The document discusses the role of technology in supporting collaborative student learning, emphasizing the need for a defined pedagogy of collaboration in educational contexts. It highlights research findings on teacher attitudes towards collaboration, the necessity of professional development, and outlines a framework for effective collaboration in English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Key strategies include defining collaboration, understanding its benefits, and providing support for teachers to enhance student interactions.

1. Supporting
Teachers To
Support
Student
Collaboration
Averil Bolster & Peter Levrai
Turku University, Finland (Professional)
University of the Basque Country (Doctoral)
CERLCES 2022 - Porto, Portugal

2. Overview
Technology in education
Our research into student collaboration
Early findings
Recommendation for CPD

3. 2020 changed technology adoption in
education
Innovators Early adopters Pragmatists Conservatives Sceptics
• 2020 put education into fast forward, accelerating to the future,
disrupting the Technology Adoption Life Cycle (Moore, 2014).
Using Zoom
for teaching
Fri 13th
March
Using Zoom
for teaching
Mon
16th
March

4. How we can use technology: The SAMR
Model (Puentedure, 2006)
SUBSTITUTION
Technology acts as a direct substitute, with no
functional change
AUGMENTATION
Technology acts as a direct substitute, with functional
improvement
MODIFICATION
Technology allows for significant task redesign
REDEFINITION
Technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously unimaginable
S
A
M
R
ENHANCEMENT
TRANSFORMATION

5. Technology is a tool, but not a pedagogy
• We can engage students in collaborative tasks, but it requires more
than telling them to open a Google Doc.
• We need to consider:
Why we want
students to
collaborate
How we can best
facilitate student
collaboration
How we can fairly
assess student
collaboration

6. Our interest in collaboration
• Student collaboration and sustainability were
the foundations of Develop EAP, an award-
winning course based on the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs)
https://developeap.weebly.com
• The Resources page includes the download of
Develop EAP and curated links to useful EAP
and SDG resources
https://developeap.weebly.com/resources.html
• The Research page contains our publications
and presentations about course development
and student collaboration
https://developeap.weebly.com/research.html

7. Researching collaboration
• Following a Grounded Theory approach utilising surveys and in-depth
interviews.
Exploring teacher
attitudes and
influences in the
use (or not) of
student
collaboration in
university courses
in English
Towards a
framework for
assessing
collaborative
assignments EAP
20 interviews
(to date)
16 interviews
(to date)
31 surveys (to date)

8. Rationale for student collaboration
• Grounded in Vygotsky’s (1978) Socio-Cultural Theory (SCT).
• Collaboration supports student-centred learning.​
Collaborative
scaffold (Ohta,
1995)
More
Knowledgeable
Other (MKO)
Zone of
Proximal
Development
(ZPD)
Learner can do
unaided
Learner can do
with guidance
(ZPD)
Learner cannot
do

9. Place of student collaboration in HE and EAP
• Collaboration is a global skill (Oxford University Press, 2019).
• Collaborative assignments are used across disciplines and faculties
(Godwin-Jones, 2018; Levrai & Bolster, 2018; Storch, 2019).
• EAP has a role in supporting students' readiness for academic
studies (Alexander, Argent and Spencer, 2008; Ding & Bruce, 2017).
• In our interviews, expert EAP practitioners appreciate the importance
of collaboration but show self-doubt and a desire to know more.

10. EAP practitioners identifying student
collaboration (N=66)
Students discuss ideas for an
essay together and write it
individually
Students plan an essay together
and write it individually
Students plan and write an
essay together
Students conduct research
together and write individual
reports based on the results
Students plan an essay together
and individually write different
sections
Students prepare and deliver a
group presentation
Students write essays
individually and work with
another student for peer review
Students discuss a topic
together
Students make a video together
about a topic
97%
86.4%
51.5%
65.2%
80.3%
54.5%
71.2%
56.1%
54.5%
(Bolster
&
Levrai,
2019)

