Gerlinde Olvera

Research indicates that higher cognitive thinking skills emerge much more readily in collaborative work or school settings.

I just finished reading several articles about collaborative, problem based, active and cooperative learning. Michael Prince states in his article “Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research” in Journal of Engineering Education that research indicates when a group of people learn and/or work on problems together they are able to retain information, become more actively involved in the process, and solve problems much better than if they try to go at it alone. However, another less emphasized positive outcome of collaboration is better rapport among peers (Prince, pp 4 and 5) which is a great enhancer for any work or school environment. This article pertains more toward teaching engineering students.

However there are other very good articles for the business world such as Melissa Nicefaro’s article in the CT Business News Journal, “How to Create a Collaborative Work Environment”. She explains that collaborative work promotes cross training, exchanging of expertise, and an enhanced ability to share talents not necessarily elaborated upon in the original job description. In short all positives.

As a teacher I know that often students and even some adults need to be taught how to become a collaborating team member. We cannot assume that all people work best in a collaborative environment. In fact, research indicates that there is also a time and place for individual work (Prince, p 5). Consequently, quiet work time is also of value which, of course, will benefit staff or students who thrive in that type of situation.

I love working in a collaborative setting and feel that I learn so much more when working with a group than trying to solve all problems on my own. However, I also need the space and time to think things through on my own terms. Then I feel I can rejoin the group and contribute some of my own ideas.

A collaborative work environment does promote learning, problem solving and peer support and is extremely beneficial for The Standards Company’s purposes. I have noticed that discussing standards, cognitive levels and possible extensions of our goals collaboratively is invaluable and does promote a wave effect as group members teach new staff who then teach others as well. We bounce ideas off one another. All comments are valued and there is no emphasis on competition or who is right or wrong. The emphasis is on sharing ones thoughts, expertise and research. In addition, I find that I can incorporate past experiences that I had originally not seen myself using again. Even though we work a lot in our pair collaboration groups, I can see impromptu collaborative groups form constantly. These groups change depending on need and are not systematic. No one has a specific role but roles evolve as team members participate even in pair groups. As collaborative groups change, so do the roles. This allows all team members to display their strengths at any given time.

I believe that systematic collaborative work does have its time and place, especially when people need to be trained in how to work in pairs and groups. However, a free style collaborative environment does promote a more advanced sharing of skills, ideas and solutions.