What is a collaborative classroom? A collaborative classroom is different from the traditional classroom in several ways – one is because it encourages a new kind of relationship between students and teachers; it also establishes a new approach towards education for teachers. Classroom interaction truly does become collaborative using these new and innovative methods. The idea behind collaborative learning comes from recognizing the traits of successful learners and identifying how to bring out those traits in all students. There are many teacher professional development programs that focus on how to create a collaborative classroom and how to integrate these new methods.

The first things you might learn in a teacher professional development course about bringing collaboration to the classroom are the basic characteristics of a collaborative classroom, which we touched on above. First, knowledge is shared among and between the teachers and students. Traditionally teachers hold the role of expert and generally the knowledge flows from teacher to student, not the other way round. In order to make this information flow go both ways, teachers need to draw out students’ experiences to build on the lessons they are trying to teach. Often a student is able to share things about their culture to add to the class.

Second, in the same way that knowledge is shared by both teachers and students, the authority is shared by both students and teachers. Students have more influence on creating classroom goals and coming up with ideas for assignments that incorporate many different ways of learning and different options for presenting analysis.

Third, the role of the teacher changes from the take-charge leader into more of a mediator who helps students figure out how they learn best. This teacher as a mediator can help students figure out what to do when they are stuck on a problem. The mediator is essentially teaching the students how to learn, instead of just what to learn. With this framework the students must take on more responsibility for their learning.

Fourth (and last), the way students are grouped in a classroom also contributes to collaboration. Part of the learning process should include being exposed to many different perspectives and experiences. To implement this in the collaborative classroom, make sure that the students are not segregated by skill level, interests, etc… Students should be grouped with other students that have different abilities, backgrounds, etc… They can all learn from each other.

Teacher professional development is crucial to learn more about collaborative learning, especially for teachers who have never experienced it before. Teachers who have been teaching for a long time are probably used to the traditional learning curriculum and may have difficulty with the collaborative approach since it will require that they change their methods and give up some of the control to the students. At the same time, teachers with little experience may be intimidated by the idea of a collaborative classroom. In any and all cases, proven teacher professional development programs can help schools implement collaboration and enhance the learning experience for all students.

Author Bio: Vince Welsh is CEO of Teacher Education Institute. TEI offers rigorous, graduate-level professional development courses for K-12 classroom teachers. For more about teacher professional development, collaborative classroom, or TEI, visit http://www.teachereducation.com

Category: Education
Keywords: teacher professional development, collaborative classroom