Issues in introducing collaborative learning in South East Asia: A critical discussion

Abstract

In many South East Asian countries, group learning has been introduced as a method to reform classroom practices. Cooperative learning in particular, based on role division, rewards and competition, is highly popular. On the other hand, collaborative learning, the other type of group learning, based on mutual consultation and help-seeking without the structures of cooperative learning, is a challenge to introduce. The aim of this essay is to discuss the reasons why teachers in South East Asia face difficulty in adjusting to collaborative learning. Three issues are discussed, namely (1) students’ reluctance to ask what they do not know due to the lesson structure and negative psychological effects; (2) difficulty in creating sufficiently challenging tasks for students to have mutual consultation, due to the teachers’ insufficient experience in academic inquiry and expertise in their disciplines; and (3) connecting their learning from observation and reflection with their own teaching.

‘Tense Up?’: A Collaborative Gamification Approach in Enhancing Lower Secondary Students’ Utilisation of English Tenses

“…in facilitating their participation where the mean score recorded is 1.77. These two findings support the claim that the integration of collaborative and gamified learning facilitates students' participation in exchanging knowledge, thus helping students to improve their academic achievement (Saito et al, 2021;Tanggapan, 2018;Qureshi et al, 2021).…”

“…Collaborative learning is deemed as an effective educational strategy that can benefit students in learning the English language in various ways (Aruchelvan et al, 2019;Rajendran & Yunus, 2021;Rusli et al, 2019). This approach begins with recognising the gaps in the students' knowledge and offers them the chance to work together to fill those gaps, which will help them to come to a shared understanding (Saito et al, 2021). Students in a collaborative learning setting serve as one another's learning resources by exchanging ideas, brainstorm possibilities, and coming to conclusions together (Leeuwen & Janssen, 2018).…”

How can we stop emerging educational inequality: An expert teacher’s perspective on Japanese issues due to COVID-19

“…Therefore, the most detailed care must be taken to minimise the negative impacts of COVID-19, which could result in educational inequality. Maintaining collaborative learning is key, given its contribution to helping various students build up a better rapport and self-image through cognitive help-seeking in Asian countries (Saito et al, 2015, 2020). The current proposal enables the crafting of partitions at a relatively cheap cost because of the potential need in many middle-income or developing countries, as well as in other parts of the world, where teachers cannot expect much from their governments.…”

“…Further, the transition mode of running the schools during COVID-19 would require new knowledge building among the teachers on how to run the hybrid approach, as well as a different form of teacher professional development and learning. Beforehand, closer collaboration among the teachers, inclusive of joint observation of and reflection on the lessons, was possible both in the entire school and in form groups (Saito and Sato, 2012; Saito et al, 2020). Expert teachers or consultants such as the first author attended those sessions together and provided their reflections on the observed classes to all the teachers in the school.…”

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“…As CTL could regularly involve group activities, weaker students who may be struggling to speak up may potentially face an increased level of difficulty in participation. Free riders or bystanders may also potentially precipitate from such arrangements, which may result in a dichotomy in the learning levels for the class (Saito et al, 2020). Potential techniques like allocation of roles by staff (de Beer & Petersen, 2017; Law, 2014) and rewarding participation (Sears & Pai, 2012;Unrau et al, 2015) may help to mitigate the potential issues.…”