Working together in groups to achieve common or shared goals and objectives is termed collaboration. For academic, social, and professional growth and development, having collaborative skills is important for all students. To foster these skills in students, teachers should introduce and encourage student participation in collaborative activities respectively.
But as we know all students have different behavioral and thinking skills, and conflicts, crashes and disagreements are common. Let us discuss some effective tips that teachers can use to have conflict-free and effective collaborative activities in the classroom.
Benefits of collaboration for students
- Improve listening and verbal communication skills.
When students work together in groups, they actively listen to each other’s thoughts and ideas. Speaking up, sharing ideas, and coming to the right decisions and conclusions, enhance the verbal communication skills and active listening skills of the students.
- Cooperative and team working skills
In collaborative activities, students work together to achieve a common goal or target. They tend to listen to each other properly, and value everyone’s views given. Students stay calm, and composed, follow the work guidelines, and support each other in completing the tasks timely. All the group members have zeal and passion for effective work completion. This enhances cooperativeness and team working skills among learners. This also contributes to the professional development of the students.
- Classes become more interesting
The monotonous teaching practices or only teacher-centered approach of teaching that is a teacher coming to the class, explaining a topic, and students simply sitting as mere listeners become quite boring and less engaging.
For an effective change to break the traditional classroom setup, collaboration helps to a great extent. Whether teaching via an online classroom app or in conventional classrooms, teachers should conduct collaborative activities. This makes students enjoy working together, having fun, and becoming more interested in learning.
Have effective and conflict-free collaborative activities: tips for teachers
To make students foster their collaborative skills, collaboration activities should be conducted by the teachers. Some examples of these activities are group discussions, group projects, model making, giving presentations in pairs, performing a drama or play, etc. To make sure that students are fully active in collaboration with fewer conflicts and clashes, teachers must take care of a few things.
- Give choice to students to make groups or teachers should make the right ones
Many students are reluctant to participate and collaborate. In such cases, if teachers will pair randomly, students will not enjoy the collaborative activities. They prefer to be friends with whom they are comfortable and cheerful. In the beginning, to have an active collaborative class, allow students to make groups themselves.
After a particular time, when you see that students are ready to adapt to the changes, you can form the right groups and ask students to follow the same. This will teach them how to deal with different people, practice adaptability, and work effectively together to achieve shared goals.
- Keep a regular check on students
All students are different from each other. There are different ways to analyze a problem, distinct procedures to work and there are a variety of thoughts, opinions, and perspectives. When students work together, there are chances of facing clashes of views.
To make sure that students make the right decisions and conclusions to work and achieve the common goal, teachers need to keep a check on students. See whether the work is distributed equally among all students or not. Help them choose the right group leader. Ask them to listen to each other actively, stay calm, and take appropriate decisions. Set disciplinary measures and ensure that all students follow them properly.
- Encourage positivity
Many students are reluctant to collaborate. Lack of confidence, fear of participation, and reserved nature can be a few reasons behind this. Also, many students feel that they might not be listened to, their views may not be considered, and more. Teachers should ask students to avoid having these negative thoughts. Try to build a positive learning environment. Use motivational quotes for students to encourage them and feel comfortable with each other. Ask students not to let their inner fear stop them from growing. Keep interacting with all, and encourage positivity.
Conclusion
For academic, social, personal, and professional growth, collaborative skills are important for students. All teachers must introduce different and interesting collaborative activities in the class. By following the above-mentioned tips that are making effective groups, regularly checking students, encouraging positivity, and setting disciplinary measures, teachers can have effective, conflict-free, and more participatory collaborative activities.
