As I've mentioned multiple times in class and in other blog posts, collaboration is always an area of concern with a PBL. I was shocked at the beginning of the year with how little students actually knew about collaboration. To my students, collaboration meant either time to chat with their friends or time to split up the work to complete it faster. When I started my second PBL of the year, I really wanted to be proactive to make sure that true and effect collaboration was happening within each group.
I was already in the middle of my PBL when we visited J.L. Mann, so I decided not to introduce the group contracts. In previous years, if significant conflict arose during a group activity, I would either switch the groups or allow students the opportunity to work by themselves. With the second PBL, I made it a point to use conflict as a teachable moment with my students. One such instance happened on day 3 of my PBL. Even though groups had already split up the work, one student decided they didn't like their assignment and tried to take over the assignment of another student in the group. When that student objected, it quickly moved (as it does so often with middle schoolers) to name calling. By the time I intervened, both students wanted me to move the other student out of the group. Since PBL is supposed to be real-world based, I decided to treat this moment as a real-world conflict. I first let each student share their version of the story and what they thought should be done. I then related this instance to a real job. "Do you think that your boss is automatically going to fire someone over a small disagreement?" "Do you think your boss is going to demote one person or promote one person to another job just because of a small disagreement?" After this pep talk, the students began to see that they were responsible for their own interactions.
I did keep a close eye of this group for the remainder of the PBL. I wanted to give them the chance to work through their own issues, but didn't want the conflict to escalate. It wasn't a perfect situation, but it helped me see the importance of teaching students soft skills and collaboration within the classroom. We cannot expect students to enter our rooms with all of the skills needed to be successful in the real-world.
Hi Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you taking time to reflect on collaboration with your pbl experience this year and specifically considering how your students have grown in their capacity with collaboration. I believe their growth directly correlates to your growth and your inherent believe that collaboration is important and it is learned through application and experience.
When you shared how you worked to provide students with opportunities to resolve their own conflict this spring instead of resolving it yourself through moving students you found that they were able to see how effective collaboration is necessary to their success in the future.
Sincerely,
Dawn
I love that you were able to take this uncomfortable situation and apply it to the real world. The "easy" way out would just have been to switch their groups or let one work alone. It took a lot more "guts" to really use this situation as a teachable moment and hope that they could work out their differences and work together. Resolving conflict isn't always easy, but it is a soft skill that our students need much more practice with.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful way to handle this situation! It is so easy for us to handle a situation but it is more meaningful when the kids have the opportunity to work out their differences. What a great teachable moment for everyone!
ReplyDeleteI love that you were able to take a situation which could have made a student feel singled out to a teaching moment. I think we can all agree that collaboration equals free time in our students' minds. So next year I want to spend the first few days of school gocusing on soft skills that will help my students throughout the year and later in life.
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