4-tamoyil: Darsni o‘rganuvchi ehtiyojiga mos tarzda taqdim etish. Principle 4: Adapt Lesson Delivery as Needed

Communication and team-work skills are highly sought-after in today’s 
world. Steve Burnage looks at how schools can develop skills in 
communication and collaboration, including across the curriculum 
Increasingly, learning and innovation skills are being recognised as the skills 
that separate students who are prepared for increasingly complex life and work 
environments in the 21st century, and those who are not. 
A learning and teaching focus on the skills of creativity, critical thinking, 
communication and collaboration is essential to prepare students for their futures. I 
have already tackled critical thinking Here, I want to explore the role that 
communication and collaboration has in developing future learners. 
Communication and collaboration 
All of us communicate and collaborate every day, both professionally and 
personally, yet defining these key components of effective learning and teaching 
can be quite challenging. 
Communication and collaboration are intrinsic parts of what we do every day 
in schools – and yet the breadth of their meaning is hard to pin down. 
Communication covers a range of forms which can be broadly categorised into 
three groups: 
• 
Verbal communication, in which you listen to a person to understand their 
meaning. 
• 
Written communication, in which you read their meaning. 
• 
Non-verbal communication, in which you observe a person and infer 
meaning. 
Collaboration, likewise, is a broad term; the components of which lie in several 
topologies: 
The key issue is not so much our understanding of bands of classification, 
rather how we employ these to have a positive impact on the quality of learning 
and teaching in our schools. 
Ten collaborative learning tips 

---

• 
Establish group goals: Effective collaborative learning needs group goals, as 
well as individual accountability. This keeps the group on task and establishes a 
clear learning outcome. 
• 
Keep groups mid-sized: Small groups of three or less lack enough diversity 
and may not allow divergent thinking to occur. Groups that are too large create 
“freeloading” where not all members participate. A moderate size group of four or 
five is ideal. 
• 
Build trust and promote open communication: Successful interpersonal 
communication must exist in teams. Building trust is essential. Deal with 
emotional issues that arise immediately and any interpersonal problems before 
moving on. Open communication is key. 
• 
For larger tasks, create group roles: The more challenging a task, the clearer 
individual roles, responsibilities and accountabilities need to be. 
• 
Consider using a range of group interaction strategies: 
o 
The jigsaw technique – each group only has part of “the jigsaw” and must 
work with other groups in the class to solve the problem collaboratively. 
o 
Snowballing – start off like a think, pair, share activity but, after pairing 
move on to groups of four, eight and then 16 before opening up discussion to the 
whole class. 
o 
Six thinking hats – Edward DeBono’s well-known strategy to encourage 
learners to think from one (or more than one) perspective. 
o 
Elephant on the bus – a development of six thinking hats where learners are 
encouraged to think from a variety of creative perspectives to solve a problem and 
then 
share 
their 
ideas 
with 
the 
whole 
group. 
There are plenty of other strategies to be found online. One good place to start is 
this “Ideas for group work” Pinterest group: 
https://goo.gl/LMtgbx
 
• 
Use some real-world problems: Experts suggest that project-based learning 
using open-ended questions can be very engaging. Rather than spending a lot of 
time designing an artificial scenario, use inspiration from everyday problems. 

