Humanizing the College Classroom: Collaborative Learning and Social Organization among Students

Abstract

We show how to use collaborative learninggroups (CLGs) during scheduled class periods to facilitate students' learning. First we discuss faculty members'misgivings about CLGs. Some of these may be related to the human relations school, which led managers to believe that they could exploit workers' informal ties to increase productivity. Sociologists criticized the manipulative tendencies of this school, but critics may have turned the discipline away from the nonexploitative use of small groups even from the study of group dynamics. As a result, most sociologists are unaware of research how collaborative learning groups can improve students' academic performance, social skills, ability to take the perspective of others. We present strategies procedures for using CLGs in college classrooms. Specifically, we show 1) how to keep groups on task, 2) how to eliminate 'free riders, and 3) how to reduce the number of students who are either dominants or isolates in their groups. Next we examine test data, interaction preferences among classmates, students' written evaluations of the group experience. Wefind that students do better test material which was discussed in group sessions, that connections to classmates increase significantly, that the great majority of students laud the use of CLGs. Because our results are provisional, we close with a problemsolving agenda that will help to answer unresolved questions about the use effectiveness of collaborative learning.