{"id":2128,"date":"2004-09-24T12:50:00","date_gmt":"2004-09-24T12:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/?p=2128"},"modified":"2026-10-21T09:44:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T09:44:32","slug":"active-learning-2-cooperative-collaborative-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/?p=2128","title":{"rendered":"Active Learning (2) Cooperative\/Collaborative Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Originally published on:<\/strong> September 24, 2004<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the fact that I taught for several decades in a sociology department and believed that I had attained a degree of professionalism in this field, it was Gilly Salmon, a leading British pedagogist who teaches at the Open University (UK) that recently drew my attention to the importance of the work Emile Durkheim, a leading French sociologist, in respect to my quest to enhance quality learning in my classes.\u00a0 Writing more than a century ago, and with reference to his seminal work on collective representation<\/em>, \u201cDurkheim showed that a sense of security and progress depends on broad agreement both on the ends to be pursued and on the accepted means of attaining them<\/em>.\u201d (Salmon, 2000: 28)\u00a0Thus, it was Durkheim\u2019s work, a sociological account of the consequences of socialization and its implications for human behavior that motivated me to explore the benefits to be derived from perceiving my class as a \u201clearning community\u201d<\/em><\/strong> with its own distinct learning culture, formal and informal rules and norms and behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, it was only a short step to the recognition of the significance of \u201ccooperative\/collaborative learning\u201d as a dynamic and innovative way of enhancing quality active learning among my students.\u00a0The key to attaining active learning, therefore, was the process of enabling and\/or empowering my class of individual students to transform into a \u201clearning community\u201d composed of \u201ccooperative\/collaborative learners\u201d.\u00a0 In this respect, the individual students were now being compelled to interact in three different ways through the pedagogic socialization process: interaction with courseware, interaction with me and, of greatest significance, interaction with their peers.\u00a0 This process quickly generated its own momentum and, again of critical importance, an acquired sense of \u201cownership\u201d with regard to knowledge construction and thus also a sense of \u201cpower\u201d that implicitly re-negotiated the conventional and hierarchical parameters and boundaries of the teacher-student relationship.\u00a0 Students derived their empowerment from the very process of establishing their own \u201clearning community\u201d which was facilitated by the instructor, but not awarded.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The learning benefits to be derived from such a process are captured by Rowntree who notes that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants are liable to learn as much from one another as from course material or from the interjections of a tutor.\u00a0 What they learn, of course, is not so much product (e.g. information) as process \u2013 in particular the creative cognitive process of offering up ideas, having them criticized or expanded on, and getting the chance to reshape them (or abandon them) in the light of peer discussion.\u00a0 The learning becomes not merely active\u2026but also interactive<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0The learners have someone available from whom they can get an individual response to their queries or a new idea and from whom they can get a challenging alternative perspective.\u00a0 In return, they can contribute likewise to other colleagues\u2019 learning (and themselves learn in the process of doing so). <\/em>(Rowntree, 1995:207) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A central issue in this process of active and\/or interactive learning is that the locus of power in the learning relationship is no longer with the instructor, professor, or academic expert. In \u201ccooperative\/collaborative learning,\u201d that takes place within a \u201clearning community of peers,\u201d the conventional hierarchy is replaced by a \u201cflattening\u201d of the communication structure between professor and students.\u00a0 In this respect, the learning process can achieve knowledge construction<\/em><\/strong> as compared to information dissemination<\/em><\/strong>, which is the hallmark of most conventional lecturing methods.\u00a0 This is clearly encapsulated by Jonassen, who notes that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026groups can work together to solve problems, argue about interpretations, negotiate meaning, or engage in other educational activities including coaching, modeling, and scaffolding of performance\u2026knowledge construction occurs when participants explore issues, take positions, discuss their positions in\u00a0an argumentative format and reflect on and re-evaluate their positions.<\/em> (Jonassen et al., 1995: 16)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCooperative\/collaborative learning\u201d therefore also enhances critical thinking as it enables learners to challenge and be challenged within a non-hierarchical social environment in which they share a \u201csense of security\u201d.\u00a0 This enables the \u201clearning community\u201d to even challenge the interventions of the instructor or professor, especially if they deem them to be unhelpful.[1]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 In this respect, the learners are also making use of a constructivist approach to learning<\/em><\/strong> which involves learners exploring the way in which they articulate thoughts and especially the manner by which they construct knowledge.\u00a0 The key here is that learners attribute meanings or interpretations to \u201cinformation\u201d provided by courseware or lectures by reference to conceptual structures that have derived from a process of social and intellectual negotiation and re-negotiation within the \u201clearning community\u201d and thus significantly different from \u201cthe conceptual baggage\u201d they carried upon arrival.\u00a0The process of active learning has been initiated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a plethora of benefits to be derived from adopting \u201ccooperative\/collaborative learning\u201d and facilitating \u201clearning communities\u201d as a central element of our teaching style.\u00a0Of particular importance is the fact that it also enhances the \u201cemployability\u201d of our students as it mirrors almost exactly the requirements of contemporary businesses and organizations.\u00a0 Here again Gilly Salmon has captured these requirements when she notes that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skills needed for work and learning will embrace self-direction together with a willingness to support others, the ability to work in multi-skilled teams (which are likely to operate without regular meetings), to co-operate rather than compete, to handle information (rather than know everything) and to become critical thinkers.<\/em> (Salmon 2000: 91)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salmon then concludes by quoting the Senior Learning and Development Adviser for Shell, who suggests that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026a change of learning mindset is needed.\u00a0 He wants future recruits to be able to know how they learn, know what they need to learn, and be open and receptive to learning from others without negative responses to criticism.<\/em>\u00a0 (Salmon, 2000: 91)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCooperative\/collaborative learning\u201d enables such a change of learning mindset to take place.\u00a0 The question that does remain, however is: Are professors willing to meet the challenge?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonassen, D et al. (1995) Constructivism and computer-mediated communication in distance education<\/em>, American Journal of Distance Education<\/strong>, 9 (2), pp. 7-25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rowntree, D (1995) Teaching and Learning online: a correspondence education for the 21st<\/sup> century?,<\/em> British Journal of Educational Technology<\/strong>, 26 (3), pp. 205-215.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salmon, G. (2000) E-Moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online<\/strong>, Kogan Page, London<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on: September 24, 2004 Despite the fact that I taught for several decades in a sociology department and believed that I had attained … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":3252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,177],"tags":[157],"class_list":["post-2128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-active-learning","category-volume-3","tag-issue-10"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DSC_8524.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3265,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions\/3265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}