Collaboration: REVISED Project Prospectus
Interest in Topic:
It seems I have never had to work collaboratively with people more than I did this past year, and the amount I learned from others still astounds me. I was myself a student who dreaded “group work,” and while I have assigned group projects with clearly defined roles, I certainly have never assigned a group paper. Thus, my experience with collaborative curriculum and assessment writing this year as a teacher contradicted previous, poor experiences. My interest, then, is in what made my experience work and how I can provide similar experiences for my students. Specifically, I would like to create a collaborative writing assignment for my College Writing class, complete with rationale for each step based on research and theory. The format will demonstrate my understanding of collaborative writing issues and practices as well as become a practical and useful assignment for future use in my own classroom.
Research Questions:
What are the benefits and drawbacks to writing collaboratively? How can a teacher capitalize on the benefits and reduce the obstacles? Specifically, I would like to address the following questions:
- Why collaboration?
- How should groups be formed?
- To what extent should the teacher be involved in controlling the process?
- Should collaborative projects be given group or individual grades? What are the benefits/drawbacks to either method?
- What happens when things go wrong? How can a teacher and students prevent and/or fix problems with unequal student participation?
- Logistically, what are some ways students can write together and edit together? (Google Docs, wikis, etc)
Working Bibliography:
Boling, Erica, et. al. “Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Projects.” The Reading Teacher. 2008: 504-506. Ebscohost. Western Illinois University Library, Moline, IL. 30 June 2008. <http://web.ebscohost.com>.
Bruffee, Kenneth A. A Short Course in Writing: Composition, Collaborative Learning, and Constructive Reading. 4th ed. New York: HarperCollinsCollegePublishers: 1993.
Bruffee, Kenneth A. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge. 2nd ed. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 1999.
Eapen, Bell Raj. “Collaborative Writing: Tools and Tips.” Indian J Dematol Venereol Leprol. 2007: 439-41. Ebscohost. Western Illinois University Library, Moline, IL. 30 June 2008. <http://web.ebscohost.com>.
Hurd, Sandra and Ruth Federman Stein. Building and Sustaining Learning Communities: The Syracuse University Experience. Bolton, Massachusetts: Anker, 2004.
McKeachie, Wilbert J. McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers. 11th ed. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2002.
Noel, Sylvie & Jean-Marc Robert. “Empirical Study on Collaborative Writing: What Do Co-authors Do, Use, and Like?” Computer Supported Cooperative Work. 2004: 63-89. Ebscohost. Western Illinois University Library, Moline, IL. 30 June 2008. <http://web.ebscohost.com>.
Speck, Bruce W. Facilitating Students’ Collaborative Writing. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002.
Sutton, Mark. “Collaborative Writing at Work: Theory and Research.” Composition Studies. Fall 2007: 101-116. Ebscohost. Western Illinois University Library, Moline, IL. 30 June 2008. <http://web.ebscohost.com>.
Tate, Gary, Amy Rupiper, and Kurt Schick. A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. New York: Oxford UP, 2001.
June 22nd, 2008 07:52
A broad topic but still very important; collaboration is not just a skill in writing but a reality for nearly everyone at some time in their working lives. I taught a seminar in collaboration a few years back; check out the syllabus. Bruffee is definitely the 900lb gorilla in this area, but he’s pretty much ignored computing (there’s a weak chapter or two on it in Collaborative Learning) which is a grave mistake given the role collaboration plays in distributed work. Having said that, that book offers a fine way to introduce yourself to many of the issues in the field, which could lead to a specific topic. For more recent scholarship, try CiteULike or the usual sources (Google Scholar, library databases, etc).
WAC could help with focus, but you’ll also have to consider your level of approach, so to speak: individual classes? programs? work between large teams of students? small groups? peer response? Any of those things could work, or a combination.
June 23rd, 2008 09:56
Katherine, I’ll be watching your project with interest. In the past, I have detested collaborative projects, but working in the writing center has softened my views. I think my undergrad experience of working on a management minor was a totally different experience from that of being in the English program where collaboration seems to be a natural process. Although the management program has good intentions by assigning nearly every paper as a collaborative “team” effort, the main thing students took away from projects in my groups was that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself or find a mark that you can dupe into doing all the work–maybe that is good training for the business world. The number of “free riders” and basic writers was frustrating. If there is a good venue for collaboration, however, I would think that an English classroom would be the place.
