Collaboration and Cooperation

Developing 21st century skills calls for a closer examination of the power of collaboration and the role of cooperation in the classroom.

In their book, The Connected Educator, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall speak to the importance of collaboration, cooperation and individual learning.

Collaboration is sometimes confused with cooperation. Cooperation is an individual approach to learning and the construction of individual knowledge done within a group. In this model everyone is expected to contribute something that anyone else in the group could have contributed. Each learner works individually on the same topic and then shares what he or she has learned in order to deepen the understanding of the group. Because the work is done individually, one learner’s failure to participate does not negatively affect the learning outcomes of the group.

In short, when in a cooperative situation, each individual’s contributions is replaceable; if a group member leaves, work doesn’t necessarily suffer; the group shares information that any member could have contributed; everyone works together on a common task; the group is structured.

Collaboration comes about when a learning group approaches a project or learning opportunity as connected learners, relying on one another’s knowledge, skills, talents and readiness to share. In this model, each participant shares his or her specific knowledge. Each brings some unique ability to the group’s project or task that helps to create success, and everyone works together to solve a problem.

In order for collaboration to be successful, each member of the group must invest in his or her personal knowledge-building before they have something to share. Personal knowledge is critical to creating a collaborative culture.

Technology makes connecting, collaboration and personal learning easier than ever before in human history. Through technology we can connect with others across continents and time zones to build collaborative learning communities that were not possible in the not so distant past.

Collaborative models of problem solving are the wave of the future, and through the use of technologies anyone can find a project on which to work or problem to solve where his or her individual talents, skills and knowledge can make a difference.

In the 21st century, technology has transformed how people connect, interact and collaborate to create knowledge. It offers our students unprecedented opportunities to learn and, as our GDS Mission exhorts us “… to become constructive contributors to the world.”

Positioning Our Educational Program for the Future

In our new world where communication is instantaneous and comes from everywhere and everyone, where the evolution of technology and biology is making it possible to grow human organs, where information is doubling every 18 months and the computers now found in toys are more powerful than those carried on the first man-on-the-moon missions, we are feeling the compression of time.  

Eras that once lasted ten or twenty years are being compressed into five and ten years, and soon one to two years. We are quickly moving from a knowledge and information society to becoming the innovative society. Understanding this shift is critical when we consider what is important for our students to learn and know.

Muhtar Kent, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company made the following points in a talk regarding how his company is positioning itself for the future for the Consumer Analysts Group of New York.  The trends are summarized by Michael McKinney of the Leading Blog:

1. A powerful shift in the epicenter of global economic growth. By the year 2020, the world’s economic power will radiate from many nations and not just a few. Despite the current economic woes, we’re going to see 20 trillion dollars of global GDP growth created in the next 10 years. Most of this will be in the emerging and developing economies of the world. In the next 10 years, we’re going to see a billion new consumers rise to the middle class.
2. Rapid urbanization as people move to cities for opportunities. Today, the world’s cities are growing by 70 million people each year, and that will continue for at least the next decade. That’s the equivalent of adding a metropolitan area the size of Atlanta to the planet every 30 days for the next 10 years.
3. A world wrestling with energy and resource scarcity. In the coming years, as wealth grows and consumer demand increases, we are going to be faced with constant scarcities and cost pressures. Demand for fuel, food and other commodities will expand significantly. This will have long-term cost implications for all of us. In a world of constant cost pressures, it is essential that we achieve a low-cost structure and that productivity is embedded in everything we do.
4. A reset of consumer attitudes, values and expectations. Consumers worldwide are focused on value. They expect to engage with brands in a dialogue as opposed to a one-way monologue. They do not want to be told what to do. Today's consumers are dictating what they want... how they want it... when they want it... where they want it... and what price they are willing to pay. This is an important trend—and one that threatens to break the traditional distinction between buyer and seller that has been at the cornerstone of modern business and economics.
5. An emerging new era of innovation brought on by these first four trends and fueled by sustainability imperatives. Most new breakthrough innovations over the next decade will spring from a world radiating economic power from multiple sources... from a world with more empowered consumers... and from a world where natural resource scarcity is the norm. New ideas and innovations will originate well beyond the four walls of a company. Innovation will be just as likely to come from customers, suppliers, and consumers. Innovations will be truly global. They will no longer just trickle down from developed to lesser developed nations. They will just as likely originate in emerging nations as well.

