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What Are the Benefits of Collaboration?

In his article “Collaborative Learning and the ‘Conversation of Mankind,’” Kenneth A. Bruffee encourages teachers to utilize collaborative learning because of numerous benefits. Even though collaborative learning seems to be a nontraditional teaching method, it does not change what students learn; it changes the social context in which they learn (418). Bruffee argues that collaboration gives students the opportunity to practice participation in academic conversations that are valued by the academy (422). Collaborative learning can be successful because of the social context in which it occurs—a community of peers (423). Bruffee writes, “We establish knowledge or justify beliefs collaboratively by challenging each other’s biases and presuppositions; by negotiating collectively toward new paradigms of perception, thought, feeling, and expression…” (427). In essence, collaborative learning prepares students for the collective decision-making they will be a part of as members of the academic community.

There are, of course, more benefits than could be listed here, but these are some of the most important:

• Attempts to produce a livelier, nontraditional classroom.
• Frees us from the authoritarian approach to learning.
• Involves students in their own learning in a meaningful and productive way.
• Is humane—students benefit socially and intellectually from group members.
• Embraces the social nature of language and learning (Stewart 63–64).
• Forces students to be aware of rhetorical decisions (Elbow 8).
• Allows for the possibility that marginalized students will ascertain their social and political power (Fox 121).
• Improves individual writing by teaching students to include multiple points of view, conflicting ideas, perplexity, tension, and complexity of structure (Elbow 12).

The benefits of collaborative learning have been well documented, and Lynn Troyka points out one of the many reasons collaboration is so necessary in a basic writing context. Troyka examines the growing number of non-traditional students in basic writing, and she argues they “attend first to the social context” in the classroom (20). Collaboration is one of the best ways we can reach out to these students. However, when preparing a basic writing course, one must consider all of the benefits and challenges. While we would do ourselves a disservice by leaving collaboration out of the classroom, there are many challenges that may arise due to the diverse nature of basic writing students. Because students have different learning needs, collaboration that works for one may not work for another, so some benefits may actually become problematic for certain students.