Keeping up with the trends in education these days, Malaysian Education in context, we are going into the second wave of the National Educational Blueprint (PPPM 2013-2025). In the second wave, educators need to observe the revision of the curriculum. What captured my attention me is the detail description of the items compared to the previous version. It shows that the teachers need to master the foundation of the curriculum, to go in depth, learning about new things that are vital to the effective execution of the curriculum.

For the sake of the discussion, I am interested to look at one item on page 11 of the Document Standard Kurikulum dan Pentaksiran (DSKP) which is Collaborative Learning. Here I quote the DSKP.

Collaborative Learning 

Collaborative learning is a method of teaching and learning in which pupils work together in small groups on a structured activity to explore a significant question or create a meaningful project. The advantage of having small groups is that pupils can share their strengths and also develop their weaker skills as well as their interpersonal skills. They will learn skills to resolve conflicts. Pupils are individually accountable for their work, and the work of the group as a whole is also assessed. 

In order to create an environment in which cooperative learning can take place, teachers have to ensure that pupils need to feel safe, but also challenged. Groups need to be small enough so that everyone can contribute. Diversity is celebrated, and therefore, all contributions are valued. Lastly, the task students work together on must be clearly defined. 

The point itself is self-explanatory. But let us go deeper. We don't want our knowledge to be bound by this description alone thus depriving our learners the opportunity of being the best.

As I was working my way in Microsoft in Education, I stumbled upon an online course on 21 Century Learning Design. There it presented 21st Century Skills needed for students to thrive in their future. Their elaboration on collaboration inspires me on disseminating information to others as I find there are degrees of collaboration in order to fully maximise the learning of content as well as developing the skills of working with other people. This is based on a research by Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research which is best presented by the rubric shown below.

• Work together
• Shared responsibility
• Substantive decisions
• Interdependent work

Observe the degree of collaboration. The more key words fulfilled the higher the degree will be attained. I will give you an example for easier visualisation.

A teacher assigns a task to a group of pupils (work together) on the topic "Suggestions to keep the School Clean"(shared responsibility). The duration given is a week and presentation format is up to the group (substantive decision on the content and process). The teacher requires every student in the group to present (interdependent work) and they will need to address questions from the audience (substantive decision on the process). Presentation is graded based on content, relevancy, coherency and accuracy (interdependent work).

What do you think of the scenario above? Do you think it qualifies for a stage 5 for collaboration?

and...

What is so important in achieving level 5?

and...

you will discover more and more questions as you ponder on it.


Tell me when you want to try this in your lesson.

or...

If you have tried this, let us ponder on how we can make it better.