PRINCIPLE 1: “Learning and development is a social, collaborative activity.”

“What the child is able to do in collaboration today, he will be able to do independently tomorrow.”

As far as this principle is concerned, social interaction plays a fundamental role in the process of cognitive development. This principle emphasizes the need for social interaction in facilitating the child’s development. It assumes that the thought processes that are internalized from interacting with others in the social environment.

Social and collaborative learning activity happens when a peer group cooperates to learn or achieve a specific goal while working to understand one another. Since Vygotsky believed in the essential role of activities in learning. Children learn better through hands-on activities than passive listening. Learning by doing is even made more fruitful when children interact with knowledgeable adults, teachers, and advanced peers.

For example in a situational context, parents expose their children to a variety of social situations, since each interaction is considered a learning experience. It is especially important to introduce children to people and ideas that operate above their current knowledge level, giving them access to new ideas and concepts. We guide children to look for answers by imitating what they see in others, listening to instruction and working as part of a group all provide opportunities for them to expand their current base of knowledge. Something that learners belong, in the essence of talking, sharing, helping and together thinking.

Absolutely, developing and learning in a situation in which two or more learners  attempt to learn something together, is having what we call social and collaboration with each other, in which therefore language plays a significant role since it’s the key social function to promote and effect learning of the learner.

In the learning and development of our students, a healthy and effective learning takes place through participation in social activities such as for example collaborative writing, group projects, joint problem solving, debates, study teams, and other activities, in making the social context crucial. Teachers, parents and other adults were the fundamental contributor and guide to explain, model, assist, give directions and provide feedback to the learner to collaborate and enrich the learning experience.

The apple of my point of view is that, the illustration in which groups of learners work together to search for understanding, meaning, or solutions or to create an artifact or product of their learning. With this if proper accommodations were ascertained, it will possibly result to academic achievement of the learner, student perception is creatively enhanced when given opportunity to work with one another. Thus, increases self esteem and self concept.

Let me give illustration, such for instance that daily observations show scenarios reaching from groups of children in grade school which are trying collaboratively to solve a problem to write research papers on English together with colleagues. This entails that social and collaborative learning activity can be identified and should be encouraged when there is need for some people to learn together – sometimes it can be seen simply as an outcome of daily school works and practices.

                Research shows that collaborative learning compared to individual and competitive learning scenarios brings students to a higher achievement level, raises their problem solving- abilities, offers cognitive advantages to learners and also has positive influences in enhancing the development of personality traits that are beneficial for future learning.

Thus, in a collaborative learning setting, learners have the opportunity to converse with peers, present and defend ideas, exchange diverse beliefs, question other conceptual frameworks, and be actively engaged.