Collaborative is a cross-discipline pedagogy, brought to the forefront of composition studies by Kenneth Bruffee in the 1970s. According to Bruffee, there are three principles of collaborative pedagogy;
1. Thought is an internal conversation, so thought and conversation work in similar ways.
2. Thought is an internal conversation, so all writing is internalized social talk made public and social.
3. All learning is a collaborative process to gain knowledge in among a community of peers.
There are as many perils as there are benefits to collaborative learning. Chief among the difficulties faced by those practicing collaborative pedagogy is the widespread belief that an “author” must be an individual rather than a collective, though many say that ALL writing is collaborative. Another pitfall of collaborative work is the perception is that collaboration is or will lead to plagiarism. In both instances, western ideology will have to move away from the conception of author as solitary before collaborative pedagogy can really take root. Despite these criticisms, there are benefits of collaboration:
1. Students engage more deeply with the text.
2. Student peer group provides a social context to learn and perform academically-valued conversation with each other.
3. Knowledge is formed and justified in the community and acquired through social interaction with that community.
There are various collaborative learning methods commonly used by practitioners. The Writing Center is a popular venue for implementing collaborative education, though plagiarism concerns also plague this aspect methodology. In the classroom, teachers can practice “whole-class” and “small-group” discussions. In “whole-class” conversations, the instructor facilitates the discussion, but is mainly there to provide the occasional prompt. In “Small-group” discussions, teachers divide the class into sections and allow the students to teach each other. Again, the teacher acts as a facilitator. Peer response work gives students an opportunity to provide each other feedback on their solo writing.
1. Collaborative projects should be announced at the beginning of the term, but started much later so students can get to know each other and work out other social issues.
2. The collaborative project should be best done in a group rather than individual environment.
3. Design the project to allow students chances to initiate their own work.
4. Before the project begin, discuss various methods and obstacles of collaborative writing.
a. Collaborative writing comes in many forms.
i. Dialogic – students work together
ii. Hierarchical – group divides up work and divvies it up among group members.
b. There are common problems that will likely arise in the collaborative writing task – students need to be prepared and flexible.
c. It is common for some students to not carry their load – students should decide in advance what they’ll do if this happens.
5. Students may be resistant to the collaborative work – teachers need to be aware and prepared.
6. Students should designate the makeup of their groups and discuss what will and won’t work in regard to those designations.
7. Students should be given autonomy to set project methods and timetables, but need to put that information in writing.
8. Teachers should be prepared for conflict within the groups and prepare to take it on in both student and teacher dimensions – without suppressing conflict or forcing uniformity.
9. Teachers should explain the grading method well in advance, preferably including students in the process.
