What is the role of collaboration in understanding? And if it helps increase understandings and knowledge then what is the responsibility, and how do we build in collaboration in learning particularly in virtual environments? And if it helps in learning, how can it help in teaching?
While a social constructionist perspective definitely sees understanding as coming from a shared social space, most of us probably have anecdotal support for the role of collaboration in understanding, whether it be through the exposure to different perspectives from one's own or the requirement to articulate a view to others; this is also often a iterative process, allowing all parties to come to new understandings. An obvious example of this would be this blogging assignment: not only do I understand the concept better as I explain myself, but I also benefit from reading and commenting on my group's blogs as well as their comments on this one.
If we see learning as coming to a new understanding, then learning could certainly be assisted via collaboration. In an online learning environment, this collaboration is often not as easy to come by in a f2f class, especially a f2f class that has a student participation component, as they often do. As a result, it becomes even more important for an online teacher to build in collaboration in order to expose students to more views and facilitate social reflection.
Often overlooked is the importance of collaboration in teaching. As an adjunct who goes from school to school and often does not see other English instructors unless I go out of my way to seek them, I have a distinct understanding of how lack of collaboration hurts teaching. I have often had the feeling of trying to reinvent the wheel, knowing that someone has probably figured out a better approach or what to do in a situation. From the perspective of a librarian in a school setting, teaching goals are similar if not exactly aligned with the instructor's, so collaboration makes perfect sense. (For instance, how many college classes have essays that require source use? That's information literacy.) Additionally, what a librarian teaches will "stick" better if the student can tie it directly to other course work (i.e., transfer) and collaboration helps ensure this.
I'm glad you brought up the importance of collaboration between teachers because I didn't think about the "reinvent the wheel" aspect. Isn't this the best impetus for collaboration whether it's between teachers, teachers and librarians, or between librarians? I mean, what a waste of time to have to start from scratch every time, whatever the project, especially when you know there's "gotta be a better way." And then, like you say, it hurts teaching (and then students suffer.) Collaboration helps us all get on with it.
ReplyDeleteI guess I should have read your blog post sooner because your thoughts on collaboration between teachers and librarians is exactly what I'm thinking about for my unit plan. I was thinking exactly how in English classes teachers will set up a library instruction session for students when they have a research paper to do. I think this is so critical for learning. Unfortunately collaboration doesn't always happen between teachers and librarians in universities. It should happen often but sometimes teachers neglect communicating with librarians their assignments for the semester, such as major research papers.
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