The implications of Mr. Kent’s assertions for education are remarkable. Our children will soon be living in a world that is not only technologically and economically compressed, but a world where they will be interacting with a more diverse set of friends and co-workers in a world that is politically organized in ways that we’ve yet to imagine. How do we help our students to develop the intellectual, ethical and interpersonal foundations that they will need to become productive, engaged members of society in such a flat world?

Two years ago, a Program Development Committee under the leadership of David Gilbert, our Academic Dean, took on the challenge of examining not only our teaching methodology and curriculum, but looking to see how other schools around the country and the world were tackling these issues in order to begin a thoughtful review of our programs.

While we have not yet dramatically changed any portion of our program, we are looking at the work of such authors as Tony Wagner and his book, The Global Achievement Gap, which was read by the entire faculty. We have also begun to investigate teaching practices which integrate subject areas and provide learning opportunities that are more rigorous and relevant to our students.  One such program calls for groups of students working individually and together to analyze and solve problems.  We believe this approach, called Problem Based Learning or PBL, holds considerable promise for educating our students. It will provide them with the opportunity to tackle issues and problems that they will find engaging and challenging.While doing projects is not a novel idea at GDS, the new approach would drive learning deeper and attach it more rigorously to expected outcomes.

Greensboro Day has taken on what we believe to be several overarching concepts to address curricular and pedagogical practices that will be critical to the future success of our students.  One is a greater emphasis on global perspective. Our History Department is in the process of reviewing its program so that students are provided a greater world view and understanding of both the historical and present facts and trends that drive global relationships and economies. Another is a closer examination of how we teach and group our students. We have adopted Differentiated Instruction to ensure that our students are being challenged at an appropriate level. Assessing each student’s knowledge base and engaging them in work that stretches their understanding and peaks their interests is vital to developing the life-long learning skills that will support them as learners.

The importance of our students understanding sustainable practices cannot be underestimated. The planet simply will not have enough resources to sustain the type of human growth and development that is expected. This subject is addressed throughout the curriculum and is an important element of both the ethical and economical dimensions of our educational program.

Initiatives that we are currently examining include:

• The Use of Time - We believe that extending the time of our classes will allow students to focus and engage in more depth.  This will result in an Upper and Middle School rotation that will limit the number of classes a student has each day, which will decrease the number of times students have shift their thinking from one subject to the next. We are also exploring two days of "late" starts which research indicates will provide students with an important increase in the amount of sleep they get, which will lead to greater attention in class.
• Foreign Languages - WE are in the process of exploring the adoption of Chinese starting in the fall of 2013. This will be our first shift from a Romance Language since we opened in 1970. 
• Backward Design (UbD) – As a school, clarifying specific outcomes that we expect our students to be able to demonstrate, not just on a quiz or summative pencil and paper test, but through presentation, cross questioning and demonstration is critical to what is taught and learned in class each day. Knowing our intended outcomes for students will lead to more specific and targeted instruction.
• Differentiated Instruction (DI) – One size does not fit all. Because of different individual and family experiences, ways of learning and natural ability, our students enter our school each year with different amounts of knowledge. Teaching all students the same material in the same way creates a class that can be both extremely boring for some and quite exciting for other students. Clarity of outcomes and understanding what our students know and don’t know is critical to our success in teaching and inspiring them.
• Ethical and Character Education - With a greater knowledge and access to information, it is critical that our students have a firm grasp on what is ethical and how ethical decisions can be made in the face of more and more opportunities to act unethically. We are developing programing through our counseling department to address this important area.
• Technology – It is both a tremendous advantage and brings with it many challenges. We have initiated a team of counselors, administrators, teachers and technology leaders to examine our expectations of students in the area of technology. What began as an extension of the teaching process and the teaching of a new skill has exploded into a social networking universe that has no boundaries. Providing a “safe” networking platform for our students was a great advantage, in the very near future the majority of our MS and US students will have internet access that we cannot control through their handheld devices . What is our role in teaching students what is appropriate and inappropriate to say and do in the cyber world, and how can we control and monitor their explorations? How can parents?

In addition, technology offers very powerful learning opportunities ranging from the organizing of information on a laptop to cross-cultural experiences, research, polling for opinions, and additional learning opportunities through virtual classrooms.

