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........................... Nov. 02 - Nov. 15, 2001
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| Collaboration Or Abomination? | |
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All the elements of a controlled experiment were occurring right before his eyes. He was witnessing his students' social patterns directly effect their grades in a unique way, and was amazed at the results.
In Genz-Mould's biology class at Yakima Valley Community College a group of students known as the "O-Team" seemed to be standing out from non-"O-Team" students, according to Genz-Mould's observations. This "O-Team" group frequently gathered at a local bar, "Ole's Place" (from where the O-Team got their name) and conjured up biological concepts related to Genz-Mould's class and discussed them in their conversations with each other. The rest of the students in Genz-Mould's class spent their after-school social time on non-academic activities.
The results from this natural experiment that resembled all the elements of the scientific method caught his attention. The non-O-Team students who had been taught purely by traditional teaching methods generally received a lower grade than O-Team members who were taught the same way but also participated in group discussions afterward.
After 14 years of teaching at Yakima, Genz-Mould has brought his philosophy of group learning into the SCC classrooms. Now an instructor at Shoreline since 1998, he still points to the informal experiment he witnessed as proof that group discussions and the idea of collaborative learning (CL) is a new wave of education that should be embraced.
"The O-Team's performance in the class was significantly better than the rest of the class, even though they didn't seem to have any more ability than the other students," Genz-Mould said. "Obviously, they were understanding the material better because they were discussing it more."
After seeing the success of the O-Team, Genz-Mould wanted to expand on the idea.
"I wanted all of my students to have the opportunity to perform at this level," Genz-Mould said. "So I began working on ways to incorporate more student-to-student interaction as a part of the class, and finally I developed my classes into being entirely collaboratively taught."
Because group discussions can only take place when every member is a strong link, Genz-Mould dismisses students from his class that do not come to class prepared. Students in his classes now find themselves in an environment where procrastinating and turning in late worksheets or reading assignments no longer finds mercy from the teacher.
"This insures that all groups are composed of people who have bothered to prepare themselves for class," Genz-Mould said. "Prepared students will not have to feel they are 'carrying' others who are unprepared."
The debate: Should we collaborate?
Genz-Mould is now no longer alone in his practice. CL is catching on.
Other SCC instructors are questioning the assumed model of traditional teaching and whether it is the most efficient and lasting method of education.
"What appeals to me (about CL) is that the students themselves are doing the learning instead of having a talking head do the teaching," political science instructor Kenneth Lawson said.
But there are questions raised about this modern teaching method as well, and whether it will hinder students rather than promote their learning of actual facts and raw knowledge.
"In the ideal collaborative environment, the authority for testing and determining the appropriateness of the group product rests with, first, the small group, second, the plenary group (the whole class) and finally (but always understood to be subject to challenge and revision) the requisite knowledge community (i.e. geography, history, biology etc.)," California Universty of Pennsylvania professor Horace Rockwood wrote in National Teaching and Learning Forum.
Rockwood's explanation of what defines right and wrong in CL environments argues that the decision of good work vs. bad work rests primarily in the hands of the students, then the class as a whole, and finally the truths of the subject being studied. Rockwood acknowledges that even the assumed facts of the discipline being studied can be questioned or even over ruled by student opinion.
The method of applying CL varies from teacher to teacher, however, and many versions of CL have appeared on SCC's campus. Some CL classes have arguably become more cooperative learning orientated, which is a system similar to CL but has a philosophy of more dominant teacher control and little focus on group grading and student-to-student evaluations. But with such a broad definition of CL, many teachers have found the terms to be interchangeable.
Learning how to teach how to learn
After being frustrated with the format of traditional learning, Lawson has taken the initiative to teach two classes at SCC collaboratively this quarter.
"The students learn more by doing it themselves," Lawson said. "Especially if you teach them how to collect information and think for themselves."
In CL, Lawson has found a method where students can "interpret hard facts and learn to be critical of these facts while seeing the relationship between them."
Lawson's own personal experience in teaching CL has had mixed results however. In one class the difficulties of CL has forced him to revert his teaching structure back to a more traditional teaching method midway through the quarter.
"The students were not spending enough time learning the material," he said. "There was lack of direction which could be partly my fault. This resulted in time devoted to social issues instead."
But Lawson has found success in his other class, a which is smaller and more easily operated with CL.
"The other class is going better," Lawson said. "Because it is a smaller class it is easier to maintain a sense of focus."
The right balance between instructor teaching and student teaching is still something Lawson is struggling to find.
"In training (for CL) I heard that the more the instructor was involved (in the class), the more attention it would attract to the instructor (instead of the students)," Lawson said. "But a happy medium needs to be found."
