GROUP DYNAMICS IN COLLABORATIVE LEARNING: CONTEXTUAL ISSUES AND CONSIDERATIONS

Learning contexts are transforming significantly and under the umbrella of constructivist strategies ‘collaborative learning’ is an increasingly practiced approach to learning. The collaborative learning, a group based approach to learning builds up on the premise that knowledge is a social construct hence, knowledge construction a social endeavor through group-based learning. The research studies on the mechanisms of collaborative learning bring out various cognitive, social and emotional dimensions of group interactions. Further, the ‘Group Dynamics’ plays a crucial role in effective implementation of this pedagogical practice and teachers often have to struggle with the issues relating to composition and working aspects of the groups. The teachers, in the situations of organizing for collaborative learning therefore, need to monitor and assess the group interactions. There could be various indicators of behavioral parameters at individual as well as group level to analyze the nature of the prevailing group dynamics in a collaborative learning situation. This article culls out some behavioral dimensions to comprehensively assess the group dynamics during the process of collaborative learning. This attempt takes into consideration the shifting thrust on the ‘process’ of collaborative learning.