The world is changing faster than ever, and it is critical that education keep up or our students will not be prepared for the world into which we send them after their senior year. Our intention is to move purposefully into the future so that there is an alignment of our program and teaching methods with what students will need to know.

Why Choose Greensboro Day School?

Greensboro Day School is one of over 2,000 independent schools from across the United States who are members of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). In all, these schools provide a high-quality of education to over 700,000 students from preschool through high school. Each of the NAIS schools has its own mission and purpose and is held accountable by a board of trustees and high accreditation standards. They are called “independent” because they do not receive government support and are supported by tuition, donations and endowments.

Research indicates that independent schools are successful because they provide:

• High-quality and committed teachers
• Close-knit communities 
• Hands-on learning opportunities
• Educational experiences beyond the classroom
• Actively engaged parents
• Supportive learning environments
• Provide a high degree of safety
• Individualized attention for students

Recent studies, and those from a 2004 NAIS report, indicate that families chose independent schools because of these reasons along with small classes, excellent teachers and high academic standards. Overall, families believe that independent schools will provide high-quality, well-rounded experiences for their children. Along with high academic standards families report that their children also prosper from opportunities to extend their learning in core subject areas, electives, athletics, fine and performing arts and later,  in life.

The U.S. Department of Education, through its conducting of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), came to the conclusion that independent school students enroll in more advanced courses than their counterparts in pubic, parochial and other private schools.  They also found that independent school students:

·  Do twice as much homework as their counterparts

·  Watch only two-thirds as much television

·  Are significantly more likely to participate in varsity or intramural sports

·  Are more likely to agree that students and teachers get along well, discipline is fair and teaching is good.

While all independent schools set high standards and emphasize values, each provides a unique educational program based on its mission and theory of educational practice.

Recent reports indicate a slight drop in enrollment at many independent schools. We are thrilled to report that Greensboro Day School remains strong in both enrollment and financial stability. Our number one priority is to remain constant in our academic and extracurricular offerings. While many local private and public schools are cutting resources and programs, we continue to offer the most challenging academic program in the area, balanced with an award winning arts program and competitive athletics. 

If you would like to learn more about the value of an independent school education, you might enjoy some of these links:

• http://www.nais.org/files/PDFs/NELSReport_2-3-04_FINAL.pdf
• http://www.metrokids.com/MetroKids/November-2011/7-Myths-About-Independent-Schools/
• http://www.fcis.org/uploaded/Accreditation/New_Docs_2/Why_Choose_an_Independent_School.pdf

If you would like to learn more about Greensboro Day School, click here.

The Critical Skills that our Students will Need

A new Towers Watson study "Global Talent 2021" is based on information from a recent global survey of 352 human resource professionals. The report outlines four skill areas that will be in demand over the next 10 years and makes me reflect on the educational curriculum that will need to be in place to support our students in developing these skills.

Digital Skills: Highly skilled technical workers will be needed in a rapidly growing digital economy. Social media already places an emphasis on employing those who have the ability to work in newly developing forms of digital expression and who have marketing literacy. 50.6 percent of the HR professionals who responded to the survey indicated that digital skills would be critical for future workers and 44.9 percent indicated that the ability to work virtually was critical.

Agile Thinking Skills: In an era of ongoing economic and political variability, agile thinking and the ability to design multiple scenarios is going to be vital. Innovative thinking, the ability to deal with complexity and manage what appear to be paradoxical situations, will be critical skills to have in the very near future.

Interpersonal and Communication Skills: The HR professionals believed that co-creativity and brainstorming skills, along with customer relationship building and virtual teaming skills, will be in great demand. They believe that corporations will continue to move from a command-and-control style of management to a more collaborative model. With a wide variety of geographies and cultures represented in stakeholders from around the world, the capacity to align strategic goals, build consensus and build collaboration will be critical needs for corporations.

Global Operating Skills: The ability to work in worldwide markets and manage a diverse set of employees is seen by the HR professionals as the most important operating skill. The ability to understand diverse cultures, their language and customs will be critical in a future where commerce will flow ever more freely across the world.

The report concludes by saying that employees who do not possess these valuable skills will be at a serious competitive disadvantage, and those who do will be the leaders of tomorrow.