Philippine E-Journals

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING: AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT IN STUDENT-CENTERED INSTRUCTION


Lourdes M. Ferrer

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

 Current education reforms promote student-centered instruction that develops thinking, encourages active participation, and arouses interest to explore concepts. In reality, these goals are rarely achieved because the classroom learning environment puts heavy premium on lectures and class discussion. In an earlier study by Ferrer (2011) on student-centered instruction in science, the elements of collaborative learning, which include group participation; exploration, and choice, were not regularly observed in teaching. This paper presents various strategies used to address the inadequacy in the use of collaborative learning in the classrooms. Twenty teacher candidates in the methods practicum course and their students served as participants in this study. Science was taught for six weeks using various collaborative/cooperative learning strategies in the elementary schools in Guam. A developed and validated group participation instrument composed of 10 items was administered to the elementary students at the end of the teaching period. The overall ratings from the evaluation instrument indicate the teacher candidates‘ engagement of K-5 students in active collaborative learning. All the strategies used obtained very high ratings for frequency of occurrence. The interaction skills developed in these strategies enabled groups to function effectively. The strategies used in this study broadly encompassed the essence of learner-centeredness, which fundamentally emphasizes the act of learning together. Some research studies found out that collaborative learning actually increases the science achievement of students. This is yet to be proven in this study. Thus, the effect of collaborative learning on student achievement is underway as part of a broader study on collaborative learning.