Have you tried assigning group projects to your students that ended up failing miserably. I did. When my students started working on projects in teams, I encountered a series of problems that I was not prepared to solve. I had students complain that they did all the work, while others did nothing. Some high ability students said that they were taken advantage of by others. I had students who complained that high status members in their group took control of the group or that members of a group formed a pact to do the least amount of work possible. I also had students who believed that they cannot work well in a group or others who relied heavily on the me or others to help.
If you are struggling with similar issues, these are the four skills you need to train your students on to collaborate effectively:
- Skill#1: Decision making
- Skill#2: Trust building
- Skill#3: Communication
- Skill#4: Conflict management
Decision Making Skills: when working in a team students need to decide who will do what and how the work load can be equitably distributed, when things will be completed and in what sequence, what types of information, supplies and. materials are needed. Students can learn decision making skills by using goal sheets to track division of labor, timelines and schedules to plan and sequence their time, and checklists to make decisions about resources.
Trust Building Skills: students can learn to build trust by being at ease when giving suggestions, opinions and participating in discussions, by agreeing to have their ideas critiqued, by critiquing ideas without offending others and by feeling that their ideas are wanted and considered.
Communication Skills: For successful collaboration, students need communication skills, which consist of: talking about learning, speaking clearly and listening carefully. In talking about learning, students need to be taught how to ask questions, generate alternate solutions to questions, and hold brainstorming sessions. They also need to learn how to look for more information, request justification for ideas and evidence for conclusions, and learn how to advocate a position by practicing role playing, mock trials and letter writing campaigns.
In speaking clearly, students need to learn to enunciate words, use appropriate voice levels, and face others when talking. In listening carefully, students need to be taught active listening, which includes using names, making eye contact, paraphrasing what others say, asking for explanations and summarizing conversations.
Conflict Management Skills: Students need to develop conflict management skills that consist of the ability to clarify disagreements, negotiate and compromise. To clarify disagreements within a group, students need to learn to understand others’ points of view. With young elementary students, teachers can help foster understanding others’ points of view by using literature, stuffed animals, and pets. With older students, teachers can have students role play that they are other people. Students can ask themselves, “What would I think if I were the other person?”
Training negotiation does not mean that one person wins and the other loses. Negotiation results in both parties feeling as if they had won. Teachers can use a T-chart, also called a win-win chart to teach negotiation. On each side of the the T in a win-win chart, students write the names of the disagreeing parties and underneath how the person or group will win in the situation.
A teacher can teach students to compromise by having them list all of the major points in their arguments. Then have each side in the disagreement give up one or two of its ideas in an exchange. Slowly, the two sides should come to an agreement that is a fair compromise.
Collaborative skills must be taught just like any other academic skill because students have no experience talking to each other about ideas and working independently in small groups. Teachers also need to create a safe environment for students, where they can feel comfortable sharing ideas and providing feedback in a civilized manner that respects other students feelings.