Research has shown that students retain only 5 percent of the knowledge they receive from lectures, compared to 90 percent from teaching other students (see graphic). But Lawson has found that the teaching utopia of completely student-taught classes is hard to create.
"A lot of the chemistry (in finding a productive discussion group) is just a luck of the draw," he said. "You have to have student policers who are motivated about the subject or else the group goes off track."
Unfortunately, CL fell short in Lawson's class when the students' motivation stopped after completing their individual requirements.
"My vision was that individuals would help each other achieve their goal," he said. "But nobody was going beyond fulfilling the assignment."
But a determined faith in the ideas behind CL has given Lawson the incentive to continue his search for the most effective means of education, and in both of his classes, he still practices elements of CL.
"There can be a valuable role for professors to demonstrate to students why they need to understand things," Lawson said. "The goal of my political science classes is not to just get students to recite the institutions of government - if you just get the facts, you get a B-quality education."
Students grading students: Does it work?
History instructor Adam Sowards went to the same summer conference on CL as Lawson did. Both instructors walked in with a longing to teach more effectively and both came out with an answer.
"I was struck with the feeling that I was teaching a lot in the classroom but not enough learning was getting done," Sowards said. "I switched (to CL) in order to promote more active learning."
Another advantage Sowards saw in CL, just as Eric Genz-Genz-Mould has, was the solution to unprepared students who did not contribute to the class.
"One of the challenges professors have is to get students to read their text books," Sowards said. "CL forces them to be accountable to the class and their groups."
Sowards had not implemented CL in his classes before this quarter, though he had worked with cooperative learning before. Now, like Lawson, he is refining this new method impromptu, discovering what works and what doesn't as the quarter goes on.
"I'm pretty happy with CL," Sowards said. "It has been pretty effective, though I could do better."
The greatest challenge for Sowards has been grading. His grading system, unique to Lawson and Genz-Mould, relies partly on student evaluations of other students. However, Sowards has some hesitancy about his grading process.
"I don't know how reliable student-to-student evaluation is," He said, citing the fact that most of the evaluations he received from students were either A, A-, B, or a rare C. But never anything below a C even if the student made little or no contribution to the group.
"There may be a better ways to get student evaluations and assessments in class," he said.
Like Lawson, Sowards sees difficulty in the teacher's role of accurately grading individuals in groups for participation as well.
"One of the challenges is making sure that individual and group assessments are correct," he said. "I can't be in the groups all the time, though I am active in making sure that the groups are working."
Through student-to-student evaluations, group assignments, class participation, papers, attendance, and tests Sowards has been able to arrive at a reasonable grade for each individual.
"The students will get the general idea of the correct grade," he said.
Sowards summary of the results in his CL classes has remnants of Lawson's "group chemistry is a luck of the draw" conclusion.
"Working in most groups for most of the time," Sowards said. "Students can get done most the things they need to do."
Despite the successfulness of each group depending partly on the laws of randomness, Sowards sees potential in CL.
"In a traditional lecture I am in control of what goes on - instructors like that," he said. "One of the challenges of CL is to design questions and activities that allow the same information to be transmitted to the students without me doing all of the teaching."
Genz-Mould and the rest of the world
In it's purest form, the practice of CL with the idea of factual relativity leaves some professors concerned.
"Pure CL ties into the social constructivist movement, asserting that both knowledge and authority of knowledge have changed dramatically in the last century," wrote Ted Panitz, a professor at a New England community college, in an article dated 1996. "The result has been a transition from foundational (cognitive) understanding of knowledge, to a non-foundational ground where we understand knowledge to be a social construct and learning, a social process."
Ever since the O-Team, however, Genz-Mould has been a strong supporter of CL, at least concerning its attributes of group discussions and it's encouragement towards group projects, and he sees potential in the method even beyond the classroom.
"All classes of all types benefit from the collaborative approach," Genz-Mould said. "Studies have shown that the students who graduate from college who can work in groups with others will do better in the workforce than those who don't. I believe it is part of my job to give students practice in this essential skill."
The O-Team
Maybe someday a group of young men and women in their 20s or 30s will stroll into a bar located in the heart of the Yakima valley to gather around a few foaming mugs. Someone will light a twenty-dollar cigar and check his Timex watch.
"Gotta head back to the lab in an hour," he'll say.
"How's the biological conceptualization of endothermic experimentation going?" A bright cheery voice will ask.
"Great, all I need is to wait for a nuclear bio-chemical dissolution to occur and I'll have my results."
"No kidding," another voice will pipe in. "I thought that the semi-fluorescent sodium-iodine combination with your hypothetical particle enzymes would yield a superfluous compound?"
Suddenly the small group will fall into a huddle of biological babble - something similar to an ancient foreign language lost in the caves of Mongolia - and collaborate.
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| by Chris Collins | |
Eric Genz-Mould was intrigued.
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