Creating a collaborative ESL classroom through teacher
leadership: A case study in Guizhou Province, China
Li Xiao
Master’s Thesis in Education
Spring Term 2016
Department of Education
Institute of Educational Leadership
University of Jyväskylä
ABSTRACT
Li Xiao, 2016. Master’s Thesis in Education. University of Jyvaskyla.
Department of Education.
This research looks into collaborative learning with teacher leadership in the
ESL classroom of Guizhou, China. The phenomenon, purpose, research
methods, main results and conclusions of the study are provided in the
abstract.
Under the phenomenon of New High School Curriculum Reform
Program in China in 2004, all Chinese schools are trying new teaching
methods to improve students’ English level. The purpose of the study is
getting a better understanding of collaborative learning with teacher
leadership in the ESL classroom.
Qualitative research is applied to collect the data from the Chinese
school. The research data is collected through two questionnaire surveys
(open-ended questionnaires), one is for teachers, and another one is for
students.
The results of this study mainly indicate how to create a collaborative
ESL classroom through teacher leadership. The results include some reform
changes, teachers and students’ attitudes, advantages and disadvantages,
barriers, the ways of utilizing collaborative learning with teacher leadership,
and many advices from teachers and students.
The central contribution of the study is that the researcher made an
investigation of collaborative learning with teacher leadership in an
undeveloped ESL classroom of Guizhou, which has Chinese characteristics.
Limitations and recommendations of the study are also summarized.
Keys words: teacher leadership, collaborative learning, ESL classroom.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is impossible for me to conduct this research without many people. I would
like to express my gratefulness to the people who have guided and supported
me to conduct this research.
The special thank goes to my thesis supervisor: Professor Dr.
Aini-Kristiina Jäppinen, for your support, tolerance, and patience. You always
prioritize students’ requests and gave valuable comments in a very friendly
way. You are a good example to the students. This thesis would not be
completed without your help and support.
Also, I want to thank my second evaluator Professor Dr. Riikka Alanen,
for your support and kindness. I am grateful to all of those who have helped
me during this research: to the principal who allowed me to collect empirical
data in the school and also give me all the valuable information; to all teachers
and students who participated in this research, because of your support and
answers, I could get first-hand and true data; to my two MDP colleagues,
Aidan Mendoza Hayward and Katherine Kinsman, who helped me check
language and sentence structure; to all MPEL colleagues, who peer-reviewed
and critiqued my study during thesis seminar sessions.
In particular, I wish to thank my husband Xu Xiaofang, for your
complete trust, support, and love during the course of my studies. Moreover,
my special thanks go to my sister Xiao Yun, for your help for applying my
Master’s degree and starting my wonderful journey of studies and life in
Finland. And finally, I would thank two couples that are my inspiration and
role models in life, my parents Xiao Xingming and Yang Guangqiong, and my
parents-in-law, Xu Zhongkui and Huang An’ju. This journey to Finland
would never come true without the moral and financial support of my
families.
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
TABLE 1 Teacher leadership in China
………………………………………………………
..15
TABLE 2 The frequency of teachers’ attitudes…………………………………..44
TABLE 3 The frequency of students’ attitudes……………………….. …………45
TABLE 4 The advantages of collaborative learning…………………………….46
TABLE 5 The frequency of advantages in collaborative learning……………..48
TABLE 6 The disadvantages of collaborative learning…………………………49
TABLE 7 The frequency of disadvantage in Collaborative learning………….51
TABLE 8 The barriers of collaborative learning…………………………………52
TABLE 9 The frequency of barriers……………………………………………….56
TABLE 10 The promotion factors of collaborative learning……………………57
TABLE 11 The frequency of promotion factors………………………………… 59
TABLE 12 Steps of utilizing collaborative learning through teacher leadership
in the ESL classroom……………………………………………………………….61
TABLE 13 The frequency of creation……………………………………………..63
FIGURE 1 An instructional three-dimensional system…………………………22
FIGURE 2 Four traits of a collaborative classroom……………………………..22
CONTENTS
1.
