Overview

We will frequently work in groups to collaborate. Much less frequently, you will be on a team that is tasked with creating and circulating a document, a presentation, a contribution to a Google Site or something else. You will always know whether an activity requires collaboration or cooperation. I’ll offer here a thumbnail explanation of how I see these two processes.

Collaboration

When I ask you to collaborate, I ask you to join a group that is working on some shared endeavor. Sometimes you will collaborate on making sense of a document that we are reading; sometimes you will collaborate on developing feedback on work your peers have written. When you and your peers collaborate, you

1. Decide together on your shared endeavor. I will usually give you a written description of what I want you to do. As a group, your first step is to come to a shared understanding of what you will do together and how you want to do it.
2. Act as an inclusive network. Before you know what you are doing together as a group, you will need to interact in ways that build trust. That means at least listening to one another, acknowledging one another, respecting what each of you contributes, and ensuring that every group member is respected as an equal participant. This is challenging in the best of situations. At times, when one or more group members are not prepared, it gets more challenging. Your job is to acknowledge that situation and invite group members to contribute what they can to your shared endeavor.
3. Engage in dialogue. You have a shared endeavor and have acknowledged one another. Now it is time to contribute, to move forward on your endeavor together, each of you offering ideas, listening to and building on the ideas of others, and moving forward. Usually one or more of you will need to serve as note takers to capture what you develop. All of you will need to expect to contribute to the development of ideas that move the endeavor forward by
   • going back and forth with ideas
   • listening to voices and perspectives different from your own
   • reflecting on how your own understanding is changing as the dialogue goes forward
   • questioning your peers and yourself so that you don’t settle for what any of you already believe
4. Share your results. Your group will almost always have a recorder. As a group, you need to support the documentation of the ideas you develop so that you can share your progress with the rest of us. Collaboration does not mean consensus. When you share results, you may share a conclusions and an explanation of why you decided not to arrive at consensus.

Cooperation

On the rare occasions when you work on a team to produce a product, you should be ready to take on agreed upon roles and do your part. While the most productive teams also collaborate so as to draw on the experiences and capabilities of all members, those teams also need to function as a team. We will use the description of teamwork developed by the American Association of Colleges & Universities:

• Contribute to team meetings. This means that you show up with assignments complete and help the team make decisions and complete work. Team members who don’t show up risk being fired.
• Facilitate the contributions of other team members. Team members are expected to build on the contributions of others. That means drawing others out and adding to or combining ideas of others and also noticing when someone is not participating and helping them engage. This is a collaborative part of teamwork.
• Make individual contributions outside team meetings. Teams assign members work. Team members are expected to complete work on time.
• Foster a constructive team spirit. This means treating others with respect, speaking and interacting with a positive attitude, voicing your confidence in team members, and assisting team members.
• Respond positively to conflict. Team members are expected to address conflict as it arises in ways that make the team more inclusive and effective. This is hard. It’s part of being a team.

I rarely assign graded team projects in 100-level college classes because most beginning college students are just learning how to be team members. Grades seem to get in the way of that learning. I do want you to get a taste of teamwork, so we will do some.

Bottom Line

We will get to know one another and learn with and for one another. That often makes this class really fun. Learning with and for your peers is not really negotiable.