Giving Compass' Take:
• The Collaboration Nation conducted a study that surveyed how educators felt about teaching collaborative skills and using tools to support those types of lessons. 

• Why will collaboration be important for 21st-century learning? How can funders help to create collaborative environments in spite of COVID-19? 

• Read about how some teachers use blended learning models in their classrooms, but adjust and collaborate with other teachers to make the model fit what they need.

From 2016-2017, Collaboration Nation conducted a study of collaboration instruction and assessment in K-12 classrooms in the United States. In this study, 82 educators from 39 districts and organizations answered survey questions about their experiences with teaching collaboration skills, as well as the tools and support they need to be successful in fostering collaborative learning.

Most educators who responded to the Collaboration Nation survey defined collaboration in terms of outcomes, as in this representative response, “Groups of people working together to solve a problem or achieve a vision.”

The Collaboration Nation study seeks to build upon current conversations and research related not only to collaboration as a skill in and of itself, but also how collaboration fits into larger pedagogical trends in the “21st-century skill reboot.”  The 21st-century reboot incorporates a variety of new teaching methods and frameworks intended to prepare students for the demands of the 21st-century workforce and society.

Notably, the survey data indicates that educators explain challenges that students experience with collaboration by focusing on causes that reside within students rather than causes that are within the control of educators or the school system itself.

This is a troubling finding. Educators may be guilty of the “fundamental attribution error,” a psychological phenomenon that happens when people attribute the cause of other people’s struggles to something that is within the control of that person, rather than something external such as enabling conditions or circumstances.

Educators need to pay more attention to the process and not just the outcome; reframing their thinking from students intentionally not engaging in collaboration to thinking about the experiences and skills students need.

Read the full article about defining collaboration by  Jordan Lippman and Janine Perri at Getting Smart.