This week we've been learning about Co-operative Learning, a methodology in which students work together to achieve common goals, and in the process learn how to manage their own learning process. In truth, it's something we've been learning by doing across the Master's, with multiple group projects and activities.
A notable part of co-operative group work is the assignment of specific roles. While they may differ from model to model, generally they are some combination of Speaker/Representative, Secretary, Manager, and so on. The idea is to give each student a specific role to help guide the work, and to encourage responsability,
I can see the value in this, but I also have to admit that in both my educational and professional life, a lot of the best work gets done when people step outside of their assigned roles, and when things start to flow in a more organic way. Obviously, my position is not the same as my students': I've had a decade and a half to learn how to work in groups, and to find the positions that suit me best, whilst roles can be a helpful way to give structure to younger learners who are just starting to take responsibility for their own learning.
But nevertheless, I think we have to be careful: roles can be a helpful tool, a suggested way of organising a project, but if students are truly to take ownership of the learning process, we also need to make sure that we aren't dictating to them what that ownership should look like, We should offer suggested frameworks and models, but we shouldn't let that stop them from finding their own ways of working, their own unique forms of organisation. Because, in many ways, I think that's where the real co-operation begins.
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