Recipes for Fruitful Collaborative Learning

As a Swede, I feel it is my duty to bring the Swedish fika to the table. The fika is the moment of the day when we all gather with a cup of coffee and a cake (or something similar), whether it is with colleagues, acquaintances, friends or family.

In most workplaces, the coffee break is a must that you can’t say no to. For a short while, colleagues gather around a table with a coffee. Here, an important part of the interaction takes place in the workplace, a chance for exchanges of ideas, spontaneous problem-solving or just small talk where you get to know the person behind the job title. Informal or not - some say that the best idéas comes from a fika.

Helena

Ingredients for the book club

1. Discussion leader
2. Summarizer
3. Questioner
4. Word collector
5. Designer
6. Interrogator
7. Weaver

Method

1. The discussion leader distributes the word evenly throughtout the entire session.

2. The summarizer begins with summarizing the text.

3. The questioner brings difficulties and ambiguities from the text, and ensures common understanding.

4. The word collector gather key terms from the text.

5. The designer illustrates the text or shapes it in another way, and lets the others interpret the connection to the text.

6. The interrogator ask critical questions and problematize.

7. The weaver sees intertextual connections between what is read and other relevant contexts (for example, between course topics or between theory and practice).

Before the session you distribute the ingredients, one ingredient for each participant, as far as it lasts. Each participant is responsible for preparing their part before the book club meets. At the next meeting, the participants exchange ingredients.

Loading...

Silvana

Loading...

My favorite plate from my childhood in Spain was an outside cooked mixed paella. Paella was originally farm laborers' food, cooked by the workers over a wood fire. It was made with rice, plus whatever was to hand around the rice fields and countryside. Paella however would be a different dish without the Romans who brought the pan and the Arab because of rice and saffron.

Today there are many varieties of paella, the typical ones are seafood paella and mixed paella which combines meat from livestock, seafood, vegetables, and sometimes beans, with the traditional rice. Often a giant paella is the centerpiece for many fiestas.

Loading...

Mixed group paella

Loading...

Ingredients:

- Different personalities
- Typical roles in a group
- Various learning methods and strategies

Loading...

Method:

1. Form a group an think about you usual role in it - are you Facilitator (often the leader of the group), Initiators (contribute ideas and suggestions for resolving problems), Arbitrator, Notetaker, Coach, Coordinator, Evaluator or a Compromiser. Or a mix of some of these.

2. Choose a role you would usually not take and try working in a group in this role - if you usually tend to lead, take a step back and try the role of an arbitrator. If you usually have millions of ideas try to concentrate on evaluating the ideas of others. Etc.

3. After the group session discuss how did your new role feel like, what was hard and what did you learn

MARKNADSKONFEKT

Some of my dearest childhood memories are going to fairs with my parents. The mix of people at the different market stalls and of course the homemade sweets "Marknadskonfekt". In Sweden these sweets are also made during Christmas. If I was lucky, they had set up a carousel at the fair...

Kirsi

CAROUSEL BRAINSTORM

Like at the fair,
the carousel brainstorm invites people to circulate from "stall to stall".

1.      The class is divided into equal groups, each group at their own table.

2.      Groups brainstorm ideas on sticky notes and place them on chart paper.

3.      Use short phrases and only one idea/note.

4.      Give a certain time (depending on problem/topic) and let the groups rotate around the room, filling the charts with ideas.

5.      When the group returns to its starting point, they summarize the findings to the whole class.

6.      The Carousel Brainstorm can be completed with an individual reflection to hand in after the meeting.

Ingredients

- As many tables as there will be groups.
- Sticky notes
- 1 chart paper

1. Place the tables side by side, forming a circle.
2. Place out sticky notes and 1 chart paper describing a different topic/problem on each table.

Ubugari, (or ugali), is a type of stiff cassava (sorghum, maize, millet) flour porridge made in Africa. It has different names. It is cooked in boiling water until it reaches a stiff or firm dough-like consistency. In 2017, the dish was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, one of a few foods in the list.

There is
no Facebook without
Ubugari

Ubugari (Ugali)

Jean-Paul

Ubugari tastes better when it is eaten using hands (not fork) and in groups.

Ingredients

1. Specific group
2. Long time
3. Extensive task

Ingredients

1. Cassava (or maize, corn, sorghum, wheat) flour
2. Hot water

Formal Collaborative Learning

In Formal Collaborative Learning, group members work together to achieve shared learning goals and complete jointly specific tasks (Johnson et al., 1994). Each member of the group has the role to provide a positive team identity (Kagan & Kagan, 2009). The group organizes itself on an extensive task. This takes often long to be done.

The two main characteristics of the implementation of Formal Collaborative learning:

- Role (responsibility in a group assignment)

- Feedback system (feedback from both the group members and the teacher)

Eddie

Chinese Hot Pot

Hot pot is a cooking process that originated in China. Traditionally, a large pot is set in the center of the table with soups and a heating device. Various raw ingredients are put around the pot, for example, meat, seafood, vegetables, etc. Family and friends join to gather cook their own ingredients and eat them with a sauce.