Category Archives: collaboration

Why Collaborate in Class?

I had some good comments on my last post about collaboration, but they did not fully address my deepest question: “Why do it?” I believe in collaboration but did not feel that I could explain its importance very well. So I asked on Twitter for a response to that philosophical question. Here is the one response:

susan artkras said…
Collaborate to express your ideas to an authentic audience because sometimes you don’t know what you’re thinking until you share it with others.

Collaborate to have your thinking challenged or validated which might promote open-mindedness.

Collaborate to listen to others’ thinking so you understand other people’s perspective and the reasoning for it.

Collaborate to share our strengths, talents, gifts and so that other people’s strengths etc. compliment our own and even fill in for our weaknesses.

Collaborate for the pure experience of the trials and tribulations of living in a society that demands collective survival.

Collaborate so we are a part of the human experience, learning how to communicate verbally and non-verbally.

Collaborate for the support, kind words of encouragement, an extra set of hands, ears or eyes, and collaborate even for the competitive challenge.

Collaborate to realize that my story and your story have much in common. That we are alike and we are different, and that either way it’s okay.

Collaborate because some tasks are too big for one person to handle alone.

Enough said. Who can argue about the value of these things in any class? 

Questions? Interested in SEL and PBL workshops or consulting?  Connect with me at  michaelkaechele.com or @mikekaechele.

Why would I want collaboration in my class?

While sharing with a math teacher at lunch about how I was using technology to connect my 6th grade math class with a class in Florida, he asked me “Why would I want collaboration in my class with another classroom?” He was not being a smart alek but was seriously wondering how it would help him or why it was important. I assume he was thinking about the agressive pacing schedule of the district curriculum and trying to meet the standards.

I must admit that the question threw me for a second. I hold global collaboration as a high personal value. I lived in China for two years, and often advise my students to take any opportunity to travel and/or live overseas if they get the chance. It is a question that I would never ask, but looking at it from his perspective it is a valid question.

I ended up answering by saying that it increased student motivation in that their work had an authentic audience. I compared hanging work on the walls to posting it on the internet to share with the world. I talked about our class’s work with Kyle Webb and how we made videos to answer his challenge problem to us.  I didn’t talk about diversity, culture, or the force of globalization in the world. I didn’t talk about the importance of getting along with and being successful with all different kinds of people.

I think this is an example of how standardized testing of curriculum makes teachers focus so much on their content area that they forget about the other things that we need to teach students that can not be tested.

So help me out. How could I have better answered this teacher’s question “Why would I want collaboration in my class with another classroom?”