What's your best advice for teaching K-12 students to work together on projects?

1 Choose the right projects

When selecting projects for your students, it's important to consider the criteria that will ensure a successful collaborative experience. The project should have a clear goal, scope, and timeline, as well as a rubric or checklist for evaluation. It should also require multiple skills, perspectives, and resources, so that students can benefit from each other's strengths and contributions. Additionally, some flexibility and choice should be allowed so that students can express their interests and preferences, as well as adapt to changing circumstances. Finally, the project should align with the curriculum standards, learning objectives, and interests of your students, as well as the available technology and materials.

2 Form the right groups

Once you have selected a suitable project, you need to decide how to group your students. There are various ways to form groups, depending on your goals, context, and students. For example, random grouping can promote diversity and social skills, but it may also create conflicts. Teacher grouping can create compatible or heterogeneous groups, yet it may also limit student autonomy. Meanwhile, student grouping can increase student ownership and satisfaction, but it may also lead to cliques or exclusion. Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for grouping students; you may need to experiment with different methods or combine them to find what works best for your students and your project.

3 Teach the right skills

Working together on projects involves more than just academic skills; social and emotional skills like communication, cooperation, conflict resolution, and self-regulation are also necessary. These skills must be taught, practiced, and reinforced. To help your students develop these skills, you should model and explain the expectations and norms of collaborative work, provide examples and scenarios of effective and ineffective collaboration, use strategies and tools for collaboration, and monitor and support the progress and performance of the groups and individual students. Additionally, you should intervene when necessary to address any issues or challenges.

4 Assess the right outcomes

The final step of any project is to assess the outcomes and the process. Depending on your purpose, criteria, and feedback, this can be done in a variety of ways. Group assessment evaluates the group as a whole, based on the quality, completeness, and originality of the final product or presentation. This method can emphasize collective responsibility and achievement, but overlook individual contributions. Individual assessment evaluates each student individually, based on their own work and participation. This approach allows for personal growth but undermines collaboration. Peer assessment allows students to evaluate each other, based on their observations and opinions. This can foster peer-to-peer learning but also create bias. There is no one best way to assess collaborative work; you may need to use a combination of methods or adapt them to suit your project and your students. Ultimately, collaborative work can be challenging but rewarding for both you and your students; it can enhance learning experiences, social skills, and future readiness.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?