11. Students discuss ideas for an
essay together and write it
individually
Students plan an essay together
and write it individually
Students plan and write an
essay together
Students conduct research
together and write individual
reports based on the results
Students plan an essay together
and individually write different
sections
Students prepare and deliver a
group presentation
Students write essays
individually and work with
another student for peer review
Students discuss a topic
together
Students make a video together
about a topic
How the literature identifies student
collaboration
97%
86.4%
51.5%
65.2%
80.3%
54.5%
71.2%
56.1%
54.5%
(Bolster
&
Levrai,
2019)
Collaboration
Common
goal
Shared
responsibility
Shared
ownership
Indivisible
whole

12. Why the confusion? Early observations (n=31)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
As a student Professionally
Experiential learning
Personally collaborating with others
Never Rarely Sometimes Often
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
As part of studies As part of professional
development
Formal learning
Studying collaboration
Never Rarely Sometimes Often
Lortie (1975)

13. Result: a range of different approaches
Sends the
students off
and waits for
them to
finish
Parking
attendant
Checks in
with groups
halfway
through the
process or if
there’s a
problem
Pit crew
In the group,
actively
participating
Back seat
driver
Hands
off
Hands
on

14. We need to talk about collaboration more
• Through teacher training courses and professional development
sessions we need to develop a pedagogy of collaboration (Bikowski,
2015).
• Teachers need support, both to facilitate student collaboration and
engage with collaborative technologies.

15. 1st step: a definition for collaboration in EAP
A collaborative assignment is one where learners work together,
making equitable contributions towards the development of an indivisible
artefact for which they share responsibility and ownership. During the
development of the artefact, learners may work synchronously or
asynchronously, face-to-face or online, but there is interdependence
between group members, drawing on all their strengths.
(Bolster & Levrai, 2019)

16. 2nd step: supporting teachers to support students
Awareness raising
Team roles &
teamwork
Interaction
patterns
Collaborative
workspaces
Reflection &
discussion
Past experiences
Vignettes
Ways of working
Starting a student
collaboration
Team-building
tasks
Ground rules
Group project
record

17. Conclusion
• Pedagogy should guide us, not
tools.
• Our pedagogy for student
collaboration is
underdeveloped.
• As a community, we need to
talk more about collaboration.

18. References
Alexander, O., Argent, S., & Spencer, J. (2008). EAP essentials: A teacher's guide to principles and practice. Garnet Education.
Bikowski, D. (2015). The Pedagogy of Collaboration: teaching effectively within an evolving technology landscape. Innovation in English language teacher
education, 223-231. British Council.
Bolster, A. & Levrai, P. (2019). Student Collaboration in English for Academic Purposes - Theory, Practitioner Perceptions and Reality. Kielikeskus tutkii. 4,
9-26. https://www.utupub.fi/handle/10024/148437
Ding, A. & Bruce, I. (2017). The English for Academic Purposes Practitioner. Palgrave Macmillan.
Godwin-Jones, R. (2018). Second language writing online: An update. Language Learning & Technology, 22(1), 1–15.
Levrai, P. & Bolster, A. 2018. A framework to support group essay writing in English for Academic Purposes: a case study from an English-medium
instruction context. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(2), 186-202.
Lortie, D. C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. University of Chicago Press.
Moore, G. (2014). Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers. Harper Business.
Ohta, A. (1995). Applying Sociocultural Theory to an Analysis of Learner Discourse: Learner-Learner Collaborative Interaction in the Zone of Proximal
Development. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 6(2), 93-121.
Oxford University Press (2019) Global Skills: Creating empowered 21st century learners. Oxford University Press.
https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/expert/global-skills?cc=fi&selLanguage=en
Puentedura, R. (2006). Transformation, technology, and education [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://hippasus.com/resources/tte/.
Storch, N. (2019). Collaborative Writing. Language Teaching, 52(1), 40-59.
​Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Images from Pexels

19. Any questions?
Averil Bolster Peter Levrai
aebols@utu.fi pflevr@utu.fi