INTRODUCTION
……………………………………………………………………………….. 7
2.
TEACHER LEADERSHIP
………………………………………………………………….. 11
2.1
Definition of educational leadership ……………………………………………. 11
2.1.1
Six categories of leadership
………………………………………………………. 11
2.2
Definition of teacher leadership
…………………………………………………… 12
2.2.1
Teacher leadership in China
………………………………………………….. 14
2.2.2
Teacher leadership and student learning outcomes ……………….. 18
3.
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
………………………………………………………… 20
3.1
Definition of collaborative learning
……………………………………………… 20
3.2
Four traits of a collaborative classroom………………………………………… 21
3.3
Collaborative learning in China
…………………………………………………… 25
4.
TRADITIONAL ESL CLASSROOM IN CHINA …………………………………. 27
5.
RESEARCH PROBLEMS …………………………………………………………………… 30
6.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STUDY ………………………………………………. 31
6.1
The Context of the Study …………………………………………………………….. 32
6.1.1
Weng’an No.2 High school background ………………………………… 33
6.1.2
Some reform changes in Guizhou Province and Current situation
of collaborative ESL classroom ………………………………………………………….. 34
6.1.3
Some difficulties in the reform
………………………………………………. 35
6.1.4
Current situation of collaborative ESL classroom …………………… 36
6.2
The Participants and the Research Process …………………………………… 37
6.2.1
The Participants
………………………………………………………………………….. 37
6.2.2
Research process
…………………………………………………………………………. 37
6.3
Research methods……………………………………………………………………….. 39
6.4
Data analysis
………………………………………………………………………………. 40
6.5
Ethical solutions …………………………………………………………………………. 41
7.
RESULTS ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 43
7.1
Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards collaborative learning in
the ESL classroom ………………………………………………………………………………… 43
7.1.1
The attitudes of teachers ……………………………………………………….. 43
7.1.2
The attitudes of students ………………………………………………………. 44
7.2
The advantages and disadvantages of collaborative learning in the
ESL classroom ……………………………………………………………………………………… 45
7.2.1
The advantages of collaborative learning ………………………………. 45
7.2.2
The disadvantages of collaborative learning ………………………….. 49
7.3
The barriers and promotion factors of collaborative learning in the
ESL classroom ……………………………………………………………………………………… 52
7.3.1
The barriers of collaborative learning ……………………………………. 52
7.3.2
The promotion factors of collaborative learning …………………….. 57
7.4
How to utilize collaborative learning through teacher leadership in
the ESL classroom ………………………………………………………………………………… 60
8.
DISCUSSION ……………………………………………………………………………………. 64
8.1
Examination of the results …………………………………………………………… 64
8.2
Reliability and Validity of the study
…………………………………………….. 66
8.3
Generalizability and Limitations …………………………………………………. 68
8.4
Challenges for further research
……………………………………………………. 69
REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………………………………. 71
APPENDICS …………………………………………………………………………………………… 78
Appendix A: Research Cover letter (English version) ……………………………….. 78
Appendix B: Research Cover letter (Chinese version) ……………………………….. 79
Appendix C: Open-ended questionnaire for teachers (English version)
……… 80
Appendix D: Open-ended questionnaire for teachers (Chinese version)…….. 82
Appendix E: Open-ended questionnaire for students (English version) …….. 83
Appendix F: Open-ended questionnaire for students (Chinese version)
…….. 85
Appendix G: Summer time schedule for students in Weng’an No.2 High
School …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 87
Appendix H: Winter time schedule for students in Weng’an No.2 High School
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 89
7
1. INTRODUCTION
When face the rapid development of global economy and society in the 21st
century, all countries adapt their policy to the fierce competition. The core is
the competition of comprehensive national power and talents. Education is
an activity that is purposeful, organized, planned and systematic to impart
knowledge and technical specifications, which can make contribution to
economic growth and promote national prosperity. Teachers are an important
part of education, and teacher leadership has a significant impact on
education (Jin Yu-le & Ai Xing, 2006).
