In this webinar, speakers Daniel Vincent and Ben Knight focus on the key life competency, collaboration, looking at how ELT teachers can help develop this skill. Daniel has taught English for over 15 years and is authoring a new teens course for Cambridge University Press. Ben is our Director for Language & Pedagogy Research.
Ben starts the webinar by discussing what collaboration is and the different skills that are needed to be an effective collaborator and he talks about collaboration in reference to one of our Cambridge Life Competencies.
Ben looks at how we can help to develop collaborative skills in the classroom. To do this, we need to understand what the component skills are so we can decide on what to focus on in a particular lesson or activity. We also need to understand what students can learn at each stage of their learning journey and how this differs from a student at primary level vs. a student at university. Therefore, Ben shares the levels of competency that we might expect students of each age group to reach.
Integrating collaboration
In order to integrate collaboration in to your teaching, there are 3 specific ways that we can do this:
1. Look for opportunities to focus on specific skills in shared activities
2. Practice the language to use the skills
3. Reflect on skills before and after activities
Dan goes on to share 4 activities you can use in your classroom to develop collaboration through both pair work and project work, which include:
- Building robots
- Co-creating stories
- Designing infographics
- Creating questionnaires and presenting results
Watch the full webinar below:
Watch another webinar from Daniel Vincent on using project work with teens to encourage collaborative learning.