---

Real-world problems can be used to facilitate project-based learning and often 
have the right scope for collaborative learning. 
• 
Focus on enhancing problem-solving and critical thinking skills: Try to 
design assignments that allow room for varied interpretations. Different types of 
problems might focus on categorising, planning, taking multiple perspectives, or 
forming solutions. 
• 
Think about the gender balance of your groups: Some research suggests that 
boys are more likely to receive and give elaborate explanations and their stances 
are more easily accepted by the group. In majority male groups girls are ignored. 
In majority girl groups, girls tend to direct questions to the boy who often ignores 
them. Try to keep a gender balance in each group. 
• 
Use scaffolding: Structure and scaffold group learning tasks at the beginning 
of a project. Teachers might serve as facilitator to groups needing more support, or 
provide a list of scaffolding questions. 
• 
Technology makes collaborative learning easier: Collaboration can be very 
effective 
through 
digital 
platforms 
and 
social 
media. 
Padlet.com
, 
Groups.google.com, or even a shared folder on MS One Drive. For a useful 
database of collaborative software and evaluations, see Effective communication 
Collaborative learning, by its very nature, requires effective communication for 
it to take place. Can communication exist without collaboration? Can collaboration 
exist with communication? We might respond to these two questions by saying 
that for either to be an effective learning tool each must work hand-in-hand with 
the other. 
Improve communication in the classroom 
• 
Use video resources that model conversation skills: Students can learn the 
foundational elements of conversation by watching videos of these interactions 
taking place. Pausing the video to ask questions – such as “What message is the 
listener sending by crossing his arms? What else can you tell by observing the 
expressions and body language of both people in the conversation?” – can help us 
teach and model effective communication. 

---

• 
Use technology: From audiobooks to apps, there is a multitude of 
technological resources you can use to develop effective communication skills. 
Students can listen to or read along with audiobooks to hear how the speaker 
pronounces and enunciates different words or phrases. 
• 
Reinforce active listening: Communication is not just about speaking, it is 
also about listening. Teachers can help their students develop listening skills by 
reading a selection of text aloud and then having the class discuss and reflect on 
the content. 
• 
Plan collaborative learning activities: Group learning activities can also help 
students to sharpen both oral and written communication skills. Not only does it 
offer students the chance to work in small groups, thereby reducing some of the 
pressure, but it also gives them the opportunity to debate their opinions, take turns, 
and work together towards a common goal. 
• 
Ask open-ended questions: Because they require more than a one or two-
word response, open-ended questions are vital for inspiring discussion and 
demonstrating that there are multiple ways to perceive and answer a question. You 
might set a timer for short informal conversations and challenge students to use 
open-ended questions. 
• 
Give learners time to think: Once you have asked a question, give learners 
time to think about their answer. This encourages deeper thinking, creative and 
imaginative thinking, time to verbalise an answer – and doesn’t reward the first 
learner with their hand up. 
• 
Provide a variety of ways for learners to reflect on their learning: Recording 
students reading selected text or videotaping group presentations is an excellent 
method for assessing communication strengths and weaknesses. Students can 
reflect on their oral performance in small groups. Then, ask each student to critique 
the others so that they can get used to receiving constructive criticism. 
• 
Use tasks and activities that foster critical thinking: As I explored in my 
previous article, critical thinking and problem-solving are great vehicles to 
encourage extended communication in our learners. These can be done verbally or 

---

through written assignments that give students the chance to answer questions 
creatively using their own words and expressions. 
• 
Find teachable moments: Whatever the age group you are working with, 
maximise on the everyday happenings in the classroom environment. For example, 
if a student answers a question in a complicated way, you might ask that they 
rephrase what they said, or challenge the class to ask clarifying questions. If an 
unfamiliar word pops up in a text or on a film, pause in order for the class to search 
for the word in the dictionary. 
Bringing things together 
This final article concludes my exploration of the “4Cs”: critical thinking, 
communication, collaboration, and creativity. 
Critical thinking and problem-solving provide opportunities for students to 
ignite higher order thinking, like analysis, evaluation, or synthesis through 
judgements or decisions based upon evidence, arguments, claims or beliefs. While 
problem-based learning grounded in finding both conventional and creative 
solutions to unfamiliar problems can be a powerful way to incorporate team-work 
and collaboration into any lesson. 
Communication and collaboration taught effectively across the curriculum 
(rather than just expecting them to happen) could transform learning opportunities 
for students to participate in lively conversations, express their opinions, build 
upon other ideas, present information, and evaluate another speaker’s point of 
view. 
Creativity and innovation includes both thinking creatively and working 
creatively with others to tie in adaptability, leadership, and team-work. 
Building in opportunities for students to practise idea-generation techniques, such 
as brainstorming or brainwriting, mind-mapping, storyboarding, or visualisation, 
will bolster their abilities to create and innovate, while at the same time promote 
communication, collaboration, and critical thinking and problem-solving.