Much has been written about the merits of student collaboration on a common project. Business and industry are quite interested in workers who solve problems with group-solution processes rather than individual-solution processes. Educators have responded to this societal need with several variations on a common theme. Examples would be peer teaching, group learning, cooperative learning, etc. The list goes on and on with different names reflecting slight and subtle differences in implementation. Each has some common threads which can be identified.

Dependence and Independence

Students need to develop a sense of independence in their learning. Confidence in self is often a by-product of independent work. Dependence in others has value in learning to accept responsibility for the success of the group. Learning to accept the contributions of others is a valuable lesson. It is also necessary to learn group skills to be successful. Often complex tasks are broken down into different parts with each member assigned tasks. Group skills are required to identify strengths and interests of individuals.

Promotion of Individuals in the Group

Successful collaboration requires learning to be supportive of fellow team members. Constructive comments from peers promote feelings of belonging, contribute to enthusiasm for the project, and build esteem among the members. Comments that are destructive to an individual ultimately are destructive to the group. Learning to give and receive criticism from peers is a significant accomplishment.

Responsibility/Accountability

Projects that are addressed by a group offer an opportunity to assess individual progress towards meeting the project objectives. Sometimes it is difficult to measure whether each person is contributing a "fair share" of the workload. In real life, all team members don't contribute equally. Contributions vary in accordance with ability, motivation, and pull from competing issues. A clever teacher sets up some strategy to monitor the progress of the individuals in the group. Teacher conferences with group members about the work of the team is encouraged.

Socialization

Members of the group should work together as a team. The skills of group problem solving involve leadership, decision-making, communication, trust, and conflict management if need be. A working environment of comfort is achieved when members can differ and still move forward to solve the project goals. Members have to learn to both encourage and confront each other in a positive way.

Evaluation

Students should be led to begin evaluation of their own progress. This may be accomplished by interim reports that are required by the teacher. It is preferable to ask for both written and oral reports to give practice in both means of communication. The written report does offer a concrete means for the group to show progress as they produce a "status" report.

Categories of Projects that Require Collaboration:

A. Student-to-Student

Newsletters, magazines, or book developed between students in different locations
Combining data for a science experiment
Joint art and poetry publications

B. Classroom-to-Classroom

Global rain fall measurement
Global grocery list A good example of this type of project is the Jason Project

C. Teacher-to-Teacher

Electronic field trips
Teacher support networks
Teacher study groups.

D. Teacher-to-Researcher

Educators and researchers analyzing research and jointly publishing papers or articles

E. Classroom-to-Expert

Connect a classroom with an expert on a topic being studied