Collaboration vs cooperation
Posted by: ashleytan on: October 24, 2008
I left a concept dangling in mid-air during the course. I mentioned that my trainees might emerge from the course knowing what the difference was between cooperation and collabortation.
I engaged them in two wiki-based writing activities (one which exhibited characteristic of cooperation and the other collaboration). I also embedded this video in the wiki to illustrate what collaboration was and how it was better than cooperation.
But I did not give them any firm answers. Nor am I about to. I will, however, share what some others have thought about collaboration.
One of my colleagues described cooperation as working with or adapting someone else’s existing ideas. He then described collaboration as creating new ideas together.
Karl Kapp had a similar thought:
If I have a penny and you have a penny and we exchange pennies, then we each have a penny. If you have a thought and I have a thought and we exchange thoughts, then we each have two thoughts and in some cases three because thoughts are cumulative and build upon one another.
And that is why I describe collaboration as “1+1=3″.
3 Responses to "Collaboration vs cooperation"
2 | Andrew Chong
October 25, 2008 at 11:01 am
Hey Dr. Tan,
Thank you for picking up on this topic again! I did look into it more during the course of this module but I did not manage to blog extensively about it. A particularly interesting article I found was at:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2004/11/22.html#a961
I think I’ve learnt a lot about collaboration inevitably throughout the course of NIE with the abundance of group work. I’ve started to see the value of not just allocating jobs when you work, but really “interacting” with all group members during the work process to refine your ideas, or even get them rejected.
I can’t say that I’ve really learnt to be a good “collaborative” team worker but at least I’ve learnt now what it entails – not just allocating jobs, but really building new ideas together as a group. 
Thanks for raising this topic of cooperation and collaboration. I think this is the only course thus far that has really highlighted the pedagogical benefits of group work or spoken of how group work can be used powerfully but also detrimentally at times. I think we’re so used to this buzz word of group work nowadays that few teacher take a second thought as to how to use it meaningfully and powerfully. Something I”ll definitely be thinking about when I enter the teaching world….
3 | ashleytan
October 28, 2008 at 3:26 pm
@Andrew: Thanks for the link and for your input!
I’d add something obvious: Cooperation is a lot easier than collaboration. Unlike cooperation, the result of collaboration is more than just the sum of its parts. And that is just paraphrasing what the Web article you found said about collaboration, “Working together to produce a result far superior to that which any group of individuals working alone could ever produce.”
On the practical side, collaborative activities must be given a lot of time to simmer and boil. Your group demo, which eventually became the final lesson idea project, is one such example. This took about 2 months to do.
The Web article you found also cautions that collaboration should be borne of a natural need and that the inherent human nature to compete can prevent effective collaboration. Implications? Attempts to engineer collaboration might fall flat and the mindset of teachers and learners must change for collaboration to take place.
That said, there is no substitute for trying to transform the way we teach and learn. I hope to hear from your attempts when you get your own classroom. Cheers!
October 25, 2008 at 10:55 am
Hey Dr. Tan,
You picked up on this topic again!
I was meaning to blog about it in my course blog somewhere along this term as I’ve been finding some stuff, but not much substantial enough. One website which I felt was quite useful was this:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2004/11/22.html#a961
I’ve learnt a lot about collaboration through my time in NIE, not just in this course but other modules as well. Given the abundance of group work in NIE, I’ve really learnt the power of throwing out ideas, getting your ideas “rejected” or “refined” in a group and working things out together.
Sometimes I look at some of the projects we have to do in groups and I realise – it woud be so much simpler if I just did it myself! Perhaps it’s just me talking here as I always find it easier to complete something myself rather than have to communicate ideas and visions for projects to all and ensure that all are on the same line, but I guess that’s what we’ll be doing in schools yea.
Thanks for the above insights, Dr. Tan. Given that group work seems to be the “buzz” these days, it’s really made me more conscious of my use of group work – not just using it for its own sake, but really also ensuring that it does MORE than just “help students to learn how to work together”.