Collaborative Learning...

After reading Kenneth Bruffee's "Collaborative Learning and the Conversation of Mankind" essay I found myself questioning what I have always fought against, classroom group work. I myself have never enjoyed group work or group projects pressed upon me by my former teachers nor do I look forward to it in my college classes. I have always enjoyed my own quiet thoughts and ideas to complete my assignments rather than listen to others and come to some sort of consensus. I find myself distracted and non focused on the task, I don't feel comfortable arguing the point, it won't change my thoughts on my writing, so why the push to work in groups? I said I found myself questioning my past experiences and thoughts because, I thought that maybe this essay may shed some new light on the topic and show me that there is a huge benefit to collaborative learning, that would not happen.

I found this essay to be to long and thus I lost interest and direction. I believe that it is all much more simplier than what was portrayed. Of course you learn more from having contact and conversation with others, it is just one of the many, many ways humans learn. Whether you talk with someone or read a book on something, watch television, listen or just sit and observe, all of what surrounds us helps to give us knowledge and in turn changes our thoughts and ideas. Imagine putting a baby in a room with no contact with anything in the world other than food and water. No conversation, no written word, no language, no communication, how would the baby learn, well it would only learn to survive but not to live or thrive. Humans are dependent on conversation and contact by nature, according to Bruffee and others that were quoted. I agree with those statements and other similiar ones in the essay, however it should be noted that it isn't the only way and isn't always the best for everyone. I believe that not all people learn the best from conversation, some may retain and learn better from written word or visual contexts. I also believe that it depends on the knowledge that you are seeking, when my professor goes through chapters in class from our text book, I find myself that when I go home and read it myself I better understand the ideas. When I read I tend to go back and forth over information until I understand it rather than if I just listened to him speak and keep going.

Yes, collaborative learning has its place in education, I have seen group work among elementary school students work and times not work. It is worth it to try and see if it does, but it should not be the bulk of the way the teacher teaches her class. I found that during group work, louder more dynmatic personalities prevail and the sometimes the quieter ones sat on the outside without ever having any input into the group. In those cases it would have served the student better had they did there own independent research and utlized there time reading at their own pace than the time spent hearing someone elses opinions and ideas. I also feel that the individual will have more to bring to the table if they do their own research and take the opportunity to study independently. The ideas and arguments that Bruffee conveyed in his essay are good and important but not the only way we learn, however it can be a good tool if used at the right time with the right task.