Unit One: Collaborative Learning in Health Education
Learning Objectives
- Participants will be able to state what collaborative learning is.
- Participants will be able to identify advantages of using collaborative strategies in a health classroom.
Have you ever wanted to take a break from teaching a class by lecturing from the front of the room? Do you find that lecturing doesn't work with all your students?
There are many different ways to approach teaching the subject of health to a group of students. When I was in school in the early 1980's, lecturing was the only thing I remember in health class. A teacher would stand at the front of the room and give information to the class. As students, we had to determine what we felt was important and take notes on the lecture. However, my French class was very different. We sat in groups of three or four and would discuss a topic amongst our group. The teacher would walk around the room making sure that we kept on topic or if we had questions, was there to answer them. This type of learning is called collaborative learning. "Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together." [1]
Before you do this activity , please look at this video about collaboration from Linda Darling Hammond [The Collaborative Classroom]
Activity
In this activity, please think of a grade level meeting in which you discussed certain students. You may have had trouble reaching a student in your class but by discussing the student with your peers, you find out different strategies that work for this student. Why did this approach work?
The reasons are :
- Participants involves build on each others' strengths and resources.
- Participants will feel valued as their opinions are being used and valued.
- Participants are actively helping themselves as well as being a vital part of a social group.
Collaboration is only one tool that health teachers can use to help their students. 3 Things to help a Health Teacher
Go back to homepage: Assessment for Collaborative Learning in Health Classrooms
Go to unit two...Unit Two: The Importance of Feedback