Chapter 15 page 346
Goals of Collaborative Learning
A key goal of collaborative learning is to help individual students learn both (1) academic content
and (2) productive cognitive strategies. But there are other important goals as well. Two goals related to
improving students’ social skills are:
y Promoting students’ ability to work well in groups, given that working effectively in groups and teams
is needed for success in the adult work world (Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson, & Jundt, 2005; Prichard,
Bizo, & Stratford, 2006).
y Increasing students’ altruism and prosocial behavior through cooperative groups (Hertz-Lazarowitz,
Sharan, & Steinberg, 1980; Solomon, Watson, Delucchi, Schaps, & Battistich, 1988)
Two goals related to helping students learn to respect others and to appreciate diversity are:
y Encouraging interaction, respect, and friendships among students of differing backgrounds, thus
reducing racial prejudice, sexism, and so on (D. W. Johnson & Johnson, 1981).
y Minimizing differences in social status so that students do not rigidly classify their classmates into
“good” students and “poor” students (Cohen, Lotan, & Catanzarite, 1990).
However, it is difficult to achieve these goals. Indeed, many teachers and administrators are
unenthusiastic about cooperative learning methods. They worry that groups will waste time or that some
students will ride on the coattails of other group members. Indeed, as educational psychologist David
Johnson and his colleagues put it: “There is nothing magical about working in a group” (1994, p. 1). Many
possible ways of organizing collaborative learning are no more effective, or even less effective, than having
students work alone. To implement collaborative learning effectively, you must learn how to structure your
groups effectively.
Obstacles to Effective Collaborative Learning
There are many obstacles to making collaborative learning effective. Here are five that are
particularly important (see Mulryan, 1992; O'Donnell & O'Kelly, 1994; Salomon & Globerson, 1989;
Wiley & Bailey, in press):
y Off-task behavior. Instead of focusing on academic tasks in their groups, students spend the time talking
about recess, their weekends, or their favorite television shows. In my experience working with middle
school and elementary school teachers during the past two decades, this is a main reason why many
teachers elect not to use groups.
y Social loafing. Social loafing occurs when some students in a group do little or no work, allowing the
more conscientious or more expert students to do most of the work (North, Linley, & Hargreaves,
2000). At the extreme, one student does all the work, and the others do nothing.
y Unequal interaction. In groups, one or two students may dominate the talk, or certain students may be
excluded (Barron, 2003; Dembo & McAuliffe, 1987).
y Negative interactions. Instead of working productively and cooperatively, students may become angry,
make fun of other students, or make racist or sexist comments. For example, in one class I observed, a
girl became so angry at a boy in her group who was monopolizing the science equipment that she poked
him in the arm with a pencil (and was suspended from school).
y Absence of interactions. Students in so-called cooperative groups may simply fail to interact with each
other. They may do all the work individually or they may split the work up and each do a part without
working together.
y Low-quality interactions. Even if students talk about the task at hand, the quality of their interactions
may be low. For instance, although students learn a great deal when they give and receive explanations
in groups, the natural rate of explanations within groups is often very low (Webb, Troper, & Fall,
1995). Similarly, group members often fail to share all the relevant information they have with their
peers in the group (Stasser & Titus, 1987).
y Exacerbation of status differences. Although teachers hope that cooperative groups will encourage
students to appreciate each other’s strengths, the opposite may occur (Cohen et al., 1990). In fact, a