Collaborative problem-solving benefits

Fourteen years into the 21st century, the debate around the concept of 21st century learning and consequent responses in curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and skills continues to be unresolved. According to the Partnership of 21st Century Skills (P21), a Washington DC-based think-tank, “in addition to the core academic skills, students must also learn the essential skills for success in today’s world such as critical thinking, communication, problem-solving and collaboration”. But to develop these skills in students, teachers need to learn these skills themselves.

Self-evidently, 18th century pedagogies and classroom management practices won’t succeed in developing 21st century learning skills in the new generation of students. Hence the urgent need for developing new models of teacher-training and professional development. In a radically changed context, teachers are no longer the sole repositories of knowledge and wisdom as learners have become increasingly independent. Information is equally accessible to teachers as well as students. Therefore collaborative learning and cooperative problem-solving have emerged as the critical skills that teachers must learn to effectively transfer to students.

However, creating a culture of collaborative learning is easier said than done. The inspiration has to emanate from the top leadership which must integrate collaborative learning into teacher development programmes.

The Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), India’s premier school-leaving examinations board, introduced its continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) scheme in 2010. This major exam reform was implemented in over 13,000 CBSE-affiliated schools countrywide. The rationale of CCE is that it provides continuous rather than year-end evaluation of academic progress and accords equal emphasis to students’ development in life skills, attitudes, beliefs, values, interests and co-curricular education.

Under the CCE system, two sets of assessments are required to be made — formative and summative. The objective of formative assessment is to continuously monitor students’ progress, whereas summative assessment is a measure of how much they have learned by the end of the academic year. There’s considerable confusion within the teachers’ community about formative assessment. Teachers, themselves products of the summative assessment format, have little or no insight into formative assessment design. If they are not conversant with the philosophy, objectives and tools designed to measure learning progression, the very purpose of introducing CCE is defeated.

To address this pervasive lacuna, a collaborative problem-solving (CPS) workshop was initiated in Ahlcon School, Delhi, at the start of the academic year 2013-14. A group of six (math, science, English, social sciences, Hindi and arts education) teachers were introduced to ways and means of designing formative assessment tools. To start with, they had a very vague understanding of the objectives and purpose of formative assessment. This ignorance was compounded by their pre-service teacher training and classroom practice in a norms-referenced summative assessment environment. Inevitably, given their traditional  training, they had very limited exposure to CPS.

Essentially, CPS is about collaborating to negotiate common challenges by sharing perspectives, defining issues, generating options, developing standards and finally reaching agreement. Teachers — and later students and teachers — work together and pool their information, sharing, collating, analysing and synthesising skills while respecting viewpoints, negotiating common solutions, and developing social and cognitive skills. Conclusions/solutions are co-owned and every teacher is obliged to share implementation outcomes. The role of the principal/leader is to supervise and enable CPS in the institutional interest.

As the CPS workshop — spread over a week — progressed, as facilitator I observed inhibitions dissolving and a culture of cooperation manifesting itself. Free flow of information exchange on formative assessment systems generated moments of heated discussion, but no disrespect was shown and differences and apprehensions resulted in negotiated solutions. The workshop culminated with acceptance of integration of experimentation, open text-based assessment, face-to-face interaction with learners, online assignments and peer-to-peer learning as preferred tools for formative assessment. In all, 25 innovative options were creatively discussed including usage of infographics, wikipedia, blog-writing and peer-to-peer evaluation. These tools had never before been utilised for formative assessment.

In creating a 21st century institutional culture in which CPS can strike deep roots and develop teachers into valuable organisational assets, the role of the principal/leader is of critical importance. A progressive leader can bring modern institution development programmes to the table which encourage teachers to research, participate in conferences, and support them with academic assignments to develop a culture of learning and scholarship.

(Ashok Pandey is principal of Ahlcon International School, Delhi)