Cooperation or Collaboration? What's the Difference?

(This blog is based on a discussion at a Lunch and Learn Conference hosted by NC DPI on April 12, 2016 for Media Coordinators and Instructional Technology Facilitators.)

When you have students work with partners or teams, are you having them work on cooperative projects or collaborative learning? Are you aware of the difference between the directions of the two types of tasks?

Often we, as educators, talk about collaborative groups and cooperative grouping as if they are interchangeable. However, in truth, the two concepts have completely different project directions, task management, and outcomes. To explain the differences, I'm going to put forth a class project scenario in an imaginary, yet ideal, educational setting. We'll call this school "Paradise High."

First, let me describe our hypothetical class: this class is 100% successful, highly motivated, with great parental support. It is evenly balanced ethnically, racially, socioeconomically, and by gender. Students read for pleasure and return their library books on time each week to check out more. (Stop laughing. I can create my own idea of the perfect high school, can't I?)

Now, you have divided the class into absolutely perfect heterogeneous groups for a project. Each group has four students, two boys and two girls. (One gifted student, two average students, and one student who is ELL or has an IEP. ) They are all racially/ethnically balanced as well. (WOW, you say? This can only happen at Paradise High! Yep. Nothing ever happens exactly evenly in the real world, but just work with me here. It's a blog post.)

The project divides the tasks into four positions, and each position has specific areas of responsibility for research, writing, and presentation. Students will be graded on their individual work and the group will receive a grade on how well they put it all together. They will work on the project in class. Group One is Juan, Rebecca, Matthew, and Leah. They will do the following:
Juan: Research the history of chocolate, write a few paragraphs on it with citations, and share his findings through a group powerpoint
Rebecca: Identify the role chocolate played in Spanish colonialism, write a few paragraphs on it with citations, and share her findings through the group powerpoint.
Matthew: Learn of the effect of chocolate on Spanish cuisine, create at least 3 authentic dishes and write about the experiences of cooking those recipes, cite the sources, and share the information and pictures in the group powerpoint.
Leah: Learn about modern chocolate plantations and child laborers, write an opinion piece explaining whether or not chocolate should be imported into the US with citations for support for the information, and share the facts and opinion through the group powerpoint.

Cooperation or Collaboration?

If you said collaboration, I am afraid that you are incorrect. These students are actually working individually on a group outcome, the powerpoint; however, each student's part is done individually without input from the other members of the group. If one member's task is not complete or is shoddy, the entire project will not fall apart. They are cooperating on the group grade.

To truly have students collaborate, the students need to communicate with each other, share ideas, and actually work as a team to complete each part of the project. This is not the days of the "team leader," "parts manager," "writer," and other task labels handed out randomly or strategically by the teacher and called "collaboration." Now, students must truly work together or the project falls apart.

So now, the project changes:
Juan and Rebecca discover how the Spanish explorers "discovered" chocolate, and the students want to "bring it over" to the "Continent" by recreating the experience. Leah and Matthew learn how chocolate is grown on two types of plantations (with and without child labor) and exported to Spain to be used in the creation of Spanish cuisine. Together the group decides to produce a play on chocolate that does a "fast-forward" approach from the "discovery" to today, and they want to convince the class to make the decision to only use fair market chocolate when cooking spectacular recipes or snacking. This, my fellow educators is what makes a project collaboration!