Stephen Rutherford 
Collaborative Learning [PDF ebook] 
Theory, Strategies and Educational Benefits

There is strong evidence that collaborative learning is beneficial to educational development. By engaging in collaborative activity, learners utilise each other’s perspectives and experiences to solve problems and develop a shared understanding of meanings. Through dialogue and social interaction, learners are empowered to perform outside of their own individual capabilities. Collaborative learning has the potential to benefit learners of all levels of experience and in a variety of situations. This edited volume showcases a series of studies of theory and case-studies of practice. The book highlights the benefits and challenges of collaborative inquiry, and how these are best managed in practice. The contributors to this volume are comprised of educators from around the world, and collaborative approaches for learners across a broad range of stages of development are discussed. The authors highlight the rich diversity of approaches to learning through collaborative activity, and provide examples of good practice. It also addresses the increasing significance of technology in the support collaborative learning. The benefits technology can bring to collaborative activity have been recognised for several years, and many of the contributions to this volume demonstrate how the impact and scope of collaborative learning may be enhanced by the use of collaborative technologies, social media and Web 2.0 interactive platforms. The examples presented in this edited work illustrate that through technology, collaborative activities no longer need to be confined to the classroom, but may occur across geographical, cultural, and language barriers. Often overcoming these barriers within a collaborative environment proves to be of great benefit to the learners in addition to the knowledge gains offered.