Scager Karin, Boonstra Johannes, Peeters Ton, Vulperhorst Jonne, Wiegant Fred
Department of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands
Department of Biology, Utrecht University, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2016 Winter;15(4). doi: 10.1187/cbe.16-07-0219.
Collaborative learning is a widely used instructional method, but the learning potential of this instructional method is often underused in practice. Therefore, the importance of various factors underlying effective collaborative learning should be determined. In the current study, five different life sciences undergraduate courses with successful collaborative-learning results were selected. This study focuses on factors that increased the effectiveness of collaboration in these courses, according to the students. Nine focus group interviews were conducted and analyzed. Results show that factors evoking effective collaboration were student autonomy and self-regulatory behavior, combined with a challenging, open, and complex group task that required the students to create something new and original. The design factors of these courses fostered a sense of responsibility and of shared ownership of both the collaborative process and the end product of the group assignment. In addition, students reported the absence of any free riders in these group assignments. Interestingly, it was observed that students seemed to value their sense of achievement, their learning processes, and the products they were working on more than their grades. It is concluded that collaborative learning in higher education should be designed using challenging and relevant tasks that build shared ownership with students.
合作学习是一种广泛使用的教学方法，但这种教学方法的学习潜力在实践中常常未得到充分利用。因此，应确定有效合作学习背后各种因素的重要性。在当前的研究中，选取了五门不同的生命科学本科课程，这些课程的合作学习成果显著。本研究聚焦于学生认为在这些课程中提高合作有效性的因素。进行并分析了九次焦点小组访谈。结果表明，引发有效合作的因素包括学生的自主性和自我调节行为，以及具有挑战性、开放性和复杂性的小组任务，该任务要求学生创造新颖独特的东西。这些课程的设计因素培养了学生对合作过程和小组作业最终成果的责任感和共同所有权意识。此外，学生们表示在这些小组作业中没有出现任何搭便车的现象。有趣的是，观察发现学生们似乎更看重自己的成就感、学习过程以及正在完成的作品，而非成绩。研究得出结论，高等教育中的合作学习应采用具有挑战性且相关的任务来设计，从而与学生建立共同所有权意识。
