Phase 2: Results & Findings
The findings from phase 2 showed me 3 major things about group collaboration
1. Student designed norms are powerful tools to use to increase learning in student collaboration.
2. Active listening plays a major role in the effectiveness of collaboration as well as building community.
3. Students are effective when students work with those they have built community with.
1. Student designed norms are powerful tools to use to increase learning in student collaboration
During this phase I found an increase in productivity and in collaborative efforts through both my observations as well as student feedback forms. The difference was that during phase 2, I found that norms helped students keep each other accountable and keep themselves accountable. In the final two projects, I did not have any students come up to me telling me that their partners weren’t working hard enough and that they deserve a better grade. I started to observe that students were not only more effective with their groups but that they were creating better presentations. Especially after the constructive feedback that they gave after the first project, I noticed that students were working harder, this was important and surprising since it was the last week of school and I was afraid that they would slack off and not care. Figure 11 shows the students response to how important they thought each individual norm was.
1. Student designed norms are powerful tools to use to increase learning in student collaboration.
2. Active listening plays a major role in the effectiveness of collaboration as well as building community.
3. Students are effective when students work with those they have built community with.
1. Student designed norms are powerful tools to use to increase learning in student collaboration
During this phase I found an increase in productivity and in collaborative efforts through both my observations as well as student feedback forms. The difference was that during phase 2, I found that norms helped students keep each other accountable and keep themselves accountable. In the final two projects, I did not have any students come up to me telling me that their partners weren’t working hard enough and that they deserve a better grade. I started to observe that students were not only more effective with their groups but that they were creating better presentations. Especially after the constructive feedback that they gave after the first project, I noticed that students were working harder, this was important and surprising since it was the last week of school and I was afraid that they would slack off and not care. Figure 11 shows the students response to how important they thought each individual norm was.
Norm 1: Know each other's namesNorm 3: Communicate- Talk about relevant workNorm 5: Mutual respect - try to understand each other |
Norm 2: Do quality work that you're assignedNorm 4: Finish your work on timeFigure 11 - Evaluating NormsAt the end of phase 2, I asked students to evaluate the 5 main norms that they created. Their responses showed that most of them value these norms and saw the importance of these norms.
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As students began to adhere to the norms that were set, they began to communicate more and create better projects. These norms ultimately shaped the way these students started to work together. Although very simple norms that might seem like common sense, it was helpful for students to be reminded that they needed to finish their work on time or communicate with each other. Here are some student quotes on their thoughts on creating norms for collaboration.
"Norms are important because it makes working together easier."
"It was important to set norms so neither of us would slack off."
"It was important to set norms so neither of us would slack off."
It was encouraging for me to see how students found the norms useful to collaborate. These two quotes show that the norms were valued because they set up expectations for what students needed to do to be successful when collaborating.
2. Active listening plays a major role in the effectiveness of collaboration as well as building community
Through my observations, I noticed that students who learned to listen to each other became more engaged with each other while collaborating on projects. The shift from filling out graphic organizers on their tablets to a paper timeline showed that students paid more attention when asked to write things down (whereas prior to this, some of them were copying each others Evernote notes). Incorporating the participation aspect of asking a question challenged students to pay attention to the details while their classmates were presenting.
I noticed the levels of conversation and student engagement increased during phase 2. By giving the students more opportunities to listen to each other, they started to feel comfortable collaborating during the projects.
One student said (about the importance of communication): "To understand who's doing what. What is going to happen. How it's going to happen and so on."
Throughout the semester, I hoped that students would improve on their collaboration. On the final student feedback form I asked, "We did 5 projects during the course of this semester, do you think that you got better at collaboration?"
Figure 12 - "Did I improve at Collaboration"
These responses were encouraging to see that the majority of students felt that these tools that they used supported their learning and collaboration (figure 12). Although it was a short time that these students spent working in these projects, it became a powerful learning moment for them.
3. Students are effective when students work with those they have built community with
After the interviews in phase 1, I found that many students thought they would be more effective working with those who sat next to them. I figured that since the students have been building relationships with their neighbors through the community building exercises, this would be an opportunity for them to work and collaborate with each other. This was successful because the interaction and engagement level between the groups increased and they supported each other.
Some things students said about the importance of community in collaboration:
"It is very important because then that why you and your partner don't feel so awkward and are able to work better."
"It's easy to cooperate and figure out what are we gonna do."
"It's easy to cooperate and figure out what are we gonna do."
These are some of the quotes of students that represent what most of the students believed about community in the classroom. These quotes are supported through the quality of the work that the groups submitted (figure 13). Each of the Slate projects that they submitted showed that they worked collaboratively and improvement in the quality of the work.
Figure 13 - Samples of Improved Student Work
I also asked the students to see what were steps that helped them build stronger community, they responded with many of the actions that I chose to implement.
"Learning each others names."
"We were forced to work together, but we all got along it was fun and we all deepen a bond."
"That one day where we had to introduce each other, debate, group works where we didn't get to choose our partners."
"Doing a lot of group projects."
"We were forced to work together, but we all got along it was fun and we all deepen a bond."
"That one day where we had to introduce each other, debate, group works where we didn't get to choose our partners."
"Doing a lot of group projects."
The community aspect of our class was strongly developed through any aspect that involved the students working together. Through phase 2, I found through many of the students feedback forms and final project products that community and collaboration are large factors that promote a healthy learning environment for the students. By encouraging students to work together they started to enjoy working in groups, and realized that putting their minds together not only makes things easier, but the quality of work better.