The idea that collaboration is an essential skill for our students’ success both in school and life is uncontroversial. However, students come to school with a wide range of experience and expertise when it comes to collaboration. For some, it comes relatively naturally, but most students need support and practice with collaboration in order to become confident and productive members of a team or group. After all, successful collaboration requires a series of complex social interactions among people with varying personalities in the service of a shared goal, and that’s definitely not easy! Fortunately, there are many ways we can support our students as they develop their proficiency with collaboration.

To begin with, students need a fundamental understanding of what collaboration is. Creating a Y-chart depicting what successful collaboration looks like, feels like and sounds like can be a good jumping off point for this discussion. You could even turn the results of this discussion into a graphic for your classroom, like the one shown here.

Students also have to authentically understand why being good at collaboration matters to them, and it is up to us as their teachers to provide them with collaborative experiences that validate this. Ways we can do this include:

• Ensuring that when we assign collaborative projects to students they are both relevant to them and have enough complexity to engage everyone in the group in a way that is meaningful. If the problem or task at hand lacks depth, there will not be enough substance for each student in the group to contribute authentically, which causes many students to disengage, and with good reason!
• Making sure when we assign specific roles for students to complete within their collaborative groups, that they have significant weight and rigor to them so that each student can both contribute and learn through their contributions. 
• Giving students the opportunity to perform each role in the group – every student should have the opportunity to experience leading a discussion, turning ideas into action plans, creating or building, etc.
• Emphasizing projects and activities that illustrate for students how effective collaboration leads to better projects or work products. For example, in VEX IQ (2nd gen) and EXP STEM Labs, better cooperation leads directly to better outcomes in classroom competitions.

Once students understand what good collaboration is and why it is important, the next step is to provide students with tangible tools they can use as they learn to collaborate effectively. And, while teacher-provided tools can certainly be helpful, consider the power of co-creating these tools with students! When students are involved in the process of creating their own tools and protocols, they are more likely to use them, and the tools themselves are more meaningful to students. The following are some examples of tools students and teachers could co-create to support successful collaboration:

• Graphic Organizers

For older students:

For younger students:

• Checklists that can be used both during the collaboration process, and again as a self-reflection tool at the end of a project. 

• Acronyms for reminding students of the elements of successful collaboration

• A procedure for when a group simply cannot come to consensus:

The collaborative tools students create should be presented as living documents that they have the agency to revise and improve upon as needed. As students’ collaborative skills grow over time, the nature of the tools they need will likely evolve as well. This approach also conveys the crucial message that the metacognitive process of thinking about how one is thinking about one’s own behavior is valuable and necessary. This is not just an activity to do at the start of the school year, but perhaps one to incorporate into your classroom routines periodically throughout the year. 

It definitely takes time and energy to guide students towards becoming effective collaborators. But, it will be time well spent, as cultivating students’ collaborative skills will absolutely pay off in saved time in the long run, for teachers and students alike. And, the lifelong positive result of helping your students gain facility with a skill they will need in their future educations, careers and lives cannot be underestimated!