Collaboration – Skills for Success Practitioner Tools & Resources

Active Listening

Active listening involves listening with all senses, paying attention to the speaker and listening to understand. Participants with strong active listening skills ask questions to clarify information and paraphrase the message to demonstrate understanding.

Shier, M. (2020, September 11). 4.1 active listening. Student Success. https://opentextbc.ca/studentsuccess/chapter/active-listening/
Deveci, Tanju. (2018). Listening as a lifelong learning skill- what, why, and how.
Critical Art of Listening. (n.d.). LearnSphere. https://learnsphere.ca/assets/Documents/ES-Critical-Art-of-Listening-workshop.pdf

Collaboration Skills

CollaborationSFS-3.5

Collaboration skills are used to contribute and support others to achieve a common goal. Effective collaboration requires a number of different skills, such as teamwork, active listening, conflict resolution, fostering inclusivity, providing feedback and clarifying roles.

ABC UPSkills for Work: Collaboration. https://upskillsforwork.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ABC-UP-Collaboration.pdf
Skills for Success Work Ready Youth Program. Skills Canada. https://yourskillsforsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/W7-EN-Collaboration.pdf

Collaboration Teaching and Learning Materials

Collaboration, Teaching and Learning MaterialsSFS-3.5

Collaboration teaching and learning materials are designed to help participants perform better in a team by understanding how to support and value others, manage difficult interactions and contribute to the team’s work.

The following links include practical, printable, ready-made resources to use in the delivery of Skills for Success training.

ABC up Skills for Work Workbook. (n.d.). Collaboration

Collaborative Practice

CollaborationSFS-1.2

Collaborative practice occurs when people of different backgrounds come together to work towards a common goal. In education, collaborative practice allows for interprofessional team teaching and planning.

Collaborative Practice and Education: Framework for Change. Alberta. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/3c2f8866-ae81-47fa-a048-d266e5d103f8/resource/2daba644-44b9-4859-a0f2-d31944611361/download/6208778-2012-goa-ah-framework-final.pdf
National Education Association. Collaborative Practice. https://www.nea.org/student-success/great-public-schools/collaborative-practice
Suter, E., Arndt, J., Arthur, N., Parboosingh, J., Taylor, E., & Deutschlander, S. (2009). Role understanding and effective communication as core competencies for collaborative practice. Journal of interprofessional care, 23(1), 41-51.(login required).

Community Building

Collaboration, CommunicationDEL-2.2

Community building is creating a sense of community that impacts the success of the participants and fosters a positive learning environment.

Building Community. Centre for Teaching and Learning – Western University. (n.d.). https://teaching.uwo.ca/teaching/engaging/building-community.html

Mentorship

Collaboration, Skills for Success Best PracticesSFS-1.2

Mentorship is a relationship between someone sharing knowledge and providing guidance (the mentor) and someone learning from that person’s experience and example (the mentee).

The Mentorship Guide for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). From https://taylorinstitute.ucalgary.ca/sites/default/files/TI%20Guides/19-UNV-TITL-010_MentorshipBooklet_Interactive.pdf
Mentorship matters™. Mentorship Matters | On-The-Job Mentoring Program. (n.d.). From https://mentorshipmatters.com/

Project-based

Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Innovation, Problem-solvingSFS-2.3, SFS-3.4, SFS-3.6

Project-based is a student-centered approach to instruction designed to give participants the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills through engaging, real-world projects.

What is PBL? PBLWorks. (n.d.). https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl

Research on Teaching Collaboration

Collaboration, ResearchSFS-3.5

Collaboration skills help participants perform better in a team by understanding how to support and value others, manage difficult interactions and contribute to the team’s work.

The following links include research data and evidence to support the instruction of collaboration.

Anderson, R. (2016). Essential Skills and Dispositions: Developmental Frameworks for Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Self-Direction.
Chen, G., Donahue, L., & Klimoski, R. (2004). Training Undergraduates to Work in Organizational Teams. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 3, 27-40. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMLE.2004.12436817 (login required).
Evans, C. (2020). Measuring student success skills: A review of the literature on collaboration. National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment. https://www.nciea.org/sites/default/files/publications/CFA-CollaborationLitReport-FINAL.pdf
Gratton, L., & Erickson, T. J. (2007). Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2007/11/eight-ways-to-build-collaborative-teams (login required).
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. SAGE Publications.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1990). Social Skills for Successful Group Work. Educational Leadership, 47(4), 29-33.
Jozwiak, J. (2004). Teaching Problem-Solving Skills to Adults. Journal of Adult Education, 33(1), 19-34.
Lai, E. (2011). Collaboration: A literature review. Pearson. http://images.pearsonassessments.com/images/tmrs/collaboration-review.pdf
Lai, E., DiCerbo, K., & Foltz, P. (2017). Skills for Today: What We Know about Teaching and Assessing Collaboration. Pearson. https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/one-dot-com/one-dot-com/global/Files/efficacy-and-research/skills-for-today/Collaboration-FullReport.pdf
OECD. (2015). PISA 2015 Results (Volume V): Collaborative Problem Solving. https://www.oecd.org/publications/pisa-2015-results-volume-v-9789264285521-en.htm
SRDC. (2021). Research Report to Support the Launch of Skills for Success: Structure, Evidence and Recommendations. Final draft report.

Role Assignment

Active Learning Strategies, Collaboration, CommunicationSFS-3.5

Role assignment includes the various roles that are assigned to participants in a group, such as reader, elaborator, clarifier, writer, etc. These roles allow for participants to clearly understand their duties within the group and what is needed to succeed in a collaborative learning environment.

Black, S., Gardner, D. G., Pierce, J. L., & Steers, R. (2019, February 27). Work group structure. Organizational Behavior. https://opentextbc.ca/organizationalbehavioropenstax/chapter/work-group-structure/

Team Dynamics

Adaptability, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Innovation, Problem-solvingSFS-3.4, SFS-3.5

Team dynamics refer to the relationships between learners in a group and the impact on the way they work and learn together.

Hülsheger, U. R., Anderson, N., & Salgado, J. F. (2009). Team-level predictors of innovation at work: A comprehensive meta-analysis spanning three decades of research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(5), 1128-1145. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015978 (login required).
Delizonna, L. (2017, August 24). High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety. Here’s How to Create It. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/08/high-performing-teams-need-psychological-safety-heres-how-to-create-it
Cooke NJ, Gorman JC, Myers CW et al 2013 Interactive Team Cognition Cogn Sci 37 255-285 https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12009 (login required).