You say co-operative, I say collaborative

1. You say co-operative, I say collaborative A look at collaborative practice for languages classrooms

2. Examine some of the background to collaborative approaches to learning • Explore the links between Curriculum for Excellence and Critical Skills/Co-operative Learning • Get Active! Apply some aspects of these approaches to one area of teaching and learning of relevance to you

3. Sounds familiar? • Knowledge is a fixed body of information transmitted from teacher or text to students OR • Knowledge viewed as developing interpretations constructed through discussion Brophy, J 2002 : Social Constructivist Teaching: Affordances and Constratints

4. Teacher is responsible for managing students’ learning by providing information and leading students through activities and assignments OR • Teacher and students share responsibility for initiating and guiding learning efforts Brophy, J 2002 : Social Constructivist Teaching: Affordances and Constratints

5. Students memorise or replicate what has been explained or modelled OR • Students strive to make sense of new input by relating it to their prior knowledge and by collaborating in dialogue with others to construct and share understandings Brophy, J 2002 : Social Constructivist Teaching: Affordances and Constratints

6. Discourse emphasises drill and recitation in response to convergent questions OR • Discourse emphasises reflective discussion of networks of connected knowledge; questions are more divergent but designed to develop understanding of the powerful ideas that anchor these networks: focus is on eliciting students’ thinking Brophy, J 2002 : Social Constructivist Teaching: Affordances and Constratints

7. Students work mostly alone, practising what has been transmitted to them in order to reproduce it on demand OR • Students collaborate by acting as a learning community that constructs shared understanding through dialogue Brophy, J 2002 : Social Constructivist Teaching: Affordances and Constratints

8. This is what you would see or experience in the traditional classroom A traditional British classroom often had high window-sills—to prevent the seated pupils from being distracted by more exciting events outside, or indeed staring out of the window. (Architecture with intent: design of control)

9. And constructivist classrooms… • Curriculum is presented in whole to part with emphasis on big concepts • Pursuit of student questions is highly valued • Teachers generally behave in an interactive manner, mediating the environment for students. • Teachers seek the student’s point of view in order to understand student conceptions for further use in lesson • Students work primarily in groups Brooks and Brooks: Making the case for Constructivist Classrooms

10. So what?? Some trends…. Twenty first century Learner – centred Participative User-generated content Personalisation Global Agile Critiquing Learning Community/collaborative Twentieth Century Curriculum-centred Interactive Delivered wisdom One-size fits all National Stable Retaining Teaching Individual

11. 5% lecture 10% reading 20% audio-visual 30% demonstration 50% discussion group 75% practice by doing 90% teach one another – immediate use of learning 95% when give each other immediate feedback THE LEARNING PYRAMID NTL, Bethel, MAINE, USA

12. Characteristics of the CSP and CfE school... • Students and teachers frequently work in teams • Students and teachers actively solve meaningful problems • Students and teachers publicly exhibit their learning • Students and teachers reflect on what they are learning • Students and teachers apply quality criteria to their work • Teachers mediate, coach, support and teach • Work is interconnected • Everyone takes responsibility for the learning community

13. You have 30 minutes for this task • Read the outlines of the two challenges and look at the template in your pack. Discuss how they could be used. • Using your own resources and/or mind maps, adapt one activity into a meaningful challenge. • Specify the year group, prior learning and time to be spent on the challenge (brief) • Share the roles within the group and decide who/how to share your work.