Cooperative Learning - NIE Digital Repository - National Institute of ...

REACT, Vol. 22, No. 2 (December 2003) pp. 81-02ONanyang Technological University & National Institute of EducationGuest Editor's PrefaceThe terms "collaboration" and "collaborative learning" are two high-usageitems in the lexicon of modern educators. But how many of us havestopped to consider what they really mean or imply for pedagogic practice?As far as collaboration is concerned, many see an equivalence ofmeaning with the concepts of "working together" and/or "teamwork". Onthis basis, collaboration, or cooperative learning as it is also known bymany, becomes a practical issue of organizing students into groups and settingthem specific tasks to complete. Students who can successfully workwith others are deemed to possess valuable and marketable skills.Another view considers the aims of collaboration and collaborativeeffort differently. For Edwin Mason-considered the founding father of thecollaborative learning movement-collaboration involves ". . . open[ingl upthe minds of members of a collaborative team to each other and to the possibilitiesthat lie beyond the reach of any of the individuals" (Mason, 1970,p. 112). Although Mason makes a point of not wanting to limit the scope ofcollaborative learning by defining it, his conceptualization opens the wayfor deep-meaning intellectual enterprise. For Mason and many other writerssince, collaborative learning is about reforming the aims of educationand changing the way teachers and students relate to each other both inand beyond the physical classroom.The articles in this special issue entitled "Collaborative Learning:Educating for Change" approach the aforementioned matters from theperspective of educators in Singapore. For the most part, the authors considerapplications of collaborative and cooperative learning techniques and drawimplications for pedagogic practice from their knowledge andexperience. The contributions are derived from a variety of disciplines andcelebrate work done at the National Institute of Education, Singapore.Insights, for example, are drawn for educators in the fields of service-learning,