Collaborative Learning Teams

COMMUNICATE- COLLABORATE - THINK CRITICALLY

"The strength of the team is each individual member.

The strength of each member is the team."

                                                                 - Phil Jackson

The development of a network of collaborative learning teams within you classroom can create an educational environment where the responsibility for learning lies upon both the students and teacher who comprise that leaning community.

Learners learn by teaching one another. When students teach one another they take ownership of the material by passing it along they actually make it part of themselves. 

The process of teaching one another is by its very nature acive learning.  Student engagement increases the opportunities to learn. 

The saying goes that "Two heads are better than one."  Sharing knowledge creates opportunities for more ideas, alternate approaches, increased possibilites and new perspectives.

Students who have difficulty in the larger classroom may find comfort in smaller groups. This provides avenues for increased communication and the unleashing of ideas that may never be shared in a larger group setting. 

Collaboration brings about an ease and comfort that encourages further attendance in the class as interdependence breeds both responsibility and commraderie. 

Although the goal is increased learning for all, the idea of positive competition among smaller groups may lead to greater problem solving success.

Collaboration encourages the development of leadership skills.

Students who work in groups learn to delegate tasks to maximize group success.

Collaboration increases the development of time mangement skills.    

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success."

                                                             - Henry Ford

Our Iceberg is Melting - Collaboration

Our Iceberg Is Melting 

by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber

Our Iceberg Is Melting is a simple fable about doing well in an ever-changing world. Based on the award-winning work of Harvard's John Kotter, it is a story that has been used to help thousands of people and organizations.

The fable is about a penguin colony in Antarctica. A group of beautiful emperor penguins live as they have for many years. Then, one curious bird discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home, and pretty much no one listens to him.

The characters in the story, Fred, Alice, Louis, Buddy, the Professor, and NoNo, are like people we recognize — even ourselves. Their tale is one of resistance to change and heroic action, seemingly intractable obstacles and the most clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles. It's a story that is occurring in different forms all around us today — but the penguins handle the very real challenges a great deal better than most of us.

Our Iceberg Is Melting is based on pioneering work that shows how the 8 Steps produce needed change in any sort of group. It's a story that can be enjoyed by anyone while at the same time providing invaluable guidance for a world that just keeps moving faster and faster.

(from the website http://www.kotterinternational.com/kotterprinciples/our-iceberg-is-melting )

Although written as a children's tale, the story provides great insight into the difficulties with collaboration as a means of attianing group success.  The group of penguins come to symbolize the universal members of most work groups.  The take charge member, the do all the work member, the organizer, the naysayer, the do gooder, the newbie and the volunteer who does nothing.  

The Penguins   

Fred – younger, open to all new ideas, overly curious, very observant, anxious to please, level headed, thinker, creative, still wide eyed, willing to volunteer for anything 

Alice –  practical, tough, need to prove she belongs, reputation for being tough, gets things done, focused on the goal at hand, knows the colony, doesn't back down, smart but not arrogant

Louis - Head Penguin in Charge – very patient, wise from experience, overly conservative, calm, respected by most, experiential intelligent;

NoNo – negative, closed to new ideas, favorite comment "we have never done that"

The Professor – scholarly intelligence, data based, fascinated by the problem not the solution, question, not really social

Buddy - everybody loves him, no ambition, trusted and liked, not an intellectual, always present but unproductive

Kotter does an excellent job of understandning the value and importance of change, while also outlining the difficulties that change brings about.  As the penguins seek a solution to their problem and inevitible change that must take place Kotter provides a road map of Eight Steps for Leading Change:

Create Urgency 

Form Powerful Coalitions

Create a Vision for Change

Communicate the Vision

Remove Obstacles to Empower Broad-based Actions

Generate Short-Term Wins

Build on Changes and Gain Momentum

Weave the Changes into the Culture 

Our Iceberg is a Melting is amust read for anyone in education who wishes to bring about positive changes within the curriculum, culture and community of the school.  Kotter provides great insight into the role of change in the healthy environment of any community based upon collaboration.