Effect of Collaborative Learning Approach to Students Learning

EFFECT OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING APPROACH ON THE STUDENTS’ LEARNING

An Undergraduate Thesis Presented to the College of Education COTABATO FOUNDATION COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Doroluman, Arakan, Cotabato

In partial fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree BACHELOR OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

REGINE JOY V. ARACAP 2016

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM

Introduction Collaboration has become a twenty-first-century trend. The concept of collaborative learning is the grouping and pairing of students for the purpose of achieving an academic goal, has been widely researched and advocated throughout the professional literature (Johnson & Johnson, i 992, Slavin, 1995, Gokhale, 1995). The term "collaborative learning" refers to an instruction method in which students at various performance levels work together in small groups toward a common goal. The students are responsible for one another's learning as well as their own. Thus, the success of one student helps other students to be successful. In recent years, there are many teaching and learning approaches that have been used by the teachers to provide a quality education. When teachers brought their classes into the room, students worked individually on lessons for one or double periods. In such learning environment, learning may not fit in individual needs; it also created problems such as increasing anxiety, hostility, and boredom of students. Students are generally isolated from one another in the learning setting. The student was discouraged from sharing information or providing assistance to and by other students. The above problems caused in a teacher centered classroom could be alleviated by collaborative learning. Collaborative leaning is a combination of instructional strategies in which a group of students master their learning through collaborative

efforts. Students work in small. mixed-ability learning teams and draw on each other's strength and help each other to accomplish a common academic goal. This method encourages supportive relationships, good communication skills and higher-level thinking abilities. The rationale for collaborative learning is heterogeneous groups working towards a common goal with group members responsible for their teammates' learning and their own learning. The aims of collaborative learning are to encourage cooperative group relationships, to develop students' self-esteem, and to increase students' academic achievements. In traditional school learning, individual students usually study in a competitive situation. If one succeeds, others will fail. In collaborative learning, individuals will interact with one another and will develop group skills such as discussion skills and interpersonal skills in a collaborative learning situation. Moreover, collaborative learning is a combination of instructional strategies that encourages student to work together as a team. They share responsibility in learning for their own team as well as enhancing their face-to-face interaction and encouraging one another to do well. In education today, there are interesting collaborative learning strategies that will enable students to have active control over their own learning and will also enhance academic achievement (Onabanjo, 2000). According to Slavin (1995) as cited in Wichadee (2007), collaborative learning is an instructional program in which students work in small groups to help one another master academic content. One of the major reasons for this downturn in students’ achievement in the subject is the non utilization of necessary techniques in teaching. It has therefore

become necessary to seek effort that will employ a collaborative approach or approaches that will enhance better academic learning of students.

Statement of the Problem

The study attempted to determine the effect collaborative approach to the student learning. It aimed to answer the following questions: 1. What are the collaborative learning approaches used by the teachers on the College of Education? 2. What is the frequency of the collaborative learning strategies used in the class? 3. What is the level of academic learning with collaborative learning approach as perceived by the respondents? 4. Is there any significant relationship between the frequency on the use of collaborative learning strategy and the level of academic learning?

Significance of the Study

The success of this study will give the readers an idea on the effect of collaborative learning approach on the students learning. Teachers will benefit in this study because it will help them identify what type of collaborative learning approach is effective to improve the students learning.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study was limited to the effect of collaborative learning approach on the second year BEEd students of the College of Education, school year 2016-2017.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Learning under cooperative goal structure, strengths of each person are utilized. Savin (1985) described cooperative learning strategies as "structured, systematic instructional strategies capable of being used at any grade level and in most school subjects. Each group is a microcosm of the class in achievement level, sex, and ethnicity'. The students' work in mixed-ability groups are rewarded on the basis of the success of the whole group, based on a cooperative goal structure (Slavin, 1990). In recent years, research on collaborative learning is currently a very popular topic in education, psychology and science. Educational research has attempted to determine under what circumstances collaborative learning is more effective than learning alone, and more recently, numerous studies have focused 4 ori the integration of collaborative learning with learning activities such as learning with instruction delivered using integrated learning system (Brush, i 997), learning with a computer simulation (Klein and Doran, 1 999) and learning with computer-based instruction (Cavalier and Klein, 1998). One of the major reasons for this downturn in students’ achievement in the subject is the non utilization of necessary techniques in teaching. It has therefore become necessary to seek effort that will employ an approach or approaches that will enhance better academic performance of students in that aspect. In the CL environment, the learners are challenged both socially and emotionally as they listen to different perspectives, and are required to articulate and defend their ideas. In so doing, the learners begin to create their own unique conceptual frameworks and not rely solely on an expert's or a text's framework. In a CL setting, learners have the opportunity to converse with peers, present and defend ideas, exchange diverse

