December 1, 2002
The Canisius College collaborative learning model
by Deepa Govindaraj and Preethi Govindaraj
Canisius has been working towards a vision of the ideal classroom in the last few years. Students in the Collaborative Learning Model classrooms at Canisius master every concept they learn in class. They also have an opportunity to help teach other students similar material. They are motivated to learn before class, during class, and well after the class. This pattern sounds like that of any other college student. Believe us, it’s not.
In the 1970’s, Drs. Kenneth Sroka and Roger Stephenson started to develop a team-based learning model to increase the effectiveness of learning and teaching. It is the students, not the professors, who are the main teachers in the team-based learning model. Both Dr. Sroka and Dr. Stephenson told us that as professors, their job is not so much to teach students specific material, but to teach students how to learn. “Our primary purpose is to make sure that in four years no one needs us anymore,” said Dr. Stephenson. “We empower the students, pass on the work to them, guide them, and let them do the job.”
The team-based learning model evolved throughout the 1980’s and became the basis for the McGowan Learning Community Scholarship Program in 1998. Students in this program are required to take twelve team-learning classes. All students at Canisius, however, are encouraged to take team-learning classes.
After speaking with Dr. Sroka on the phone about the McGowan Scholarship Program, we decided to observe a classroom that uses the Collaborative Learning Model. There were approximately twenty students in the English 101 class we observed. Four students sat at each table facing each other. Each student had notes prepared for the day, and the students began discussing the notes with each other as soon as class started. Dr. Sroka and Dr. Stephenson spoke to different groups informally, and guided the group discussions in detail. The whole class period was spent in this manner, with mostly group work and some guided discussions with the professors.
We observed a lot of reinforcement in this learning model. Students had assigned readings and questions to answer individually. The students then spent class time discussing their answers in the groups. Student proctors were also present, who helped guide another discussion of the assigned readings and questions. Finally, the professors walked around helping the students as well. The students thus had numerous chances to speak and listen to other students and exchange viewpoints. We heard many students draw connections between the readings, their personal experiences, and outside knowledge. It was a chain reaction: one student brought up an idea, and soon everyone in the group started talking and exchanging ideas.
Each team learning class is divided into ten units. Each unit consists of a set of readings, questions to answer individually, within groups, with a student proctor, and with the professor, an essay assignment, and finally a test. The test consists of four questions, and the students must answer each question correctly to pass. Even one wrong answer constitutes a failing test. This “mastery of material,” as Drs. Sroka and Stephenson call it, ensures that each student will learn all of the concepts thoroughly instead of just sixty-five percent of the material, which is the standard at other universities and colleges. Drs. Sroka and Stephenson say it is this mastery concept that helps motivate students to learn to their full potential. Students that do not pass the test the first time can retake the test, and the average grade of both tests is taken. Thus, the learning process continues even after the test, and the students are given numerous chances to demonstrate their understanding of the material.
The Collaborative Learning Model was formally introduced in 1994 in the English 101 and 102 classes. In 1998, the Collaborative Learning Model became the basis for the McGowan Scholarship Program and expanded into Religious Studies 101 and Philosophy 101. Today, there are seventeen classes that use the Collaborative Learning Model, including courses in Chemistry, Management, and Drama. Dr. Sroka told us that he’s seen a change in the faculty with respect to teaching style: “Professors say it’s exhausting coming out of a three hour lecture class…yeah it’s exhausting if you’re doing all the work.” According to Dr. Sroka, there are seventeen faculty members that have made the transition from the lecturing to facilitating teaching style.
The students seem to be thriving with the transition. Dr. Sroka told us the group work has built confidence in the students with respect to learning, presenting, and speaking. One of the students told us, “I hate my lecture classes compared to this class. I have a Chem. lecture after this class and I’m dreading it. It goes by so slowly, but I feel like we never have enough time in this class 'cause it goes by so quickly. In my lecture classes the professors just talk at you, and I never absorb anything.” She also told us that professors in the team learning classes give her much more flexibility than professors in the lecture classes.
Other students told us that tests in the team learning classes are spread evenly throughout the semester, which reduces stress since all of the material is not concentrated at one time. One student told us that her team learning class is the only class in which she knows everyone by name. We also heard from students that they are so glad they are forced to come prepared to the classes because they learn more: “In lecture classes, students can get away with not doing the work and still get an A, but not here,” one student told us. Vanessa Torres, a junior in the McGowan Scholarship Program, told us about her experiences in the Collaborative Learning classes: “Taking collaborative learning classes isn’t easy. We can’t just go to class, sit, and listen. We have to read material, answer questions, and engage ourselves in it. There is a mini presentation we make, and an essay and test each week. We’re not challenged like this in lecture classes. Also, as student proctors we see the progress students make. At the end of the semester, we can ask students a question from the first unit, and they can answer it. I don’t see this in lecture classes.”
Vanessa and a few other students are student proctors in team learning classes. As proctors and former team learning students, they help facilitate group discussions and also help grade papers. Drs. Stephenson and Sroka stressed that student proctors are not teaching assistants; they are facilitators who help students teach themselves how to learn: “They guide people through the work,” said Dr. Stephenson. Student proctors have the choice of receiving either $800 or three credit hours a semester for every class they proctor. The intangible rewards, according to the students, include watching the students grow and gaining leadership experience. Besides the occasional grading inconsistency, students in the team learning class had only positive things to say about their student proctors.
The classroom setup reminded the two of us of our elementary school classrooms. We sat in groups facing each other for years, and learned from each other how to teach ourselves the basics of sharing, coloring, math, writing, and art. This team learning stopped abruptly in sixth grade, which coincidentally is when we started to enjoy the weekends more than the weekdays in school.
We saw students at Canisius eagerly and attentively discussing insightful ideas with one another, and student proctors told us they still remember each of the ten units they learned as freshman in English 101. We can’t even remember what we learned last month in any lecture class. As Dr. Stephenson says, the Collaborative Learning Model is “complicated, noisy, expensive, and messy…and it works well.”
Preethi Govindaraj is a first year MBA student at the University at Buffalo. Deepa Govindaraj is a freshman at the University at Buffalo; her intended major is the liberal arts. Their article, "The William G. McGowan Learning Community Scholarship Program at Canisius College," appeared in the 15 November Buffalo Report.