This workshop offers participants a theoretical and practical grounding in collaborative learning, a method of liberal arts and sciences pedagogy that puts learning in the hands of students and their peers. As Kenneth Bruffee argues, “collaborative learning personalizes knowledge by socializing it, providing students with a social context of learning peers with whom they are engaged on conceptual issues” (“Collaborative Learning: Notes from the Field,” 1989, 745). Collaborative learning affirms the sociality of knowledge production and learning by putting students into situations and settings that encourage them to learn from each other.

In this workshop, participants will learn the underlying principles of collaborative learning and gain practical ways to use it in their classrooms, across disciplines and academic contexts. We will discuss ways to connect collaborative learning with more traditional styles of knowledge transfer, including lectures, and move beyond basic group work toward more exciting and creative ways to structure student engagement with one another.

This workshop is open to all OSUN faculty–faculty members from any and all disciplines are welcome.