Stephen M. Rutherford (Editor)
School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Wales

Series: Education in a Competitive and Globalizing World
BISAC: EDU050000

There is strong evidence that collaborative learning is beneficial to educational development. By engaging in collaborative activity, learners utilise each other’s perspectives and experiences to solve problems and develop a shared understanding of meanings. Through dialogue and social interaction, learners are empowered to perform outside of their own individual capabilities. Collaborative learning has the potential to benefit learners of all levels of experience and in a variety of situations.

This edited volume showcases a series of studies of theory and case-studies of practice. The book highlights the benefits and challenges of collaborative inquiry, and how these are best managed in practice. The contributors to this volume are comprised of educators from around the world, and collaborative approaches for learners across a broad range of stages of development are discussed. The authors highlight the rich diversity of approaches to learning through collaborative activity, and provide examples of good practice.

It also addresses the increasing significance of technology in the support collaborative learning. The benefits technology can bring to collaborative activity have been recognised for several years, and many of the contributions to this volume demonstrate how the impact and scope of collaborative learning may be enhanced by the use of collaborative technologies, social media and Web 2.0 interactive platforms. The examples presented in this edited work illustrate that through technology, collaborative activities no longer need to be confined to the classroom, but may occur across geographical, cultural, and language barriers. Often overcoming these barriers within a collaborative environment proves to be of great benefit to the learners in addition to the knowledge gains offered.

The studies presented in this volume will act as examples of good practice that will be beneficial to a wide variety of educational practitioners. Moreover, the studies highlight the key principles for the organisation and management of these collaborative activities by the teacher. The considerations that the teacher needs to address, in order for the collaborative activities to be rich and effective, are brought to the fore. The scaffolding required for collaborative learning to have its maximal impact needs to be carefully considered, and this volume highlights those challenges.

This book presents complementary examples of practice that demonstrate the advantages of collaborative activity for learning. Collaborative inquiry can enrich teaching practice and enhance the impact and depth of the learning experience for student and teacher alike. (Imprint: Nova)