Since China has joined the WTO (World Trade Organization), English
gradually plays an important role in Chinese economy, culture and education.
Therefore, in Chinese schools, every student will learn English as a second
language (ESL). Across many countries, economic, social and political forces
have combined to create a climate in which an ESL educational reform is
expected and in which schools feel continued pressure to improve. China also
faces such a challenging educational reform and must carry out it under the
global educational reform, especially in underdeveloped district schools.
In the Chinese traditional classroom, students are monitored by teachers
and they have a heavy psychological burden. There is a boring and tense, lack
of vitality atmosphere in the classroom. Teachers are all exhausted and lack of
accomplishment, which lead to low study efficiency. In the current reform
situation, there are various teaching forms in the classroom, e.g. discussion,
exchange and collaborative learning. Meanwhile, some teachers still use
system of rewards and penalties to defend their own power (Gao Sheng-ying
& Liu Liang-hua, 2002).
Actually, teachers often feel lack the ability to do what they would like
to do. It seems that the happiness of teaching is felt if students are obedient
and quiet in the classroom. When some teachers face the diversity of the
8
classroom organization, they cannot gasp the order of classroom and fear
classroom chaos. Therefore, teachers draw up a tedious classroom rules.
Students are in accordance with teachers’ instruction and obey the classroom
rules. Everything is in good order and also the whole classroom is monitored
by teachers strictly. It not only inhibited the physical and mental development
of students, but also led to a serious decline in efficiency of classroom
teaching. What’s worse, it is contrary to the requirements of current personnel
training. There are two reasons for this. One is because most teachers are lack
of advanced educational teaching concept to manage the classroom. Another
one is that the school ignores the exploration of classroom management.
Therefore, “teacher leadership” was put forward, which became a good
breakthrough and challenge for educational reform and classroom
management Collaborative learning is does not only serve for the classroom
management, but can also could be an educational reform (Yu Ze-yuan &
Tian Hui-sheng,2008).
Slavin (1987) argues that collaborative learning can narrow the
achievement gap among students. Therefore, teacher leadership impacts
powerfully over collaborative classroom and teaching activities, which
contribute to student improvement and increase effectiveness of teaching
methods (Slavin, 1987). That is to say, teacher’s role and function are essential
in a classroom. Consequently, it is urgent to transform the teachers’ role and
create a collaborative classroom through teacher leadership, especially for
China.
When I became an English teacher in my hometown in China, I found
that many English teachers still use traditional teaching methods in ESL
classrooms. Although the voice and action of English education reform have
already overspread in China, some undeveloped district schools finally got
the inconspicuous results. In this case study, I will present why collaborative
learning is productive for Chinese schools, how to motivate teachers and
9
students use Collaborative Learning, how to get effective results from
Collaborative Learning, and how to reflect upon Collaborative Learning in the
school daily practice. Through real-life stories, I also explore the promoting
factors and barriers of implementing collaboration in ESL classroom and how
to create it in an undeveloped school.
In this study, the qualitative methods are applied to collect the empirical
data from a Chinese school in Guizhou Province. Qualitative surveys collect
information that people attach to their experiences and on the easy they
express themselves. Qualitative surveys provide data to answer questions like
this: “What is X, and how different people, communities, and cultures think
and feel about X, and why” (Creswell, 2012).Therefore, I designed
open-ended questions in my surveys. I invited 15 English teachers and 15
students from the school randomly (4600 students and 236 teachers in the
school).
A survey was designed to assess the effect of English reform, the
advantage of collaborative learning, the factors to promote collaborative
learning and the barriers of collaborative learning from students’ perspective.
Another survey was designed to assess the same items about collaborative
learning and teacher leadership from English teachers’ perspective. In order
to get more background information about the school, I collected and studied
the school documents, promotion materials and websites.
This thesis attempts to make its contribution towards a better
understanding of collaborative learning with teacher leadership in the ESL
classroom, especially in undeveloped areas. The concept of collaborative
learning was established in U.S, and also developed in China (Chen & Long,
2009). There are many previous studies about collaborative learning in
Chinese developed provinces, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou etc.
