Collaborative Learning in Higher Education: Evoking Positive Interdependence

Teaching and Teacher Learning (ICLON

Collaborative learning in higher education: Evoking positive interdependence

Collaborative learning is a widely used instructional method, but the learning potential of this instructional method is often underused in practice. Therefore, the importance of various factors underlying effective collaborative learning should be determined. In the current study, five different life sciences undergraduate courses with successful collaborative- learning results were selected. This study focuses on factors that increased the effectiveness of collaboration in these courses, according to the students. Nine focus group interviews were conducted and analyzed. Results show that factors evoking effective collaboration were student autonomy and self-regulatory behavior, combined with a challenging, open, and complex group task that required the students to create something new and original. The design factors of these courses fostered a sense of responsibility and of shared ownership of both the collaborative process and the end product of the group assignment. In addition, students reported the absence of any free riders in these group assignments. Interestingly, it was observed that students seemed to value their sense of achievement, their learning processes, and the products they were working on more than their grades. It is concluded that collaborative learning in higher education should be designed using challenging and relevant tasks that build shared ownership with students

Dynamics in higher education choice: Weighing one's multiple interests in light of available programmes

Teaching and Teacher Learning (ICLON

Mechanisms of interest sustainment

Sustaining an interest leads to a wealth of positive outcomes for adolescents. Whereas previous research has often attributed interest sustainment to deliberate reasons of the individual, one may argue that processes related to the daily routines and practices might also play a role in sustainment. The present study aims to provide a detailed and differentiated account of interest sustainment, which may shed light on how interest may be sustained beyond the deliberate goals and needs of the individual. In order to do so, an experience sampling method was applied in which 56 adolescents filled in a smartphone application six times, for a period of two weeks, with intervals of three months, to report all their moment-to-moment experiences of interest. By analyzing the content of these 8281 experiences of interest of 334 sustained interests chronologically, we found six mechanisms of interest sustainment. Two mechanisms were found in which individuals deliberately steered their sustainment, while four mechanisms were identified in which the object and/or practice seemed to play a role in the sustainment. Our findings thereby demonstrate that future studies, in order to understand interest sustainment and development, should look beyond the active role of the individual in sustaining interests

Mechanisms of interest sustainment

Sustaining an interest leads to a wealth of positive outcomes for adolescents. Whereas previous research has often attributed interest sustainment to deliberate reasons of the individual, one may argue that processes related to the daily routines and practices might also play a role in sustainment. The present study aims to provide a detailed and differentiated account of interest sustainment, which may shed light on how interest may be sustained beyond the deliberate goals and needs of the individual. In order to do so, an experience sampling method was applied in which 56 adolescents filled in a smartphone application six times, for a period of two weeks, with intervals of three months, to report all their moment-to-moment experiences of interest. By analyzing the content of these 8281 experiences of interest of 334 sustained interests chronologically, we found six mechanisms of interest sustainment. Two mechanisms were found in which individuals deliberately steered their sustainment, while four mechanisms were identified in which the object and/or practice seemed to play a role in the sustainment. Our findings thereby demonstrate that future studies, in order to understand interest sustainment and development, should look beyond the active role of the individual in sustaining interests

Collaborative learning in higher education: Evoking positive interdependence

Collaborative learning is a widely used instructional method, but the learning potential of this instructional method is often underused in practice. Therefore, the importance of various factors underlying effective collaborative learning should be determined. In the current study, five different life sciences undergraduate courses with successful collaborative- learning results were selected. This study focuses on factors that increased the effectiveness of collaboration in these courses, according to the students. Nine focus group interviews were conducted and analyzed. Results show that factors evoking effective collaboration were student autonomy and self-regulatory behavior, combined with a challenging, open, and complex group task that required the students to create something new and original. The design factors of these courses fostered a sense of responsibility and of shared ownership of both the collaborative process and the end product of the group assignment. In addition, students reported the absence of any free riders in these group assignments. Interestingly, it was observed that students seemed to value their sense of achievement, their learning processes, and the products they were working on more than their grades. It is concluded that collaborative learning in higher education should be designed using challenging and relevant tasks that build shared ownership with students