Collaborative Learning - Information Communication Technologies for Human Services Education and Delivery - page 41

more traditional classroom. The emphasis is on
tasks to be completed but also on relationships
between group members with learning of social
skills and group processing being an important
part of learning arrangements. The role of the
teacher is to monitor and intervene in the groups
as needed.
The relevance of group learning is immediately
apparent to the human service workplace. With
funding changes, many workplaces have flat orga-
nizational structures so that teams are self manag-
ing taking responsibility for a range of functions.
For many years, government and industry have
argued that group skills and the capacity to work
in teams are fundamental skills for employment.
This collaboration is necessary in areas such as
social planning and community work, case man-
agement involving arranging services with other
agencies, multidisciplinary teams in health care,
and management of project work and research for
policy. Students who come to the human services
workplaces with group work and group processing
skills and individual accountability for the group
tasks are valued workers. They are able to talk,
listen, take their turns as leader, problem solve
and reflect on their activities.

a Research and Training Center focusing on how
students should interact with each other as they learn
and the skills needed to interact effectively.
Research on collaborative learning is ex-
tensive and the findings demonstrate the effec-
tiveness of this strategy for learning. Johnson,
Johnson and Smith (1991a) summarized research
that compared the effects of cooperative, competi-
tive and individualistic efforts on instructional
outcomes. On the basis of their meta-analysis,
they concluded that collaboration helps students
to learn and that collaborative learning enables
more positive interpersonal relationships and
higher self esteem. Johnson, Johnson and Stanne
(2000) did a further meta-analysis on the effec-
tiveness of methods of collaborative learning
used in schools. They found 164 separate studies
and eight methods for enabling collaboration.All
methods for developing collaborative learning
were effective but the most successful of these
was learning together, this being followed by
academic controversy. Slavin, (1990) using a
different methodological approach, compared
cooperative learning groups with controls. He
concluded that achievements with cooperative
groups were significantly positive. They are most
effective when they incorporate group goals and
individual accountability.

eviDence of effectiveneSS
of collaborative learning

collaborative learning
anD groupWork SkillS Since these early beginnings, research into learn-

ing has shifted from a teacher centred transmis-
sion and acquisition model to one based on the
co-construction of knowledge in a community
of learners where learning is regarded as a social
activity. In 2003, there were over 6000 references
in ERIC to collaborative learning (Barkley, Cross
& Major, 2005). A great deal of research into the
effectiveness of collaborative learning has been
done by David Johnson and Roger Johnson at the
Centre for Cooperative Learning at the University
of Minnesota. The Cooperative Learning Center is

Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills
(Johnson and Johnson, 2009) is a standard text
book for students in group work and is written by
one of the authors who pioneered collaborative
learning. In their work, a group is regarded as a
meeting where there is interpersonal interaction
structured by roles, norms and stages of devel-
opment, interdependence between participants,
specific achievable goals, and more than two
members. Group members are motivated to be