Fewer studies examine it in undeveloped provinces. Nevertheless, China has
34 provinces. If researchers only investigate some certain provinces, we
10
cannot get a comprehensive understanding of collaborative learning through
teacher leadership. That is why I had a strong interest to examine
collaborative learning through teacher leadership in Guizhou.
In this case study, I present changes in the ESL classroom, teachers and
students’ attitudes, advantages and disadvantages. Through teachers and
students’ real experiences and stories, I analyze the promoting factors and the
barriers of utilizing collaborative learning through teacher leadership in the
school in Guizhou. In the end, I present the limitations of my study and the
recommendations to the future studies in a related field in China.
11
2.
TEACHER LEADERSHIP
In next chapters, teacher leadership, collaborative learning, and traditional
ESL classroom will be examined from the perspectives of different scholars.
2.1
Definition of educational leadership
Educational leadership is gradually being shifted towards a form of collective,
shared, distributed and organizational responsibility, stretched over the
school’s social and situational contexts (Harris, 2008). Hence, school leaders
and teachers increasingly work in closer co-operation and collaboration with
one another. This culminates in deep democratic involvement in leadership
practice and collective capacity building (Senge, 1990).
2.1.1
Six categories of leadership
Leithwood and Duke (1999) indentified six categories of leadership:
transformational,
moral,
instructional,
participative,
managerial
and
contingency. Looking at each category, it appears that teacher leadership is
most closely related to instructional and participative forms where leadership
equates with the “behaviors of teachers as they engage in activities directly
affecting the growth of students” (Leithwood & Duke, 1999, p. 47).
12
2.2
Definition of teacher leadership
Teacher leadership is not a formal role, responsibility or set of tasks. It is more
a form of agency where teachers are empowered to lead development work
that impacts directly upon the high quality of teaching and learning (Harris
and Muijs, 2005). Teacher leaders are chiefly concerned with securing
enhanced instructional outcomes, generating positive relationship with staff
and students, and creating the enabling conditions for others to learn
(Murphy, 2005). It has at its core a focus upon improving learning and
introduces a mode of leadership premised upon the principles of professional
collaboration, development and growth (Harris and Muijs, 2005).
In general, teachers have taken the roles of team leaders, department
heads, association leaders and curriculum developers for a long time.
However, recently, research has proposed some different roles for teachers,
including increased leadership roles. Teachers are serving as research
colleagues, working as advisor mentors to new teachers, and facilitating
professional development activities (Victoria & Kathleen, 2015). They are also
acting as members of school-based leadership teams and leaders of change
efforts. Such work emphasizes the need for teachers to extend their sphere of
influence beyond the classroom and into school-wide leadership activities.
This advocacy is premised on the belief that they are closest to the classroom,
and teachers can implement changes that make a difference to learning and
learners (Harris and Muijs, 2005). Research has also shown that teachers do
not subscribe to traditional definitions of leadership as “higher” or “superior”
positions within the organizational hierarchy. Instead, teachers view
leadership as a collaborative effort with other staff members to promote
professional development and growth and the improvement of educational
services (Troen & Boles 1992).
13
The concept of teacher leadership has been developed forward by
Katzenmeyer and Moller. They (1996) state that, “Teachers, who are leaders
lead beyond the classroom, identify with and contribute to a community of
teacher learners and leaders, and influence others toward improved
educational practice, and accept responsibility for realizing the goals of their
leadership (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 1996: p. 5)” That is to say, teacher leaders
are teachers who develop new and collaborative relationships with the
principal, school management team, and colleagues. Students empower
themselves, and influence others towards realizing a shared vision for
improved teaching and learning in a school (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2001;
Crowther et al., 2009).
There are several important things to highlight in teacher leadership.
First, teacher leadership is a kind of distributed leadership form that
comprises of teachers’ contributions to school effectiveness, teacher’s
improvement and students’ development. Second, Moreover, teacher
leadership means giving teachers opportunities to lead and improve the
quality of teaching efficiency in a positive way. In this way, teachers will be
given more authority in the real teaching situations (Harris & Muijs, 2005).
