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Collaborative learning: what is it and what are its benefits?

Collaborative learning: what is it and what are its benefits?

March 3, 2024

The times they Are a changing. Young people carry mobile phones and are born with an iPad under their arms, developing a level of self-learning and independence never seen before. Well, with teaching and especially in schools, exactly the same thing happens: this constant interconnection is also given to learn.

Collaborative learning is an upward trend in which elementary students learn to manage their tasks cooperatively, thus reducing the burden and authority that fell exclusively on the figure of the teacher.

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What is collaborative learning?

At present, the professional and professional world demands more and more work and team dynamics , work groups and structures that are more horizontal than hierarchical. In this way, in schools the values ​​of collaborative learning have been emphasized for years to ensure, among many other purposes, that future generations are prepared for the new labor market.


Collaborative learning starts from a teaching model It has been applied in classrooms for practically a decade, and consists basically of the cognitive development of students who comprise the ages of 7 to 15 years making this learning a gradual development of interaction between people.

In addition, collaborative learning can enhance the integration between students from different cultures , religions and customs due to the multicultural character that more and more modern societies acquire all over the world.

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Benefits of this learning method

Below, you can find the 7 advantages that collaborative learning can offer.


1. Fight anxiety

Often the personality and confidence of the students has been diminished by the imposing authority of the teaching staff and the archaic models of teaching , especially primary, which is where people absorb more information and begin to show concerns.

Involving children from an early age, helps to promote greater self-confidence and self-esteem, allowing greater personal development that will be beneficial in the long term.

Thus, collaborative learning helps reduce the dose of anxiety because it allows students to relax and work in a harmonious environment where they find enough time to think, rehearse and generate feedback among themselves, since peer support is a fundamental element of this method.

2. It allows to optimize the teaching

Due to the low ratio that exists today between teacher-student (fruit of overcrowded classes), collaborative learning allows schools maximize all the resources they have to optimize the teaching process.


3. Develop independence

As we have seen previously, these learning dynamics considerably reduce students' dependence on the teacher , since, before any problem or doubt to solve, the companions offer the type of necessary assistance that before was the exclusive task of the teaching staff.

Likewise, among the members of the cooperative group, they can develop a code of conduct, of adaptation of the subject, of vocabulary and even of communication resulting from the feedback among the students themselves. This does not mean that in a specific case, the figure of the teacher does not intervene so much.

4. Power critical thinking

As long as the students work and develop their activities in a collaborative environment, they will also learn to project their own thoughts and concerns with more freedom and daring, promoting the reflection and development of metacognitive skills.

5. Individual responsibility

As part of a team or work group, each member is considered individually responsible for contributing in the same direction to achieve the objectives of the group.

At the same time, the participation of each of the individuals It must be with equal opportunities, in an equivalent manner and with the same degree of responsibility and prominence as the rest of the members. Only in this way can we reach the elimination of a thought and become individualistic.

6. Contributes to positive interdependence

This has to do directly with the objective or final goal that the group in question pursues. It is directly related to the individual tasks of each member who, aware of the collective interest , must do everything possible to help and meet the request of the other members when they need it.

In all groups there are better prepared and less prepared students. But the latter can take advantage of the knowledge of the former, while the more advantaged can also enrich and strengthen their skills and abilities.

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7. Respond to a heterogeneous and multicultural society

Societies are changing, customs evolve and acquire an increasingly complex character. Collaborative learning can take advantage of this kind of diversity and turn it into a powerful educational resource.

In this way, it is possible to make positive use of the variety and richness of experiences that the educational center can provide, thus allowing the evolution of intellectual abilities , promoting to improve the capacity of expression and communication, as well as to increase the capacity of verbal comprehension.

Where some see difficulty in managing a class of children from different cultures causing school ghettos in some cases, cooperation becomes a necessity to respond to the "problem".


The benefits of collaborative learning (March 2024).


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