Daffodil International University
Faculty of Humanities and Social Science => English => Topic started by: Shampa Iftakhar on May 07, 2015, 11:52:23 AM
-
Collaborative problem-solving has been conceptualized as consisting of five broad strands, the capacity of an individual to: recognize the perspective of other persons in a group; participate as a member of the group by contributing their knowledge, experience and expertise in a constructive way; recognize the need for contributions and how to manage them; identify structure and procedure involved in resolving a problem; and, as a member of the collaborative group, build and develop knowledge and understanding.
-
In his book “Cognition in the Wild”, Hutchins ( 1995 ) invites his readers to scan their immediate environment for objects that were not produced through collaborative efforts of several people, and remarks that the only object in his personal environment that passed this test was a small pebble on his desk. In fact, it is remarkable how our daily lives are shaped by collaboration. Whether it is in schools, at the workplace, or in our free time, we are constantly embedded in environments that require us to make use of social skills in order to coordinate with other people. Given the pervasiveness of collaboration in everyday life, it is somewhat surprising
that the development of social and collaborative skills is largely regarded as something that will occur naturally and does not require any further facilitation. In fact, groups often fail to make use of their potential (Schulz-Hardt, Brodbeck, Group
performance and leadership. In: Hewstone M, Stroebe W, Jonas K (eds) Introduction to social psychology: a European perspective, 4th edn, pp 264–289. Blackwell, Oxford, 2008 ) and people differ in the extent to which they are capable of collaborating efficiently with others. Therefore, there is a growing awareness that collaborative skills require dedicated teaching efforts (Schoenfeld, Looking toward the21st century: challenges of educational theory and practice. Edu Res 28:4–14, 1999 ). Collaborative problem solving has been identified as a particularly promising task that draws upon various social and cognitive skills, and that can be analysed in
classroom environments where skills are both measurable and teachable.
Source: www.springer.com/cda/content/.../cda.../9789401793940-c2.pdf
-
What is Collaboration?
We define collaboration as the activity of working together towards a common
goal. There are a number of elements included in the definition. The fi rst element is
communication , the exchange of knowledge or opinions to optimise understanding
by a recipient. This element is a necessary but not sufficient condition for collaborative
problem solving – it requires that communication goes beyond mere exchange. The
second element is cooperation , which is primarily an agreed division of labour.
Cooperation in collaborative problem solving involves nuanced, responsive contributions
to planning and problem analysis. An alternative view might regard cooperation
simply as a lower order version of collaboration, rather than as a component
within it. Our reasons for not adopting this view are provided below. A third element
is responsiveness , implying active and insightful participation.
Source:
-
An idealised depiction of collaborative problem solving could follow a PISA-like sequential process. Collaborative problem solving requires that the collaborating parties recognise a problem and identify which elements of the problem space theycan each control or monitor. Usually, each group member identifi es a problem space and elements of that space, and additionally informs collaborators about the discrepancy between current and desired problem states (Larson and Christensen
1993 ). Successful collaborative problem solving activities presuppose some kind of representation that is shared among participants. Research on so-called shared2 A Framework for Teachable Collaborative Problem Solving Skills mental models has shown that teams demonstrate better problem solvingperformances if the individual problem representations (the individual mental models
of the problem) are similar among group members (Klimoski and Mohammed1994 ). Similarity among representations can be achieved through communication. In contrast to a shared mental model approach that just looks at similarities among individual representations, Roschelle and Teasley ( 1995 ) have proposed the concept of a joint problem space. This problem space is created and maintained through constant coordination and communication among collaborators, and serves as a basis for collaborative action. Collaborators need a shared plan on how to achieve a goal state. Collaborative planning needs to include the management of resources. Research on transactive memory systems (Wegner 1986 ) has shown that groups benefi t if members know who knows what or who has identified specific elements of the problem space in a group. In the case of groups composed of members with different problem-relevant knowledge (i.e., consistent with the requisite features of problems that might justify collaboration), the management of resources ideally takes into account that group members share all available information. The occurrence of information sharing is
far from guaranteed: social psychological research has demonstrated that group members tend to mention shared information but neglect unshared information that is unique to only one group member (Stasser and Titus 1985 ). Resource allocation
is not limited to knowledge. It also needs to include the identifi cation of capacity to perform processing and the monitoring of processes. Plans must be executed by the group. In some collaborative problem solving situations this requires an orchestrated effort by several group members in parallel. One of the pitfalls of collaborative action is that groups typically suffer from process
losses (Steiner 1972 ), i.e., groups perform worse than they ideally could, given the members’ abilities and resources. Process losses can be caused by group members’ reduced task motivation (social loafi ng; Karau and Williams 1993 ), by additional
social goals resulting from the group situation that are taking away resources rom the task (Wittenbaum et al. 2004 ), and by reduced cognitive capacity due to thesocial situation (Diehl and Stroebe 1987 ). Progress and courses of action must be evaluated, plans must be reformulated if necessary.
Source:www.springer.com/cda/content/.../cda.../9789401793940-c2.pdf
-
During my E-Teacher course,I have come to know the basic difference between co-operation and collaboration learning and hence can identify the significance of collaborative problem solving skills in language learning.Thank you ma'am for sharing your ideas regarding the concerns. :)
Afroza Akhter Tina
Senior Lecturer,Dept.of English
Daffodil International University
-
In fact now many of the online courses put emphasize on collaborative problem solving. Wish we could introduce CPS in every course in an effective way! :) ;)
-
Yes ma'am,this can be very effective and useful indeed.
Afroza Akhter Tina
Senior Lecturer,Dept.of English
Daffodil International University