Really recognizing the value of becoming part of a learning community and experience the benefits of social learning is not always something you think about when you engage in studies. Or an aspect that as a teacher you will consider when having new students starting a course. But there are occasions in my classes when real collaborative learning takes place, that moved my own thinking forward.
For instance, during my french course on “la Françafrique” (the course deals with France and Francophone African countries from the perspective of their joint history and political, economic, cultural, and socio-linguistic aspects) , I give students ( divided into small groups of 3 or 4) a core concept or a theme (in this case, for instance : la colonisation inversée/reverse colonisation, le syndrome de Fachoda/Fachoda syndrom, l’aide au développement liée/development aid linked to french intrests…) and in each group , they have to draw a concept map together, linking ideas with arrows and short explanations.Then one member presents to the class his group’s work on the blackboard using a projector. We always have, then, a prompt debrief together about the connections that they made during the exercise (and now I learned that it’s also a good idea to ask them also about the connections they wouldn’t have thought of alone).This exercise work very well according to my experience, because students see that others bring valuable perspectives and learning deepens when ideas are shared.
Sometimes, but rarely, this exercise fails. It happens that students are not thinking together although they are working together. As Ringer, M., Gordon, R., & Vandenbussche, B. (2022) wrote(1) : “the group’s atmosphere does not feel safe enough for participants to think or speak freely. Despite individual participants thinking useful thoughts, they are not made available to the group. Individual thinking may be creative, but collective thinking is impaired because the thoughts of one member do not become a stimulus for the thinking of others.”
Another example is the written skills course, where a group of 2 or 3 people go over each other’s texts, correcting any errors (spelling, grammar, syntax, etc.) and explaining these errors. If I simply give them their text back with my corrections, and ask them to correct it again, it won’t be the same thing. They will inevitably be missing their classmates’ thoughts or points of view.
The ways of collaborating that we experimented with during this course ONL251, using various tools such as Padlet, Google slide, with the ‘leader’ giving us an overview of the topic, with guiding questions (that every “student” worked out) , and then sharing a padlet board or a google slide document (e.g.) where each person had to post their solution in real-time or later, was a perfect example of what I could do in my class. Collaborating in real-time, adding ideas, resources. This kind of exercise gives deeper understanding of the topic (whatever it is), enhances communication and teamwork skills, should increase confidence in using collaborative tech tools (as long as the teacher masters them and takes time to explain how they work in a relatively easy way) and the students experience giving and receiving constructive feedback from their peers. Something I’m definitely going to try at the start of the academic year with my two distance learning courses.
(1)Ringer, M., Gordon, R., & Vandenbussche, B. (2022) .Igniting the collective spark: The relevance of thinking together
Musa Ramadhan says:
Thierry you are already an active user of AI in teaching for me in the medical its still a start. This is an eye opener for me and after this course am going to do more reading on appropriate use AI in teaching medical students.
kudos for you wonderful insight on use of AI in teaching French language
June 9, 2025 — 9:18 pm
Thierry Gilles says:
I am a very very modest (and new beginner) user of AI. I thought I knew some stuffs, but I realised I only knew o,1 % of what I could do with AI and in 1 or 2 years, it will be only o,001 % , at the speed at which AI is evolving. I am sure you will find some useful ways of using AI with your medical students!
June 9, 2025 — 10:07 pm
Mirna Vidaković says:
Thanks for giving an insight into your pedagogical experience. For me, the key sentence in your text is this one: “because students see that others bring valuable perspectives and learning deepens when ideas are shared.” I guess that we all strive to achieve this, seeing the benefits of collaborative learning, which, leads to both student and teacher satisfaction. That’s when you can say – I love this job 🙂 However, it is true – it doesn’t always work out as planned – all groups are different, have different dynamics. Sometimes, group members and talkative, extrovert, sometimes there are introverts, shy students, hesitant because of their lower foreign language level…so we need to try and think of strategies to help the group connect – not an easy task.
I also employ peer feedback in my classes. I employ it during the activity of developing students’ presentation skills – when students provide feedback to their peers based on a list of specific criteria. Recently I’ve come across interesting ideas for doing this activity using online tools (e.g. creating a feedback wall). If I find the document again, I can share it with you. I employ feedback also when working on texts, grammar – students are often asked to do a task individually first, then compare their answers in pairs and discuss any disagreements. In the end we have class feedback.
In the end I’d say that we already apply, to a certain extent, what we’ve learnt in this course in our classes. However, now we can put a name on it and investigate more deeply how it can actually work even better in practice.
June 16, 2025 — 9:45 am