beliefs, question other conceptual frameworks, and are actively engaged (Srinivas, H., 2011). Collaborative learning occurs when small groups of students help each other to learn. CL is sometimes misunderstood. It is not having students talk to each other, either face-to-face or in a computer conference, while they do their individual assignments. It is not having them do the task individually and then have those who finish first help those who have not yet finished. And it is certainly not having one or a few students do all the work, while the others append their names to the report (Klemm, W.R., 1994. The literature review discussing collaborative learning often references the precepts of social constructivism. Dillenbourg (1999:1) broadly defines collaborative learning as “a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together”: Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together (Bruffee, 1993). Johnson & Johnson (1999) proposed positive interdependence, individual accountability, face to face interaction, social skills and group processing as the five basic elements of collaborative learning, and the grouping strategies were essential to meet the needs of the five basic elements. Dillenbourg, Baker, Blaye, & O’Malley (1996) suggested that heterogeneous groups could be beneficial as a condition to trigger conflicts and require negotiation and social grounding, in addition, Setlock, Fussell, & Neuworth (2004) suggested that experimental groups with homogenous and heterogeneous cultural backgrounds had different perceptions of the study task. With respect to this importance, the rules for grouping such as heterogeneity in a group and homogeneity between groups were decided in

terms of students’ features such as gender, age, learning style, knowledge base, and cultural background. Collaborative or cooperative learning differs from traditional learning because it provides structural opportunities for individuals, who are given specific roles within their groups, to work together to reach common goals. It is usually contrasted with traditional or competitive classroom environments (Kessler, 2003).

When students learn

separately, their individual performances do not necessarily affect one another either positively or negatively. Competitive learning, on the other hand, means putting them in direct competition with each other, with the idea that this will have an effect on individual performances (Albesher, 2012). Collaboration is sometimes distinguished from cooperative learning in that cooperation is typically accomplished through the division of labor, with each person responsible for some portion of the problem solving. Collaboration, on the other hand, involves participants working together on the same task, rather than in parallel on separate portions of the task (Lai, 2011). Collaborative learning entails not only the division of work in a specific task, but it requires its joint completion so that the team members can construct meanings together and can develop cultural and professional knowledge (Barros, 2011).

It means that

students are responsible for one another's learning as well as their own and that reaching the goal implies that students have helped each other to understand and learn (Dooly, 2008). Collaborative interactions are characterized by shared goals, symmetry of structure, and a high degree of negotiation, interactivity, and interdependence.

Interactions producing elaborated explanations are particularly valuable for improving student learning (Lai, 2011). There are several qualities that characterize truly collaborative interactions. First, collaboration is characterized by a relatively symmetrical structure, however that symmetry is accomplished. For example, in situations with symmetry of action, each participant has access to the same range of actions. This contrasts with the typical division of labor in cooperative learning structures; partners split up the work, solve subtasks individually, and then put their respective contributions together. Symmetry of knowledge occurs when all participants have roughly the same level of knowledge, although they may have difference perspectives. Symmetry of status involves collaboration among peers rather than interactions involving supervisor/subordinate relationships. Finally, symmetry of goals involves common group goals rather than individual goals that may conflict (Dillenbourg, 1999). Another type of collaborative learning frequently used at the post-secondary level of education is problem-based learning (Savery, 2006), which, also asks students to tackle large, usually open-ended problems, often in a specific content-area or discipline such as medicine or business. Nevertheless, implementing collaborative learning strategies in the classroom does not appear to necessarily ensure either student engagement or achievement of learning objectives (Summers & Volet, 2010). CL provides the teacher with many opportunities to observe students interacting, explaining their reasoning, asking questions and discussing their ideas and concepts (Cooper, et al., 1984). These are far more inclusive assessment methods than relying on written exams only (Cross, K.P. & Angelo, T.A., 1993).

Conceptual Framework

As intended, the researcher will identify the collaborative learning approaches. The collaborative learning approaches were ranked and the relationships with the teachers were also compared. Two main variables were used in the research. One is the dependent variable, which are the students learning and the collaborative learning approach as the independent variables.

Research Paradigm

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

Students Learning

Null Hypothesis There is no significant relationship between the frequency on the use of collaborative learning strategy and the level of academic learning.

Definition of Terms

Collaborative Learning – the grouping of students in the class Approach – a method Students – respondents of the study Learning – acquiring of knowledge Acronyms BEEd – Bachelor in Elementary Education CL – Collaborative Learning CFCST – Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology

Chapter III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methods and procedure of searching and analyzing the data in the study.

