Collaborative learning

For as long as I can remember, for the most part, I have always enjoyed working in groups over individual work. I knew if I worked in a group I would receive help from my group members, making the work easier. Even though it is a fairly new concept, teachers have been favoring collaborative work in their classrooms. In the Trimbur reading it says, "collaborative learning organizes students not just to work together on common projects but more important to engage in a process of intellectual negotiation and collective decision-making." According to the reading some critics believe this kind of group work eliminates individual voice and creativity. Referring to the readings and your personal beliefs, does this in fact seem to be true, is individualism in fact taken away in collaborative learning?

I believe, to a certain extent, individualism could be forgotten. However, how do people learn in the world? Through themselves or through their peers? The obvious answer is both, but I believe most comes from your peers, especially teachers. Conversing with one another allows people to learn through others socially. I don't know how many times someone has told me something I did not know, especially when working in groups. It is easy to relate to others in your class because you are all there learning the same material.

This relates to the term "normal discourse." According to Richard Rorty "this applies to conversation within a community of knowledgeable peers." Those who want to become attorneys have to learn the language of the law, they are in the same community. This is what a teacher is for, to teach and share to the new members of a community his or her knowledge. Students will then learn the subject matter. People in the same community can relate to one another and learn from each other. Perhaps if students were only given group assignments they may never have an individual voice or creativity. But occasionally using group work for specific assignments just might be beneficial. Students can collaborate on their given assignment and help each other to understand the subject better and reach a consensus. Therefore I believe the occasional group work is important and will not take away ones individualism, but one could overdue the group assignments and never give a student a chance to find their own individual voice especially if they have not already found it.