There are a number of important things to highlight about the definition
of teacher leadership. Firstly, teacher leadership is associated with the
creation of collegial norms among teachers that evidence has shown can
contribute to school effectiveness, improvement and development. I will
discuss it in the next part. Second, teacher leadership equates with giving
teachers opportunities to lead, which research shows having a positive
influence upon the quality of relationships and teaching within the school.
Third, at its most practical level, teacher leadership means teachers working
as instructional leaders influencing curriculum, teaching and learning. Finally,
teacher leadership is associated with re-culturing schools, where leadership is
14
the outcome of the dynamics of interpersonal relationships rather than just
individual action (Harris A, 2005).
Teacher leadership has taken various forms. Since the mid-1990s, teacher
leadership has been the topic of dozens of books and numerous research and
practitioner-oriented publications (see, e.g., Barth, 2001; Lieberman & Miller,
2004), particularly in the USA, Canada and Australia. In the USA, the number
of teacher leadership programs and initiatives has grown strongly over the
past decade, and the notion of teacher leadership is widely accepted by
practitioners and researchers (Smylie, 1995). In China, many researchers have
investigated teacher leadership. However, for most educators, the concept of
teacher leadership is still relatively new.
2.2.1
Teacher leadership in China
The early concept about teacher leadership occurred in 1980s (Jenkins, 2009).
But recently decades of years, the research of teacher leadership was attracted
attention by most Chinese educators. As a new topic in the field of current
education, many researchers achieved a large amount of remarkable research
findings about teacher leadership, which deepened the understanding of the
field. Nonetheless, the investigations of teacher leadership are still extremely
deficient in China.
For example, Professor Li Sen (2006), from Southwest University, wrote
an essay called “The definition, function and strategies of teaching
leadership”. He referred to teaching leadership and recognized it as a
dynamic process of achieving teaching goals and optimizing teaching system.
Professor Chen Yijun (2010), the same university, arouses the creative
attention of teacher leadership in his essay “The analysis of middle school
teacher teaching leadership types”. In conclusion, people have not a deep
exploration of teacher teaching leadership, which restrain the function of
teaching leadership (Xie, 2013).
15
The Chinese educators divide management leadership into teaching and
administrative leadership (Xie, 2013): “Administrative leaders and teaching
leaders have different working areas.” Being good teaching leaders should set
about motivating students and high quality teaching activities (Dong, 1995).
Table 1 indicates teacher leadership development in China as follows:
TABLE 1: Teacher leadership in China
Year
Name
Practice
1978
Zhao
Guang-lin
He stated that teacher leadership is focus on
excellent teaching, leading teaching with holistic and
conceptual development, the action of promoting
education by the teachers’ professional development
and students’ progress.
1993
Chen
Wang-dao
Teacher leadership is that teachers have an effect on
students.
1998
Wang Zi-xuan
Teacher leadership means the ability of guiding
teaching activities, which guides students to acquire
scientific knowledge and also learn how to learn and
develop various capabilities at the same time, which
ensure students to enrich knowledge continuously in
the future social life.
1998
Liang Si-cheng
Teacher leadership is to arouse students’ enthusiasm
and learning initiative, so that students are willing to
study. In addition, teachers should master the
curriculum
and
textbooks
expertly
and
use
appropriate
teaching
methods
to
teach
independently, which based on the actual situation
16
of students.
1999
Shi Liang-fang
Cui- Yun-chun
Teacher leadership is a process that includes
establishing an appropriate classroom environment,
keeping classroom interaction, ensuring order and
efficiency
of
classroom
teaching,
coordinating
various relationships between people and matter in
the classroom, and promoting classroom.
2001
Ye Lan
Teacher
leadership
is
those
teachers’
effects,
interaction
between
teachers,
students
and
classroom, and the change of teaching organization.