It includes the research design, locale of the study, and

respondents of the study, instrument sampling procedure, data gathering techniques and statistical analysis of the collected data.

Research Design This study uses the descriptive survey method. The purpose of this design was to determine the effect of collaborative learning approach to the student learning.

Locale of the Study This study will be conducted on the Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology, Doroluman, Arakan, North Cotabato specifically in the College of Education academic year 2016-2017.

Respondents of the Study The respondents of the study were second year BEEd students of the College of Education of the Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology, Doroluman, Arakan, Cotabato academic year 2016-2017. The sampling procedure to be used in this study is the random sampling. Research Instrument

The data were gathered using a questionnaire made by the researcher. The questionnaire was divided into three parts; collaborative learning approach, academic learning, and use of collaborative learning strategies. The study makes use of the following scale. Rating Scale 3 – Always 2 – Sometimes 1 – Never

Data Gathering To facilitate the conduct of the study, permission was sought first from the Department Dean. Likewise, the permission to administer the questionnaire was sought from the Department Dean of the CFCST College of Education. The questionnaire was distributed by the researcher to the respondents and they are given enough time to answer the questions

Statistical Treatment The statistical treatment will be determined by the resident statistician.

Bibliography

Albesher, K. B. (2012). Developing the writing skills of ESL students through the collaborative learning strategy. Newcastle University Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (12-16 April 1993), Atlanta, Georgia; USA. Eric document; ED359206. Retrieved 5 Nov. 2011 from: http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED359206.pdf. Astin, A.W.(1977). Four critical years: Effects of college beliefs, attitudes and knowledge. San Francisco, USA. Jossey Bass Publishing. Austin, J. E. (2000). Principles for Partnership. Journal of Leader to Leader. 18 (Fall), pp. 44-50. Barros, E. H. (2011). Collaborative learning in the translation classroom: preliminary survey results. Universidad de Granada, Spain Bruffee, K. A. (1984). Collaborative learning and the “conversation of mankind.” College English, 46(7), 535-552. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/376924 Cooper, J., Prescott, S., Cook, l., Smith, L., Mueck, R. & Cuseo, J. (1984). Cooperative learning and college instruction- Effective use of student learning teams (pp41-65). Long Beach, California; USA. California State University Foundation publishing. Dillenbourg, P., Baker, M., Blaye, A., & O’Malley, C. (1996). The evolution of research on collaborative learning. In E. Spada & P. Reiman (Eds.), Learning in Humans and Machine: Towards an Interdisciplinary Learning Science (pp. 189–211). Oxford: Elsevier. Retrieved from http://telearn.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00190626/ Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. (1999). Making cooperative learning work. Theory into Practice, 38(2), 67–73. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00405849909543834 Dillenbourg P. (1999) What do you mean by collaborative learning?. In P. Dillenbourg (Ed) Collaborative-learning: Cognitive and Computational Approaches. (pp.1-19). Oxford: Elsevier. Dooly, M. (2008) Constructing Knowledge Together (21-45). Extract from Telecollaborative Language Learning. A guidebook to moderating intercultural collaboration online. M. Dooly (ed.). (2008) Bern: Peter Lang. Entwistle, N. J. & Tait, H. (1993). Approaches to Studying and Preferences for Teaching in Higher Education: Implications for Student Ratings. Gokhale, A.A. (1995). Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking. Journal of Technology education. 7(1), Retrieved 5 Nov. 2011, from: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v7n1/gokhale.jte-v7n1.html.

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Effect of Collaborative Learning Approach on the Students Learning

Research Questionnaire

Name: __________________________ (optional) Year/Section: ___________________

Date: _________

Direction: Kindly read the questionnaire and check your response on the corresponding rating scale. Rating Scale 3 – Always 2 – Sometimes 1 – Never

A. Collaborative Learning Approach 1. The teacher groups us to solve mathematical problems. 2. The teacher groups us to dramatize a certain situation. 3. The teacher groups us to perform dance, song, etc. 4. The teacher groups us to investigate a phenomenon. 5. The teacher groups us to report a topic. B. Academic Learning 1. I learn best when I collaborate with my classmates. 2. I understand the lesson when it has group activity rather than pure discussion. 3. I gather more ideas when we work as a group compared to individual activities.

1

2

3

4. I can perform well in class when I have companies. 5. I am more confident to present my ideas to the class when I present it with my group mates. 6. Working with other students in class gives me more opportunities to learn new ideas. C. Use of Collaborative Learning Strategies 1. The teacher gives a group activity every meeting. 2. The teacher gives activity when the lesson requires it. 3. The teacher groups the class during reporting. 4. During investigation/experimentation the class is grouped and collaborate ideas. 5. The class is grouped by the teacher to perform drama, song, a nd dance.