Book Review: Collaborative Learning Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty

摘要

In the 1930s, psychologist Lev Vygotsky hypothesized thatstudents who worked with other, more capable students learnedmore than if those students worked alone. Research in the decades since then has supported Vygotsky’s foundational work:collaborative learning is positively correlated with retention,higher-order thinking, and accurate and creative problem solving. Indeed, after a review of over 500 studies of pedagogy inhigher education, it was determined that the most effectiveteaching method is ”depends on the goal, the student, the content and the teacher”, but that the second most effective teaching method is “Students teaching other students” (p. 16). Thebenefits of collaborative learning are particularly strong forwomen, minorities, adult students, and international students(p. 27).