Charles Graham was the lead author of a book chapter entitled "Computer-Mediated Learning Groups: Benefits and Challenges to Using Groupwork in Online Learning Environments." I thought this was a very interesting article.
To me there is a tension between what the research says, and my own personal experience. In this I am not referring to F2F group learning VS computer-mediated group learning, but rather the research that group learning is so much more effective than individual learning. My experience is that most group learning that is contrived for the sake of classroom exercise has not been as fruitful as independent learning. (I admit it is possible that I have been a part of many poorly constructed group learning activities, or that I have a personality/learning style that needs specialized group work treatment. Graham points out that business executives differed in their approach to group work from educators and management was my undergraduate study). However as I talk to many of my peers they seem to share the view that most classroom groups they have been a part of are contrived and quickly merge to the less effective "divide and conquer" approach that Graham discusses.
I have found group learning to be powerful when (1) all participants are highly motivated and (2) share the same goal. One fruitful group I was recently a part of was centered on a book called WHY but as I looked more carefully at the chapter I realized that this was a "work group" as opposed to a "learning group."
I want to believe the research, and I want to develop the skills of helping facilitate powerful learning. I had no quarrels with the ideas presented on how to apply group learning to a computer-mediated environment, but I struggled with the research presented by Johnson and Johnson because it is so different from how I have interpreted my learning experiences.
Please comment and share successful learning groups you have been a part of...
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The issues you raise are good ones - Mike Griffiths has raised many of the same issues. I wish that I had good answers . . . but I don't:-)
Here are some of my thoughts on it.
1) You mention the tension between your own personal experience and the claim that group learning is more effective than individual learning. I suspect that this may not always be the case for highly motivated and self-regulated learners. My experience has been that highly motivated and self regulated learners often have a high sense of purpose - that purpose gives them direction and allows them to be much more "efficient" on their own rather than being tied to a group. These types of students often still seek out collaborative "team oriented" experiences - but not with peers or other students who do not have as much a sense of focused direction as they do. They may form study groups or collaborative relationships with professors because they those collaborations are where they see the most personal gain.
2) So - how do we get learners to increase their personal levels of self motivation and regulation? Ah - this is the $100 Million question. In thinking about how we try to do this with our own children - for example in the area of personal scripture study - it begins as a more guided collaborative effort. They most often learn through seeing and interacting with individuals who do have those character traits - although there is a rare child who also may do it on his/her own.
3) Another thing that I haven't thought about a lot but I want to throw out . . .
What would you say to a youth that says, "Going to sunday school is just a waste of time for me. The others in my class are more interested in texting or goofing off than really learning? I would learn much more if I spent that hour at home doing personal study . . . "
It seems like there is more to working with others than just the published learning outcomes that you take away from the experience. You lift others as you work with them and hopefully they lift you too. If not . . . a good question for reflection
I'm running out of time here . . . have a meeting in just a few minutes.
I hear you on the youth and Sunday School issue. part of the answer to that is that we go to church not just to help ourselves but to help fellowship others (that argument sort of applies in education). In addition, because God has commanded that we go to Sunday School we know that it will bring happiness (God never gives commandments that are not calculated to promote happiness). The same cannot be true in this case.
As I'm reviewing my ten articles I came across this finding from Grandzol and Grandzol: "The greater the percentage of the course grade based on cooperative of group work, the less students thought they learned from the course" (9). Interesting!
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