5. Collaborative work in the classroom: experiences from the teacher training

Abstract

The present paper reports two experiences in the classroom with the objective of using the collaborative work as group didactic strategy to encourage learning.  The classroom is assumed as a set for productive social interaction, facilitator of learning and social abilities development.  The experiences were developed in university classrooms and in two different courses of Technical Education offered in the Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador (UPEL), in Barquisimeto. The results from the experience revealed a substantial benefit from the academic activity performed that was reflected in the quality of the knowledge acquired by the students and also in their recognition of the knowledge obtained in the personal-social dimension. Those experiences represent educational practices useful for the improvement of knowledge in the university. Finally, it was concluded that collaborative work represents a process mainly humanizing at the same time that as didactic strategy it demands the participants to learn how to organize themselves, how to listen among them and how to solve problems, whereas the teacher is seen as a facilitator and mediator in the learning process and in the emotional assessment of the participants.