2005
Cai Jin-xiong
Teacher leadership is a process which has an positive
influence
on
students,
school
administrators,
colleagues, parents and communities
2006
Li Sen
Zhang-tao
He argued that the main part of teacher leadership is
a process of achieving teaching aims and optimizing
teaching system.
2006
Lu Nai-gui
Cheng Zheng
Teacher
leadership
is
whether
positions
or
appointment, the essential characteristics of which is
to improve the teacher profession, redistribution of
power and the interactive among colleagues.
2007
Jin Jian-sheng
Teacher leadership is that a teacher who has some
kind of abilities among teachers. He or she exert
influence on the persons or matter in the school for
achieving the common goal in a particular context
2007
Ma Hui-mei
Teacher leadership means a teacher organizes an
effective learning environment in the teaching
17
activities, guide and help students to participate in it,
which achieve scheduled teaching goals. There are
five role characteristics: instructor of learning
activities, leader among students, managers of
classroom discipline, a model code of conduct and
coordinator of interpersonal relationship.
2009
Chen pan,
Long Jun-wei
Teacher leadership is a process of improving
teaching, students’ learning outcomes, completing
teaching goals by teachers.
2009
Zhang Bi-juan
She argued that promoting teaching efficiency,
improving students’ learning outcomes, providing
guidance and resource, and coordinating various
relations are main points of teacher leadership.
2010
Chen yi-jun
Teacher leadership is divided into five parts: arouse
students’ enthusiasm of studying, high-quality
education, provide correct guidance, the direction of
learning,
help
students
overcome
learning
difficulties
and
motivate
students’
learning
satisfaction.
2011
Li Kuan
Teacher leadership is a kind of comprehensive
influence on students, formed by the interaction of
teachers’ professional authority, knowledge, ability,
and emotion.
These discussions presented in Table 1 show that teacher leadership
plays a critical role in school reform and supports the development of all
students, and also creates opportunities for teachers to become leaders due to
inconspicuous power relationships and shared tasks in school (Muijs & Harris,
18
2007). Therefore, the relationship between teacher leadership and individual
outcomes or students’ learning outcomes is important. This issue will be
discussed it below.
2.2.2
Teacher leadership and student learning outcomes
Many argue that link teacher leadership is connected with student learning
outcomes. Various writers have discerned the benefit of teacher leadership on
enhanced student learning (Darling-Hammond et al., 1995; Katzenmeyer &
Moller, 2001). However, the empirical basis for such claims remains
somewhat modest. York and Duke argued that there is much positive impact
of teacher leadership upon individual and organizational outcomes. Teacher
leadership is essential to school and individual improvement and is one
worth exploring, as it has been argued that the “evidence of such effects,
especially at the levels of classroom practice and student learning are sparse”
(York-Barr & Duke 2005, p. 282).
Also, York and Duke (2004) found only five studies that directly
examined the effects of teacher leadership on students. Some studies have
shown a more positive relationship between teacher leadership and student
learning outcomes (York-Barr and Duke, 2004). Silins and Mulford (2002)
concluded that student outcomes are more likely to improve where
leadership sources are distributed throughout the school community and
where teachers are empowered to lead. Similarly, a study of eighty-six US
middle schools found that both teacher professionalism and collegial
leadership were positively related to improved student outcomes (Harris,
2005). Other work by Lemlech and Hertzog (1998) has suggested that
encouraging teachers to take on leadership roles positively affects self-efficacy
and behavior, which subsequently influences student learning outcomes.
Recent research by Harris and Muijs (2004) found an indirect relationship
19
between teacher involvement in decision making and improved student
outcomes.
In summary, the direct link between teacher leadership and student
outcomes is far from clear or proven. What the literature does confirm is that
where teacher leadership work is focused upon the classroom rather than the
organizational level and where instructional improvement is at the heart of
the work of teacher leaders, there is greater chance of a positive impact upon
student learning outcomes. In brief, teacher leadership can be advantageous
to the individual teacher and to varying degrees their schools and students
(Vail & Redick, 1993).
