Ways to Make Collaborative Learning Work in the Classroom

I am a huge proponent of collaborative learning and its many forms. It is a teaching method that requires students to assume some responsibility for the course material, and in the process help themselves and one another to learn. In addition to learning the course objectives that are established by the instructor, students can learn the secondary objective of how to work effectively in a team.

However, it has been my experience that students cannot simply be placed in teams to accomplish course objectives without guidance from the instructor. Students initially dread the idea of working in teams because their previous experiences with “group projects” have been truly unpleasant. For example, I once asked 53 undergraduate students to anonymously write down what fears and concerns they had about working exclusively in teams to accomplish the course objectives in my sales courses, especially when their grade is tied principally to the performance of their team. Although there were 17 statements indicating no real fears or concerns, there were 30 statements concerning the fears and concerns about slackers or lazy team member, and 14 statements concerning grades being affected by teammates. Other miscellaneous fears and concerns were: over-controlling members or perfectionists (11), fears about meeting schedule conflict (6), fears about poor cooperation or member conflict (6), fears about others not being punctual (3), and some stating a preference to work individually (2).

To this day, I have found that one of the best ways to calm the fears and concerns of students is to have them establish a team charter once they have been formed into teams. The team charter defines each team’s mission and identifies a plan by which to accomplish it. In the team charter, I require the students to properly address the following elements: a) a mission statement, b) a team name to give the members an identity, (c) clearly defined roles and responsibilities of the team leader and members that are legal, ethical, and moral (d) the names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of members, (e) codes of conduct that deal with attendance, acceptable behavior, values, possible rotation of leaders, etc., and (f) a detailed strategy that a team would use to complete team assignments (e.g., exams, worksheets, quizzes).

Once I have reviewed and approved a team’s charter, all members are required to sign it. Once signed, the team charter has the full weight of my course syllabus. Team’s may add, modify, or delete items in the charter as the semester progresses as long as all teammates and myself are made aware of the changes.

In sum, collaborative learning holds great promise for preparing students to do well in academia and the workplace. I have found that collaborative learning is far more effective when the students are prepared to work together as a team to ensure they effectively accomplish course objectives and earn the grade desired by the majority of the team. The team charter is one such tool that will increase the probability that students will embrace, as opposed to dread, the notion of working in a team.