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Essay / Benefits of Collaborative Learning - 525
Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people attempt to learn something together. Online Dillenbourg, P. (1999). Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (born 1986) presented his theory that human development – the development of the child as well as the development of the entire human species – is the result of interactions between people and their social environments. What this says is that the development of “higher education” is the product of comparing and contrasting the ideas of others to ultimately arrive at a solution to a problem as a whole or in a group. Everyone’s contribution in a collaborative situation will play a role in the final solution. Building self-esteem, improving student satisfaction with the learning experience, and promoting a positive attitude toward the subject are all benefits of collaborative learning. A higher degree of accomplishment occurs in groups because you are essentially a team. An example of this is a sports team. In a collaborative situation, each member must do their part so that a situation is better resolved; like when a sports team needs everyone's individual talent to win a game. Retrospectively, as a group; contributions of our own talents can make the difference between a “win or lose” situation, which makes you feel competitive, and knowing that you can win as a group; self-esteem in oneself is heightened. Johnson and Johnson (1989), Slavin (1967). Another benefit of collaborative learning relies on the members of your group. Each individual in the group demonstrates their own contribution based on their place of birth, nationality, etc. The benefit is that you get a different perspective on things rather than always knowing what you know. You can take information from other cultures and add or apply it to what you already know. In a collaborative group, based on my past experience and how I know myself, playing the role of information gatherer and group speaker is my specialty. For me, this role did not provide any learning benefits because I often did not have to search for information; I was given information to record. Ultimately, not seeking information meant not learning anything about the topic at hand. Having nothing to do other than record information and speak for the group affected the group by not having an extra person to look up information..