Learning in today’s times is a collaborative effort between the teachers and the students. It is no longer in the shape of unidimensional dictates where the students are told what to do and that is the end of the story.
Teachers these days take input from students about what it is that they would like to learn and how to go about it. Besides, the students are encouraged to get together and collaborate on assignments, the way they would once they grow up and start working.
This method of collaborative learning is used extensively by the best Dubai secondary school and schools across the world. Let us take a look at the benefits that accrue from collaborative learning in classrooms.
What are the Benefits of Collaborative Learning?
Below are the benefits of collaborative learning used by the top international school in Dubai.
1. Makes the Classroom an Interesting Place
Getting the students involved in the process of conducting a class lesson makes the classroom a very interesting place and promotes learning. The students actually look forward to attending their classes with great enthusiasm.
This is a way better method of learning than the one in the past where the teachers would lecture and the students would be bored and inattentive.
2. Makes the Teaching and Learning Process More Efficient
With the students taking to a collaborative way of teaching way easier than the traditional ones, the teaching and learning processes are way more efficient. This leads to the students imbibing more knowledge than they would in the old days and getting a better grasp of the fundamentals of the subjects being studied by them.
3. Development of Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Skills
Learning to do projects and assignments jointly with their classmates helps build interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.
One needs to be able to get along with others and understand their perspective as well as know and leverage one’s own skills when it comes to collaborative learning in a classroom. This leads to the students developing vital life skills that will stand them in good stead in life.
4. Makes One Adept at Communication and Managing Human Relations
The ability to communicate well and manage human relations is way more important in life than even academics. Being able to do both well on account of collaborative learning in the classroom sets the children up for great success in their lives.
5. Makes Students Leverage Technology at an Early Age
Collaborating on projects exposes the children to the use of computers and information technology at a very young age making them very adept at their use. This is something of great value given that the world we live in is driven by the use of technology.
6. Helps Students Enhance Their Knowledge
The coming together of minds to help complete projects and assignments lead to the students’ enhancing their knowledge considerably. This is on account of learning things from one another under the guidance of a skilled teacher.
Doing that broadens the horizon of the students, making them amenable to learning better and learning more.
7. Teaches Students to Develop the Skill of Critical Learning
Collaborative learning requires students to come together to solve problems and resolve issues by way of their projects and assignments and thereby making them think critically in order to make the optimal decisions.
It also allows them to work on developing their ideas in a manner that leads to better and better results.
8. Leads to the Development of Problem-Solving Skills
When the students learn to undertake a complex assignment which requires them to brainstorm with their classmates, it fosters in them the skills required to resolve knotty problems. This is a life skill that will help them a great deal not only during their time in school but also in their lives ahead.
9. Helps One Become Social Interactive
Not everyone is naturally good at communicating with others or being very social with others. This is especially true of children who are naturally quite shy and awkward.
Making them undergo collaborative learning where they spend time together with their class fellow trying to figure out how to complete projects and assignments trains them to be socially active.
10. Is Collaborative Learning Good for Diversity?
Learning through collaboration teaches school students at an early impressionable age that there are all kinds of individuals that make the world and we need to learn to get along with and work together with others who might be very different from the way we are.
This is especially true of the schools in UAE which see students from all around the world study under one roof.
Conclusion
Collaborative learning is something that is in conformity with modern pedagogy techniques. This is the reason why most schools of repute follow leading international curricula that prescribe collaborative learning.
The schools which follow curricula like the Indian CBSE curriculum, the British pattern of education, the American pattern of education and the various IB programmes all use collaborative learning. Moreover, the ongoing pandemic has brought home the advantages of collaborative learning with the aid of technology like nothing before.
Going forward, we can expect collaborative learning to evolve and play an even greater role than it currently is in providing a modern cutting edge education to children at school. We live in the age of technology where using collaborative tools is the order of the day.
It is, therefore, good that children get to learn collaborative learning so early in their lives these days. Teachers these days are trained to leverage collaborative learning in their classrooms.
With so many audiovisual aids and other kinds of modern technology available in today’s smart classroom, learning is now a fun-filled adventure, rather than consisting of boring lectures that put students to sleep.
Truly, the children of today are quite blessed on account of the fact that they get to learn through collaborative learning which makes learning so much more fun and interesting.
Children who learn by collaborative learning as a rule turn out better in every respect when it comes to both academics and the practical application of knowledge. That is the reason why most modern schools ensure that it is leveraged in their classrooms to the fullest.
