Collaborating

Collaborating involves the skills, strategies, and dispositions that people use to work together to pursue common purposes and accomplish common goals.

People who collaborate effectively recognize how combining others’ perspectives, strategies, and efforts with their own enhances collective understanding, use, and impact. They value the contributions of group members, interact supportively and effectively using inclusive practices, and strive for shared commitment and mutual benefit.

Back to Communication

Working collectively

Students combine their efforts with those of others to effectively accomplish learning and tasks. As members of a group, they appreciate interdependence and cooperation, commit to needed roles and responsibilities, and are conscientious about contributing. They also negotiate respectfully and follow through on plans, strategies, and actions as they share resources, time, and spaces for collaborative projects.

Supporting group interactions

Students engage with others in ways that build and sustain trusting relationships and contribute to collective approaches. They value diverse perspectives and integrate the ideas of others with their own to tackle tasks, issues, and problems. Students seek to distribute leadership, listen actively, take turns in discussions, acknowledge contributions, and identify missing voices. They regulate the group’s interactions together, mutually encouraging one another, creating space for marginalized voices, and applying constructive strategies to navigate through misunderstandings, struggles, and conflict.

Determining common purposes

Students develop shared understandings of information, issues, situations, and problems in pursuit of common purposes and goals. They honour various group processes and proactively support movement forward, including refocusing on intended goals as needed. They revise plans according to mutual deliberations and strive for consensus. As co-members of a group, students see one another as valuable resources, commit to impact and collective success, assess group results and processes, and share in the recognition of achievements.

Profile 1

In familiar situations, I can participate with others.

Profile 2

In familiar situations, I cooperate with others for specific purposes.

I contribute during group activities, cooperate with others, and listen respectfully to their ideas. I can work with others for a specific purpose.

Profile 3

I contribute during group activities with peers and share roles and responsibilities to achieve goals.

I take on different roles and tasks in the group and work respectfully and safely in our shared space. I express my ideas and help others feel comfortable to share theirs so that all voices are included. I work with others to achieve a common goal and can evaluate our group processes and results.

Profile 4

I can confidently interact and build relationships with other group members to further shared goals.

I can identify and apply roles and strategies to facilitate groupwork. I draw on past experiences to negotiate and develop group processes. I am an active listener and speaker. I share my ideas and try to connect them with others’ ideas, I ask clarifying questions and check for understanding when appropriate, and I test my ideas with others and consider their input. I help resolve conflicts and challenges as they arise. I recognize how my contributions and those of others complement each other. I can plan with others and adjust our plan according to the group’s purpose.

Profile 5

I can facilitate group processes and encourage collective responsibility for our progress.

I play a role in collectively monitoring the progress of the group and adjust my contributions as needed. I recognize the interdependence of our roles and draw on these to move us forward. I ask thought-provoking questions, integrate new information and various perspectives from others, and think critically about whose voices are missing. I can disagree respectfully, and I anticipate potential conflicts and help manage them when they arise. I give, receive, and act on constructive feedback in support of our goals, and I can evaluate and revise plans with other group members.

Profile 6

I can connect my group with other groups and broader networks for various purposes.

I can step outside of my comfort zone to develop working relationships with unfamiliar groups. I develop and coordinate networking partnerships beyond and in service of the group. I demonstrate my commitment to the group’s purpose by taking on different roles as needed. I acknowledge different perspectives and seek out and create space for missing or marginalized voices. I summarize key themes to identify commonalities and focus on deepening or transforming our collective thinking and actions. I recognize when wisdom and strategies from others are needed and access these to address complex goals. I help create connections with other groups or networks to further our common goals and our impact.

The Core Competencies relate to each other and with every aspect of learning.

Connections among Core Competencies

The Core Competencies are interrelated and interdependent. Taken together, the competencies are foundational to every aspect of learning. Communicating is intertwined with the other Core Competencies.

Communication

Collaborating is one of the Communication Core Competency’s two interrelated sub-competencies, Communicating and Collaborating.

Collaborating and Communicating overlap. For example:

Collaborating requires active speaking and listening for effective interactions

Thinking

Collaborating is closely related to the two Thinking sub-competencies, Creative Thinking and Critical and Reflective Thinking. For example:

When students think creatively, they build on group members’ ideas and integrate one another’s contributions to develop novel approaches
As students think critically, they consider alternative perspectives and seek out missing or marginalized voices

Personal and Social

Collaborating is closely related to the three Personal and Social sub-competencies: Personal Awareness and Responsibility, Social Awareness and Responsibility, and Positive Personal and Cultural Identity. For example:

Participating in the supportive interactions and collective efforts of collaboration enhances students’ positive identity development including their relationship to others and their membership in various groups
As students take on diverse roles and responsibilities during collaborative activities, they learn to appreciate how their own ideas and strategies can be helpful to others
Collaboration involves building relationships, contributing to community, valuing diversity, and solving problems in peaceful ways

Connections with areas of learning

Collaborating is embedded within the curricular competencies of the concept-based, competency-driven curriculum. Curricular competencies are focused on the “doing” within the area of learning and include skills, processes, and habits of mind required by the discipline. For example, the Collaborating sub-competency can be seen in the following Big Ideas in Career Education:

Effective collaboration relies on clear, respectful communication. (Career Education K-3)
Leadership represents good planning, goal-setting, and collaboration. (Career Education 6-7)
Engaging in networks and reciprocal relationships can guide and broaden career-life awareness and options. (Career Life Connections)

Title		Sub-competencies
Un projet UNIS Bien-être pour lutter contre les changements climatiques	Les élèves conçoivent des projets de service communautaire liés aux changements climatiques dans le cadre d’un projet UNIS Bien-être.	La collaboration, Conscience de soi et responsabilité personnelle, Conscience et responsabilité sociales
Rédaction d’une constitution de classe	Les élèves entreprennent la rédaction d’une constitution de classe et collaborent à la fois au plan et au produit.	La collaboration
Aménagement d’habitats pour les animaux	Les élèves utilisent le matériel de classe pour concevoir des habitats qui procurent aux animaux ce dont ils ont besoin pour survivre.	La collaboration, L'interaction, Pensée critique et réflexive
Organisation d’une Journée du chandail orange	Une élève, inspirée par un roman sur l’expérience d’une jeune fille dans un pensionnat indien, rassemble de plus amples renseignements et, quatre ans plus tard, organise une Journée du chandail orange dans son école.	La collaboration, Pensée critique et réflexive, Conscience et responsabilité sociales
Fabrication de chaussures en papier journal	Les élèves travaillent en petits groupes pour fabriquer des chaussures avec du papier journal.	La collaboration
Chaînes de dominos	Quelques élèves commencent à faire des chaînes de dominos, ce qui déclenche une activité de classe.	La collaboration
Élaboration de règles de base pour des cercles de lecture	Les élèves réfléchissent sur leurs expériences antérieures de collaboration afin d’élaborer des règles de base qu’ils pourront utiliser dans le cadre de cercles de lecture pour l’étude de romans.	La collaboration
Apprendre à de jeunes élèves à utiliser une application	Des élèves apprennent à des camarades plus jeunes comment utiliser une application pour représenter leurs apprentissages.	La collaboration
Porter bien haut le flambeau	Après avoir rencontré d’anciens combattants lors d’un événement du jour du Souvenir, un élève forme un groupe consacré aux liens intergénérationnels entre élèves et anciens combattants.	La collaboration, Pensée critique et réflexive, Conscience et responsabilité sociales
Écriture collaborative	Les élèves travaillent en petits groupes pour écrire une histoire à propos d’un animal.	La collaboration
Handprint Turkeys	A student teaches her classmates now to make handprint turkeys.	Communicating, Collaborating
Save Fred: Collaborative Problem-solving	Students work in groups on a problem-solving challenge called “Save Fred”.	Collaborating, Critical and Reflective Thinking
Making a Hockey Rink	Students make a hockey rink with whiteboards.	Collaborating, Critical and Reflective Thinking
Reflecting on a Musical Performance	A student reflects on her performance singing a duet.	Collaborating, Communicating, Critical and Reflective Thinking
Addressing Climate Change Through a WE Wellbeing project	Students design community service projects related to climate change as part of a WE Wellbeing project.	Collaborating, Personal Awareness and Responsibility, Social Awareness and Responsibility
You Mud?	Two children sit together and observe each other as they spread mud on an outdoor table.	Collaborating, Social Awareness and Responsibility
Exploring Factors that Effect Motion	Students collaboratively create ramps to explore the forces that effect motion.	Collaborating, Communicating, Critical and Reflective Thinking
Designing Animal Habitats	Students use classroom materials to design models of animal habitats that provide animals with what they need to survive.	Collaborating, Communicating, Critical and Reflective Thinking
Making Newspaper Shoes	Students work in small groups to make newspaper shoes.	Collaborating
Domino chains	A few students start making domino chains and spark a class activity.	Collaborating
Teaching Younger Students How to Use an App	Older students teach younger students how to use an app to represent their learning.	Collaborating
What We Want in a Playground	Students work in pairs to discuss and build their ideal playground using classroom materials.	Collaborating
Developing Ground Rules for Literature Circles	Students reflect on their previous experiences with collaboration in order to develop ground rules to use in novel study Literature Circles.	Collaborating
Developing a Classroom Constitution	Students initiate the development of a Classroom Constitution and collaborate on both the plan and the product.	Collaborating
A Compromise	When two children’s ideas about an imaginative story diverge, one of the children finds a compromise.	Collaborating, Social Awareness and Responsibility
Junior Fire Crew	First Nations students reflect on the collaborative aspects of working on a fire crew.	Collaborating
Collaborative Writing	Students work in small groups to write a story about an animal.	Collaborating
Organizing an Orange Shirt Day	A student, inspired by a novel about a girl’s residential school experience, gathers further information and, four years later, organizes an Orange Shirt Day at her school.	Collaborating, Critical and Reflective Thinking, Social Awareness and Responsibility
Hold High the Torch	After meeting veterans at a Remembrance Day event, a student forms a group dedicated to intergenerational connections between students and veterans.	Collaborating, Critical and Reflective Thinking, Social Awareness and Responsibility