Redefining collaboration with the PYP Exhibition

June 1, 2015

Unfortunately, I think that the idea of collaboration is very rarely understood properly by teachers of the PYP. For many of us, student collaboration has always meant “working in a group” and never really progressed any further than that. Part of the problem with this is our misguided belief that teacher collaboration means “planning in a group”, but more on that another time.

Ironically, it is our flagship student experience – the PYP Exhibition – that can be held responsible for our misconceptions about collaboration. It was always designed to be a “collaborative inquiry ” and so, to that end, teachers have been popping their poor students into groups in PYP schools worldwide every year. Doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Well, yes, its catastrophic for many of the following types of student:

• those students who end up being put in a group because there wasn’t a group based on their interest
• those students who end up being put in a group because the group they wanted to be in was “full”
• those students who always end up doing all the work in groups
• those students who always fade into the background while others take the glory
• those students who have always let others do the work because they lack confidence or skills
• those students whose interests and styles of learning are never quite the same enough for them to be in a group
• those students who make misguided group choices and regret it later
• those students who compromise their own identity just to be in a group
• introverts
• extroverts
• outliers
• etc… have I left anyone out?

When teachers create a finite amount of groups for the PYP Exhibition (often defined by a finite number of pre-determined things the kids can learn about) with a finite number of places in each group they are undermining inquiry from the word “go”. They are also pushing cooperation and not setting the scene for genuine collaboration to happen naturally. They are creating the conditions for conflict, frustration, bickering, divisive behaviour, sulking and competitiveness. We have all seen it.

When you remove this obsession with grouping from the equation completely and allow students to develop their own inquiries… a real, natural, diverse, dynamic and unpredictable culture of collaboration begins to evolve:

• you get partnerships and groups emerging at different times in the process based on a recognition of like minds or similar goals
• you get frequent, spontaneous collaborations taking place as students share information, exchange ideas or help each other with things
• you get collaborations happening between students and adults as teachers, parents and other members of the community get involved in the process
• you get collaborations between the students and students of all other ages who become part of the process
• you get collaboration happening by email, and online
• you get collaboration you never anticipated

Putting students (and all people) in groups and calling it collaboration is a mould that must be broken. We have been breaking that mould for a while now, and it works.

Why not give it a try? There’s no need to wait for the PYP Exhibition, after all… it’s just another unit of inquiry.

Written by sherrattsam Posted in groups, Inquiry, Learning, PYP Exhibition, teaching Tagged with awareness, classrooms, collaboration, colleagues, communication, connections, creativity, culture, curiosity, differentiation, education