To sum up, teacher leadership has been proven to have a positive
influence on students’ learning outcomes. In addition, Slavin argued thought
that collaborative learning can narrow the achievement gap amongst students
(Slavin, 1987). Chinese Professor Wang also argued that collaborative learning
is one of the most effective teaching methods in the classroom, which could be
improve students’ learning outcomes (Wang, 1998). In the next chapter,
collaborative learning will be discussed in detail.
20
3.
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
3.1
Definition of collaborative learning
Bruffee (1993) notes that collaborative learning is a situation in which two or
more people learn or attempt to learn something together. Unlike individual
learning, collaborative learning means that two or more people are engaged
in a common task and capitalize on one another’s resources and skills, from
participating cooperatively in group activities, group problem-solving, and
group discussions by sharing experiences (Chiu, 2000).
Slavin was one of the first famous scholars of collaborative learning. He
thought that collaborative learning means that students study and join
teaching activities in a group, and the teaching technique of classroom will be
awarded and approved based on their group performance. He also thought
that collaborative learning can narrow the achievement gap amongst students
(Slavin, 1987). An American educator Guskey states that ”collaborative
learning is a kind of teaching style.” He asked 2-6 students to join in the
teaching activities and completed the task that the teacher gave for the group.
In every group, students were often engaged in various cooperative and
mutual assistance studies (Guskey, 1990).
D.W. Johnson and R.T. Johnson from Cooperative Learning Center in
American University of Minnesota are also scholars of collaborative learning.
They stated that in collaborative learning, students can maximize their own
and each other’s learning when they work together (Johnson & Johnson,
1994). They also mentioned that collaborative leaning has five key elements:
positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, individual
accountability, social skills and group processing (Johnson & Johnson, 1998).
21
A Chinese educator Wang Hongyu argued that collaborative learning
referred to a mode of group learning as a main form of organization in
classroom teaching. The instructional of collaboration encourage students to
learn together in heterogeneous groups, which could contribute to students’
cognitive, emotional teaching strategies system (Wang, 1992). Another
Chinese educator Wang Tan noted that collaborative learning is a kind of
teaching activity. The basic form of which are heterogeneous study groups
and the evaluation criteria is group results, which promotes students’
learning outcomes and achieves the common teaching goals by using
interaction between dynamic factors of teaching (Wang, 2001).
In sum, collaboration is one of the key skills in the 21st century. It
comprises of a complex set of skills, abilities, and behaviours that can be
taught and modelled, including, mentioning a few (Sheila, 2011):
Cooperation skills: leading and following and switching from leading
to following, taking responsibility for group tasks, attending to group
process (Sheila, 2011).
Emotional skills: being aware of one’s own and others’ feelings,
expressing feelings appropriately, and showing compassion and
empathy (Sheila, 2011).
Mental skills: focusing on a task until complete, following a
conversation, processing it, summarizing it, and taking creative leaps
based on it (Sheila, 2011).
3.2
Four traits of a collaborative classroom
Anderson and Garrison (1998) described the three more common types of
interaction discussed in the classroom: student-student, student-teacher,
student-content. Also, another scholar Wang Hongyu (1992) described a
22
similar instructional three-dimensional system of coordinate that is based on
teacher, student and content.
FIGURE 1: An instructional three-dimensional system (Wang, 1992)
Efforts at enhancing student-student interaction in the classroom
through case- or problem-based collaborative learning activities, have long
been shown to increase not only student achievement, but also student
completion and enjoyment rates (Slavin, 1995). Therefore, collaborative
learning is important for teachers and students when build collaborative
classroom. There are four traits of a collaborative classroom (Tinzmann et al,
1990: Page 2-3):
Collaborative
classroom
Shared knowledge among
teachers and students
Shared authority among
teachers and students
Teachers as
mediators
Heterogeneous
groupings of
students
Student
Context
Teacher
23
Figure 2: Four traits of a collaborative classroom (Tinzmann et al, 1990)
1) Shared knowledge among teachers and students (Tinzmann et al,
1990).