June 23rd, 2008 11:02
Bradley, thanks for the comments and the source insight. I’ll check it out ASAP. I’d also like to think more about computers (wikis, etc.) and my WAC focus . . . still brainstorming.
Nan, that’s funny, because I have had the same experiences with “group work” in any area, English or not. However, I hope to figure out how to best establish collaborative learning that either avoids this or makes it a learning experience. I did some of Bruffee’s reading yesterday, and he makes a point of differentiating between collaborative and cooperative learning. I need to look into this in more detail, but it seems cooperative learning is structured as a socializing method to make students more accustomed to working together and with equity. Teachers assign roles to prevent both competition and dependence within groups, and they closely monitor these roles. Bruffee quotes Karl A. Smith as saying that teachers try to establish “carefully defined and operationalized . . . principles that faculty can . . . systematically structure,” where “all members must cooperate to complete the task,” and where “each member is accountable for the complete final outcome” (89).
However, collaboration has slightly different goals: to help students acknowledge dissent and disagreement and cope with difference and to reposition the source of authority from the instructor to the student groups (among other goals).
Four ways collaborative learning undercuts cooperative learning’s goal of ensuring accountability from all:
1. Teachers should not assign classroom/group roles but should leave up to the students to determine
2. Teachers should seldom intervene in groups but instead on occasion leave the room and respond to group questions with more questions so groups can resolve issues on their own.
3. Teachers should not evaluate the group process.
4. Teachers encourage dissent and disagreement—trying to get students to understand what might be motivating a student to disagree or dissent is a powerful educational tool.
SO, my food for thought question is what type of learning I require in my classroom and what type is actually productive, albeit potentially frustrating, for students. I think there are ways, as Howard suggests, of preventing the kinds of situations we’ve all been in with “free riders” and the like, such as creating conversation first about what collaboration means and what to do if all are not participating. Letting the students grapple with these potential issues from the beginning might be interesting. More to explore, certainly. Right now I have a baby pulling on my leg and a 4-year old blowing a whistle in my ear . . . I don’t think I could work from home very well on a regular basis!
June 27th, 2008 16:38
Katherine, I too will be following your progress with much interest. As I stated elsewhere, so much of what has been developed over the last 15-20 is “new” to me. I am cautiously excited at the thought of handing over more responsibility to my students, and yet, what is my hang-up? The end goal is essentially the same–students take on more responsibility and learn critical thinking applied in a variety of situations.
When I wrote of my own disappointment with peer-editing, in reflection I find that I did not spend enough time “guiding” the students in what is essentially new roles as collaborators. It is true, as Howard quotes, that in the workplace there is an ever-increasing call for collaboration, even on a global scale. Why should we not take the time to teach writing while incorporating this important skill? Howard’s passage on peer response (p 60) addresses some of the comments I have received from my students. “I am not qualified to judge anyone else’s writing,” or “My grammar is just as bad if not worse, so what can I contribute?” Making the students comfortable with the group revision process has been a struggle, but I think I know where I want to go with it next semester thanks to Howard. I made the mistake of allowing “students to assume teacherly roles is to offer inexpert teaching.” Revamping the process to focus on the audience’s perceptions rather than the writer’s inaccuracies might be the ticket to making it all more collaborative.
After going through Howard’s guidelines (p 62-66), I have decided to try a collaborative research paper with my College Writing class. Actually, it would work well at any level, and yet I think it would really benefit my seniors in addition to preparing them for group work at the college level. I plan to offer them the choices Howard suggests and to truly take on the role of facilitator–not problem-solver or critic, roles they will assume in their process. I can see incorporating blogs and/or G-docs in the collaborative process. Handing over the schedule will be tricky, but I think I can make it work within the larger framework. I think this might be a good way to really get the students willing to “argue” a point, research their opinions, and develop a paper that incorporates a variety of perspectives in a convincing way. I look forward to your guidance in this adventure, Katherine, especially with the assessment.
June 27th, 2008 17:56
Katie, I’m also thinking about College Writing as a place for collaborative writing, though I hadn’t settled on which paper. I know Carol tried collaborative writing with the freshmen WWI research paper, and she said it went well, but I’ve been hesitant to move in that direction with the freshmen . . . is it an issue of maturity? One of the authors I read recently (Bruffee??) said collaborative writing is meant for older students–high school and college. I don’t really see my general freshmen as “older” when so many of them are such low readers. We’ll see.
