Collaboration in New Spaces: One Room, One Summer, One Two-Year Technical College
Amy Edwards Patterson, Moraine Park Technical College
Introduction
Identify the Needs of Students
Articulate Pedagogical Goals
Operationalize Goals
Continue to Change
Celebrate Rewards
Develop Solutions for Challenges
Articulate explicit pedagogical goals based on teachers’ understanding of students’ needs
Because many different departments were represented in this space, instructors from different departments had varied outcomes in mind as far as what students would actually learn within the classroom. However, each member desired to reach students through several different learning styles, and each instructor hoped to implement a room that promoted engagement with other students and the material. Other pedagogical goals included:
- Promote interaction among students and the instructor. The instructors wanted to ensure there was no front of the room or privileged location just for the instructor, but rather a decentralized learning space. The team wanted students to feel that everyone was equally involved with learning. Kenneth Bruffee (1984) has asserted that writing, for example, is internalized conversation re-externalized (p. 638). Thus, writing is inherently collaborative, and the team realized an active-learning space could enhance the experience of writing, collaborating, and learning for students in all academic programs.
- Encourage a flexible, experiential learning environment. The team felt ease of mobility would be important for both the instructor and students. Lopez and Gee (2006) have referred to mobile and highly adaptable learning spaces as “radical flexibility,” allowing instructors and students to easily rearrange space to “support changing pedagogical demands.”
- Support collaborative experiences. John Trimbur (1989) wrote: “Collaborative learning is a generic term, covering a range of techniques … such as reader response, peer critiques, small writing groups … By shifting initiative and responsibility from the group leader to the members of the group, collaborative learning offers a style of leadership that actively involves the participants in their own learning” (p. 87). This active participation among students is crucial in the technical college, where our mission involves preparing students for the workforce and lifelong learning.
Kelly Schoeller, who teaches advanced anatomy and physiology in the active-learning classroom, worked with her colleagues to recommend furniture that best allowed engaged student discussion as a key pedagogical goal: “We were trying to figure out how many students we could get in the class, what would be comfortable furniture … We wanted the tables to be rearranged into different groupings, so you could have a big group discussion [or] small group discussions” (personal communication, 2012). Schoeller added that keeping within the budget caused some constraints; her team had to recreate their vision multiple times. The team generated possible solutions in a wide variety of ways. Group brainstorming worked well, for instance; the team also practiced nominal group technique, in which teammates will split up, have some alone time to develop ideas, and then rejoin for everyone to share. Instructors find this approach makes a positive impact for students who might be less likely to speak up. The technique can be equally powerful for faculty and staff, too, as a method to allow equal input. The process allowed each member of the advisory team to remain actively involved.