In traditional classrooms, a teacher is a person of authority, who has vital
knowledge about content, skills, and instruction, also providing the only way
of knowledge flow from the teachers to students. However, teachers in the
collaborative classroom also value and build upon the knowledge, personal
experiences, language, strategies, and culture that students bring to the
learning situation. Thus, when those students who do have relevant
experiences are given an opportunity to share them, the whole class is
enriched. Moreover, when students see that their experiences and knowledge
are valued, they are more motivated to listen and learn in new ways, and they
are more likely to make important connections between their own learning
and “school” learning. In other words, they become empowered (Tinzmann et
al, 1990).
2) Shared authority among teachers and students (Tinzmann et al,
1990).
In most traditional classrooms, the teacher is largely, if not exclusively,
responsible for setting goals, designing learning tasks, and assessing what is
learned. In collaborative classrooms, students will be invited to set specific
goals within the framework of what they have learned, provided options for
activities and assignments that capture different interests and goals, and
encouraged to assess what they have learned. In addition, students have
opportunities to use and share their own knowledge, their learning strategies,
treat
each
other
respectfully,
and
focus
on
high
levels
of
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understanding. Teachers will help students listen to diverse opinions,
support knowledge claims with evidence, engage in critical and creative
thinking, and participate in open and meaningful dialogue when they have
collaborative activities (Tinzmann et al, 1990).
3) Teachers as mediators (Tinzmann et al, 1990).
In the collaborative classroom, teachers as successful mediators help students
connect new information to their experiences and to other learning areas, help
students figure out what to do, and help them learn how to learn, which can
maximize the ability to take responsibility for learning (Tinzmann et al, 1990).
4) Heterogeneous groupings of students (Tinzmann et al, 1990).
The perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds of all students are important
for enriching learning in the classroom. That means that keeping students’
diversity in the classroom is productive for students for improving their
critical thinking, various problem-solving skills, different communication
skills, and strategy-making skills (Tinzmann et al, 1990).
In addition, teachers are defining their roles in term of mediating
learning through teacher leadership and collaboration: facilitating, modeling,
and coaching. Teacher leaders act in a variety of ways and roles with
individuals, teams and the entire system with a focus on improving teaching
and learning for students (York and Duke, 2004). Because teacher leadership
has a powerful influence over classroom practices and teaching activities, this
contributes to student improvement and increase effectiveness of teaching
methods. Collaborative learning affords students enormous advantages that
are not available more traditional instruction because a group, whether it is
the whole class or a learning group within the class, can accomplish
25
meaningful learning and solve problems better than any individual can alone
(Wertheimer & Honigsfeld, 2000).
As professors Yu and Tian argued that collaborative learning is not only
one way to classroom management, but also could provide an educational
reform (Yu & Tian, 2008). Therefore, both teacher leadership and collaborative
learning are good for the improvement of students’ learning outcomes and
classroom efficiency, even in Chinese English teaching classroom.
3.3
Collaborative learning in China
Collaborative learning as a kind of instructional theory and a mode of
instruction, which was has aroused widely attention by many countries, also
in China. Already two thousand years ago it was said in China: “Study alone
and no friends, then ignorant”. This was recorded in the book of Xue Ji, which
emphasized the important of collaboration during the study. In the beginning
of 1990s, group work was introduced in Chinese classroom teaching, which
triggered the exploration of collaboration. The researcher Wang Tan (2010),
who is works in the Shandong Institute of Education Science, introduced the
theory of collaborative learning, strategy of collaborative learning and
development prospect in the book of Collaborative Research and Experiment.
Many researchers and teachers also explored the mode of collaboration, For
example, Wu Qinwen, Liang Zhanxin, and Tian Xueling, from the
Educational Institute of Hu Nan Normal College. They did the experiment of
collaboration in English teaching and many other subjects. Another Chinese
researcher Chen Xinye did an experiment about collaboration. The book
argued that the motivation and improvement of students in the collaborative
classroom are much higher than that in the non-collaborative classroom
(Chen, 2003). Dong Qi also investigated the mode of collaboration. He took
the English class as an example. The experiment presented that students’