I’m also looking at how the Internet has changed collaboration through use of wikis, Google Docs, etc (what you mentioned). I used a wiki twice last year, and it went pretty well, but I used it as a message/discussion board more than a true collaborative writing experience. Students still had assigned duties, and I still asked them to be individually accountable (and assessed them accordingly). Thus, it wasn’t really collaborative as much as cooperative. If you’re interested, the honors did a wiki on motifs in Great Expectations at http://mhsge.wetpaint.com
Lots to think about!
On a side note, Bradley, I’ve not been successful at actually accessing articles from CiteULike (many are linked to library databases for which I don’t have an ID), so I’m sticking with WIU databases for now. Am I missing something? There were some really good articles I wished I could have accessed.
June 28th, 2008 20:29
Bradley, I’d like your thoughts on a revised prospectus.
I want to work on making a web-based project as my “paper” that is in essence a combination of research and a prescription for a collaborative writing assignment I could use with my College Writing class.
The assignment will be broken down into separate web-pages with the focus being on rationale and theory behind collaboration (based on research) and the specific assignment being used as an example to address these components. I doubt this makes much sense here, but I drew up a visual today I think might work. I can share this visual with you on the 7th, but here’s an example of ONE page as it makes sense in my mind now. All other pages would follow this model.
–Individual Page Title: “How to Determine Groupings for Collaborative Writing Assignments
–Description of rationale based on research (written in paragraph form) for the sake of this project as well as for future students/teachers/parents/ administrators to reference if so desired.
–Linked from that page is another page (or maybe at the bottom of the same page?) that gives specific instructions for how I would choose groups in my own classroom given my own set of students. My vision is that my “example” pages would actually become pages my students next year would be expected to visit.
Does this make any sense? Should I consider pursuing it? I wanted to post my thoughts before we meet again in case I’m way off track. I figured it would be both a demonstration and an application of my learning as well as a practical product for me to use in the future.
Thanks for your input.
June 29th, 2008 11:29
I don’t worry too much about “free riders,” actually. When they happen, I just tell students, “Hey, everybody says they want education to be more like the real world…”
Bruffee’s differentiation between cooperative and collaborative learning is at least in part a response to criticism of his work from John Trimbur, Greg Myers, and others, who noted how he focused on consensus and set aside all else. As is the case with reflection, this can result in speedwork: student A floats an idea, students B C and D “agree,” write it up, and say, “We’re done.” Consensus was also critiqued for making a “yes but” or “it’s complicated” kind of response more likely; students might represent their “agreement to disagree” more simplistically than they should. While Bruffee’s notion of open-endedness counters these problems to some extent, it’s far from perfect. And yes, KB does target college-level far more than high school.
Electronic tools make collaboration gobs easier; Google Docs and wikis in particular, since they allow quick sharing, simultaneous editing, and easy “over the shoulder” participation–the students just share with the teacher as well as the cohort. I wish I’d had access to GD or wikis while a graduate student.
June 29th, 2008 11:39
Katherine, if you want to post a revised prospectus, go for it. The form you’ve outlined sounds fine; I welcome projects which mix deliverables, so to speak, by containing both assignments targeted at students and accompanying theoretical work which explains their development and supports application. That model is often used at academic conferences, and I think it should be used more. Too many folks simply present their assignments; that very specific work is of limited usefulness because it doesn’t necessarily transfer. Seems to me you’re avoiding that problem.
I’m interested to hear more specifics about the pedagogical issues you plan to target. Every step of collaboration can be difficult, so there is plenty of room to work. Of course, you need not address all the issues raised by the creation of the assignment.
From a practical perspective, if you want to work with a wiki you are welcome to use mine; your account from the 481 style course is still active. You can get a lot done with Google Docs, too, and I welcome other ‘lectronic thingees I haven’t worked with.
July 1st, 2008 18:03
[...] forgot to comment on this question by Katherine, and it’s a good one, so I wanted to raise it to a big post: On a side note, Bradley, I’ve [...]
July 5th, 2008 09:19
Revised my prospectus. Bradley, could you send me the address for the 481 wiki? I lost my bookmarks and can’t find it now. I am also toying with Moodle or Wetpaint. Jury’s still out on which site I’ll use to make the project work.
July 5th, 2008 10:04
You probably want this: http://wrecking.org/write/index.php?title=Style_bibliography
I’ve used Moodle before. It’s a quality product. Where do you get access to it? I have used it on my server before.
July 5th, 2008 14:59
Thanks for the wiki address. We have access to Moodle through MHS, and I use it for College Writing, anyway. Might start with that.