Collaborative pedagogy is one of the teaching approaches that focuses on students' engagement and teamwork in classroom activities to develop critical skill sets such as socio-emotional skills, intercultural communication skills, leadership skills, and problem-solving skills. This study explores students' experiences and reflections on collaborative pedagogy. The objectives of this study are to (1) identity the challenges of online learning, (2) uncover students' insights on collaborative learning, (3) explore significance of collaborative learning, and (4) examine implementation of collaborative pedagogy. This study employed a qualitative design involving 11 college/university students from three different ASEAN countries: Philippines (n=6), Brunei (n=2), and Malaysia (n=2). The primary findings revealed themes including lack of focus and social isolation as the main challenges faced by students. The implication of this study is crucial to optimise learning through the practice of collaborative pedagogy.
TopIntroduction
Since the start of the COVID19 pandemic that hit the world at unprecedented rates, students and educators alike have been very unprepared with the effects of the pandemic on teaching and learning. When the pandemic outbreak first reached countries globally in 2020, many ASEAN countries were affected with the highest number of COVID19 infected cases being recorded in countries such as Indonesia and Singapore. Among the ASEAN countries, Laos is the least affected country, apart from Brunei with zero active cases, while Cambodia has only three active cases (Hamid, 2020). Other countries including Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam that have reported more than 90% recovery rate throughout the pandemic (Hamid et al., 2022; Hamid & Karri, 2021).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, two groups in the education sector that are most affected and faced various challenges are students and the teaching community including professors and instructors (Beser et al., 2020; Martin et al., 2017). One of the main challenges faced is the sudden transition from face-to-face learning to online learning. Online learning is admittedly not new to all of us. However, the implementation of remote learning and the enforcement of total lockdown during the COVID19 pandemic has shifted physical face to face mode to move drastically to online mode to nearly all educational activities and in teaching and learning. Consequently, this creates multitude of issues for those in the education sectors, as the main `clients’ and stakeholders’ , particularly students who are the most affected and encounter various challenges with online learning (Dung, 2022; Li & Che, 2022).
After the pandemic two years on, students are now exposed to online learning as one of the consequences of the COVID19 pandemic. Now, with the recent development in technology, this has allowed both students and the teaching community to use blended approaches for learning, which include a combination of online and face to face learning. As a consequence, collaborative learning has turned into a common familiar practice for those who are involved in the teaching and learning process.
Collaborative pedagogy is viewed as an approach in teaching that emphasises on active engagement, group participation and networking with others, while collaborative learning allow learners to develop connections and understanding (Bravo et al., 2018; Cotterill, 2015; Laal & Laal, 2012; Scager et al., 2016). Through collaborative learning, students from diverse backgrounds including global learners can work together to achieve mutual and multiple goals in learning (Falcione, et. al, 2019).
Throughout the times of pre and post pandemic, global learners have learned new and adapted to unfamiliar territories. Global learners are defined as learners who have drawn their knowledge of the world from various sources, and able to distinguish fact from non-fact, and have developed strong critical skills and open to new ideas and concepts due to their personal experiences and encounters from the ways of the world. These learners, therefore are learners who have become responsive and adaptive in their existing practices, roles and responsibilities in order to suit respective needs and demands. Global learners have also become more familiar and accustomed to different modes of learning virtually, which is in fact both borderless and limitless, for as long as they have access to technology and are connected to cyberspace. It is thus imperative that the adaptation or adaptive strategies should assist global learners to find new ways of facing any types of challenges and obstacles. However, there is no `one-size fit all’ practice that can be used to ensure that teaching and learning remain suitable and relevant for global learners. On this premise, this paper aims to discuss and compare the interaction of several themes based on Vygotsky’s social learning theory to include three related themes: collaborative pedagogy, collaborative learning and borderless learning for global learners.