groups then report out their solutions and how seeing others' ideas and approaches helped them.

Peer Teaching / Student-led Reviews - Assign students topics to research and then prepare a presentation about their topic to share with the class, either formally, informally, or electronically in WebCT /Blackboard.  

Icebreaker Review - Write a set of 15-30 questions reflecting knowledge you expect students to bring into your class.  In first class, give every student all the questions.  Give each student a 3x5 card with one question and its answer.  Give the students 20 minutes to find someone with the answer to each question, get the answer and have it "signed off".  Students meet each other and they review necessary material.

Final Thought:
Lab activities and assignments such as oral presentations, interviews, working with case studies, simulations and games, role plays and dramatizations, and debates can each engage students in active learning as well.

Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning fosters student learning because it is active, it values the diverse learning preferences that students bring to the classroom, and it acknowledges that learning is a social process that occurs in relationship with others. Effective collaborative learning requires intentionality; it is more than simply asking students to work in groups.

To produce a good outcome with collaborative learning, it is important to teach students to work effectively in groups, to have a clearly defined outcome and/or product, to monitor students' interactions, and to structure activities that require the involvement of the whole group. When successful, incorporating group work into the classroom offers the opportunity to engage with more challenging and ambitious projects. Moreover, it can provide students with essential collaborative skills that are valued in the workplace.

Collaborative learning does reframe student roles. It requires students to be actively involved in their learning and committed to the other members of their group. As a faculty member, there are a number of things you can do to facilitate learning in student group activities. One issue you will have to consider is whether or not to assign individual or group grades. If you choose to assign a group grade, then it is recommended that you include a group evaluation to illustrate the quality and level of contributions of each group member.

Experts suggest you assign groups to ensure that teams include multiple perspectives and skills. Many faculty members use such characteristics as gender, ethnicity, background in the subject, technological expertise, comfort in making public presentations, or interest in a topic as their criteria for establishing groups.

Reframing Student Roles in Collaborative Learning

• Student roles shift from a more individually-oriented approach to a more team-oriented approach in collaborative learning. For example,
• From listener, observer, and note-taker to active problem-solver, contributor, and discussant.
• From low or moderate expectations for class preparation to high expectations for class preparation.
• From a 'private' presence in the classroom (e.g., keeping a low profile, staying off the radar screen) to a 'public' one that involves associated risks related to active participation in classroom/group activities and the learning process.
• From attendance dictated by personal choice to attendance expected as part of community standards.
• From competition against peers to collaboration with peers.
• From responsibilities and self-definition associated with learning independently to those associated with learning interdependently.
  From seeing faculty members and texts as sole sources of authority and knowledge to seeing themselves, their peers, and the classroom community as additional sources of authority and knowledge.

Tips for Facilitating Learning in Student Group Activities

Groups can be used in a variety of ways. You might construct a major group assignment that results in a formal presentation, paper, website, or other product. Alternatively, you can effectively use groups in the classroom to facilitate active learning and discussion. Whatever your choices, the following suggestions will help you generate ideas for using groups effectively:

• Provide guidelines on what is expected of students working in groups.
• Assign, ideally, no more than 4-6 members per group.
• Provide time in class, especially for major group assignments, for students to meet so that they can share their expectations and goals with each other, learn about each others' strengths and challenges, and exchange contact information.
• Encourage students to formalize their group goals, expectations, and possible sanctions in a group contract. This provides a starting place there is a dysfunctional group or a situation where one person is not contributing.
• Ask students to assign members of their groups to different roles, such as Recorder, Facilitator, Reporter, and Summarizer. Remind students to exchange these roles from class to class so that they experience participation in different ways.
• Monitor activity when using groups in the classroom. You might circulate around the classroom to answer questions, clarify an assignment, or simply listen in on students' ideas.
• Include strategies for making group work public. For example, you might ask each group to turn in a copy of their notes, post their notes on a website or Blackboard, verbally share highlights from their discussions, etc.
• Let the group, not any member, own the output - this encourages complete participation, since no individual student is made vulnerable.
• Have groups write potential test questions and answers as homework, then submit their one chosen question. Grade these, and use some on your exam. Have groups post their questions on a website or to Blackboard as study questions.
• Ask groups to give you a progress report on how things are going. This often works best as part of the assignment guidelines (e.g., feedback gets turned in during a stage of the final product) or as part of your ongoing course assessment(s).
• Consider using Group Evaluations to give members a chance to assess everyone's contributions.

Group Contract Assignment

Based on your topic preferences, you have been assigned to a particular study group. As a group, you will first create a Group Contract to develop a shared understanding for successfully completing the collaborative project.

The purpose of a Group Contract is to help you develop team cohesiveness and prevent negative conflict by discussing each group member's expectations; it is also a resource for you in the event conflict does arise. The contract must be typed and signed by each member of the group. In addition to making sure that I have a copy, I encourage each of you to keep a copy of the signed contract.

Your Group Contract should cover the following points:

• How will you work to create a positive group experience and how you will work to avoid the pitfalls of "problem groups" from your past?
• What goals do you have as a team?
• How will you establish governance, that is, what rules do you want to create for how the team will operate?
• By what methods will communication be maintained across group members? For example, how often will you meet? Where will you meet? How will you coordinate your schedules efforts across team members? Consider how you can use technology(ies) to your advantage.
• How do you plan to share the work for and contribute to the assignment, e.g., what will be the responsibilities of various team members?
• How will you deal with conflicts and/or problems that may emerge in your group? It is important to discuss the group's expectations and the consequences of not participating or being involved in the group process now so that your contract can address this effectively.
• How will you determine if or when I should be consulted if the group is having problems?
• What else? Include any other points needed to ensure that you start off on the right foot.

As you know, part of your final grade is based upon your participation in and contribution to your study groups.  To help me determine your grade and assign these points, I ask that you provide information that evaluates the performance of your study group members and yourself.  Keep in mind that the information you provide here is confidential, as only I will see this evaluation.  Please think about what you have learned about working effectively in groups.  Consider the following five criteria as you rate yourself and your group members:

1. Effort/Active Participation: Following through on assignments and being accountable to group members


2. Contribution: Improving quality of work, being creative, bringing unique skills and abilities that aid in the quality of the final product, and providing leadership


3. Supported Group Process: Eliciting and valuing input of others, making room for quiet members or not overshadowing others, mediating arguments and relieving tension, lending a positive attitude, and other maintenance roles that enhance group social climate


4. Communication: Checking in with group before missing a meeting, clarifying expectations, keeping communication channels open, facilitating others' participation, and speaking/listening effectively


5. Attendance: Attending group meetings, afternoon phase work, and seminar group work

**(download .doc example 1 example 2 )

Using each of the above criteria, provide a rating for yourself and each of your group members.  Use the rating scale below.  In the last column I ask that you recommend a grade, for example, A, B-, C+, D, F, etc.

In addition, please write a separate paragraph about yourself and each group member that explains your reasons for the ratings above.  Be sure to use the criteria above and to provide specific information, positive and negative, that will provide evidence for and support your ratings.

Explaination and Justification of Self-Rating:

Explaination and Justification of Self-Rating:

Explaination and Justification of Self-Rating:

Explaination and Justification of Self-Rating:

Additional Ideas for Faculty

You might also ask about their learning from one another based on their group experience.  Some example questions include:

• Give one specific example of something you learned from the group that you probably would not have learned on your own.


• Give one specific example of something the other group members learned from you that they probably would not have learned without you.


• Suggest one specific, practical change the group could make that would help improve everyone's learning.