The Secrets to Successful Student Collaboration

Take a look inside the typical K-12 classroom, and you’re as likely to find students huddled together in small groups, engaged in solving a problem or working on a project collaboratively, as you are to see them listening to their teacher or completing tasks by themselves.

This isn’t surprising, given the importance of collaborative learning to students’ development. When students discuss ideas, develop solutions, and create new products in cooperation with their peers, they take their learning to a deeper level— while acquiring skills that are critical for success in work and life. Student collaboration is an important active-learning strategy in a teacher’s arsenal. But implementing collaborative learning successfully can be challenging.

This guide is intended to help overcome these challenges. It includes valuable insights on why collaborative learning is important and what effective collaboration looks like. It also explains the role that classroom design plays in supporting — or hindering—student collaboration, and it provides key advice for educators.