Collaborative learning (group/pair work)

In this study, group and pair work emerged, from students’ perspectives, as a pedagogic practice that responds to students’ learning styles. Apart from a few objections which I will present later, students were generally happy about learning from their peers. KinivoB1’s best lesson was one in which his understanding had been facilitated by his peer:

Harry: So it was your best lesson because you had a zero?

KinivoB1: No, because he [teacher] did not tell us what to add, so I had zero. But after, my friend explained to me what I was supposed to do, and I know it very well now.

Harry: Wait a minute. Who helps you to understand more? Your friend or your teacher.

KinivoB1: I understand better when my friend explains to me.

The extract above comes from a point in the interview when participants are talking about their best English language lessons in the first two months of the first term and this pupil selects the lesson in which he had a zero in the practice exercise. The reason he likes this lesson is because his friend helped him understand it better. Peer support is clearly the preferred learning strategy for this learner as it is for others across both research sites. Elsewhere in Yaoundé, George’s students expressed preference for collaborative work as encouraged by their teacher. They recounted how their teacher challenges them to resolve language problems in groups:

GeorgeG3: [...] He will give every group a paper and he will write words on the board and each group will discuss the meaning

[...]

GeorgeG2: We will discuss it; if your answer is correct we will accept it and we will write it.

GeorgeG3: Our group was first.

In Buea, students also identified collaborative learning activities as good practice:

AlbertoG1: I prefer that we should discuss something in a group before giving the answer.

Harry: Do you agree?

AlbertoG3: Yes sir

The most compelling arguments for collaborative work came from Josephine’s male students who clearly expressed a preference for learning from peers. They thought they would learn better when their teacher encourages other students to answer the questions they ask:

…when the child answers the question, the child will remember it very well, I will also remember because maybe next time, it will be me who will explain the answer to another child. […] if you don’t know something, your friend can tell you (JosephineB5)

Even more compelling was the ensuing discussion on the merits of group/pair work in which they captured a typical lesson procedure of their teacher explaining how useful such a procedure was for their learning:

JosephineB2: Any question that is difficult for us, she will ask us to work in groups to find the answer.

Harry: How do you form your groups?

JosephineB2: We work with our bench mates.

Harry: I see. So you discuss with your bench mates before you give the answer?

JosephineB5: Yes, because when you are two or three, you think more better than when you are alone.

Harry: What do you think about what JosephineB5just said?

JosephineB3: I think it is true

All: Yes sir. […]

JosephineB4: When she teaches us composition, sometimes we write alone, sometimes we do it in a group

Harry: Which do you prefer?

JosephineB5: I prefer it in a group because when you make a mistake, your friend can correct you. But when you are alone, you just write and make a mistake and you continue without knowing.

JosephineB4: You can write and you put ‘is’, and you want to think again to write you just come and put another ‘is’ but when your friend sees it, he will tell you so that you can cancel one ‘is’.

Harry: JosephineB2?

JosephineB2: When I am writing, I try to write it alone, I do not want my friend to see it, but when I have a problem I cannot spell a word I ask my friend to spell it for me on a rough paper or I try to spell it for my friend to check it. I

will write alone so that they do not say we are doing copy work. I will tell my friend what I want to write, but we will not write the same.

The excerpt above not only illustrates Josephine’s use of collaborative work but shows students’ awareness of its benefits. Even JosephineB2 who apparently prefers to start doing his work alone recognises the importance of checking with peers whenever he is uncertain about his spelling. It is through collaborating with peers that they are able to develop and consolidate new knowledge.

This notwithstanding, there was some amount of disagreement about peer support especially amongst 4 of the five girls in Josephine’s class.

JosephineG3: I prefer when I am working alone. If they teach a subject now, when I go home, I can revise it. When I come back to school, I can ask the teacher. I can also ask my friends too but I prefer the teacher.

[…]

JosephineG2: I prefer when it is the teacher who tells me the correct answer than when it is another child.

Disagreement about group/pair work was even more strongly expressed amongst Alberto’s girls:

AlbertoG4: I do not agree because when we discuss it, one person may not understand and the rest can understand. Then when another person has to talk alone, he will try and read well to answer correctly, but when we are in a group a person can just allow others to read and he will steal the answer and put up his hand to answer as if it is his answer.

[...]

AlbertoG3: I agree because all of you have to be one and the answer that you people have chosen, all of you must agree on the answer

AlbertoG1: Because if one person gives the answer, the teacher will explain better and all of us will understand.

Opinions were also divided between the durability of pupil or teacher responses with some students preferring one over the other:

Harry: If they ask a question in class and you don’t know the answer. Do you prefer when it is your friend who gives the answer or when it is your teacher who gives the answer. Which one do you remember most? I will start with AlbertoG4

AlbertoG4: when the teacher gives us the answer

AlbertoG3: When the child gives the answer.

AlbertoG1: I prefer it when it is a child because the child can give an answer which is correct and children will take it as a right that the teacher should always say the answer which is not correct because in the exams the teacher will not give us the answer

AlbertoG4: But when the teacher gives the answer we will put it in our heads

AlbertoG3: The child also can give the right answer

AlbertoG4: Because when the child gives an answer the teacher will say it is very good. Then he will say an example and ask that why is that answer correct and we must answer the question. If we cannot answer the question he will say that we have not yet understood and he will explain again.

In the above excerpt, AlbertoG1 and AlbertoG3 are in favour of peer learning because, as they argue, the teacher will not always be there to help them. AlbertoG4 prefers to learn exclusively from the teacher because apart from just providing answers, the teacher can better explain why a particular answer is right or wrong. The contrasting opinions expressed above are reminiscent of the differences that exist in individual learning styles and point to the challenges that teachers face, if they have to attain to different needs in their classes.