Design Research On Developing Learners' Collaboration Competency

Many international organizations and nations are committed to cultivating talents in the 21 st century.They have published their own 21 st century competency frameworks,such as the “Definition and Selection of Competencies Framework” proposed by OECD,the EU's “Key Competences for Lifelong Learning” and the “21st Century Skills framework” of the United States.Collaboration is one of the common competencies in all frameworks.In the field of education,technology has also changed from supporting communication to actting as productivity tools,which has spawned more and more innovative courses and interdisciplinary projects.Collaboration has also become the core format for such learner-centered learning models.Although collaboration is so important,collaboration is more of a learning method to help learners achieve better learning outcomes,and there is relatively little research on the development of collaboration competency from existing researches.This study aims to design an intervention model that develops learners' collaboration competency.“Development” means that the ability to collaborate is not natural,and it needs to be taught and learned by intentional design.This study focuses on three issues: how the development model of collaboration competency is,how to form the collaboration competency framework which acts as the goal for competency development,and what factors influence the development of collaboration competency.The conduction of this topic follows the research logic of “model design-model validation-model improvement”.“Model design” refers to form and refine the collaboration competency development model based on theoretical literature,which is embodied in the second and third chapters of the paper.“Model validation” refers to the validation of the proposed model through experimental study,which is embodied in the fourth and fifth chapters of the dissertation.The assessment tool formed in Chapter 4 makes preparation for Chapter 5.“Model improvement” corresponds to Chapter 6 of the dissertation.It revises the original model by sorting out the research findings.First,in the “model design” phase,the research has designed a three-part collaboration competency development model: providing basic conditions for the development of collaboration competency,providing a collaboration competency framework as learning goals,and providing structured support.The three basic conditions for the development of collaboration competency are as following: one is to provide learners with the opportunity of collaborative learning,that is,to let learners learn to collaborate in the experience of collaborative learning;the second is to design reasonable collaborative tasks,so that learners have the necessary to use collaboration competency;third,it is necessary to provide obvious teaching to teach learners' the competency,that is,to have a intentional teaching process for collaboration.These three conditions only provide basics for the development of collaboration competency.It is also necessary to set the goal of collaboration competency development for learners.The framework of collaboration competency can be used as a development goal.On the one hand,it can be used to define the collaboration competency to learners;on the other hand,it can diagnose the individual's ability to collaborate,and inform learners to reflect on themselves.Finally,in order to support the development of collaboration competency,it is also necessary to provide structured support for the collaboration process itself.The computer-supported collaborative learning domain provides ideas on how to design scaffolding,including scaffolding for cognitive process and social process.This study also refines the proposed model,mainly for the construction of collaboration competency framework as development goal.That is to say,to analyze which subdimensions or sub-competencies should be included in the collaboration competency.Collaboration competency is a cross-disciplinary research topic.This research draws on the research results of two fields: the 21 st century competency field and the computer-supported collaborative learning field.We made comparative analysis of the existing frameworks in the two fields,such as the ATC21 S framework in the 21 st century competency framework field,the collaborative process quality framework of Meier in the CSCL field.The similarities and differences between the dimensions are analyzed,the common dimensions are refined,and the theoretical roots of the different dimensions are analyzed.A six-dimensional collaboration competency framework is formed as following: participation,communication,socio-emotion,social coordination,task coordination and joint information processing.Secondly,in the process of “model validation”,the research first forms an assessment tool of collaboration competency by collecting real classroom data,and tests the applicability of the assessment tool in the new situation.We also preliminarily explored the relationship between the internal dimensions of collaborative competency.The study validated the effectiveness of the collaboration competency development model by designing a two-factor mixed experiment.The first factor was three experimental conditions(one experimental group and two control groups),and the second factor was two types of collaboration tasks(content-dependent and content-independent tasks).Both the experimental group and the control group 1 used the model designed in this study.The difference is that the intervention received by the experimental group is a complete model,while the intervention of the control group 1 does not include the assessment and diagnosis of individual collaboration competency.Therefore,the intervention received by the control group 1 is part of the model.The control group 2 did not accept the intervention of the model and was the complete control group.The research was based on the context of technology as a practical learning tool.This contextual choice is in response to a technology-driven learner-centered educational change approach.The results show that the effectiveness of the collaboration competency development model constructed in this study has been verified in certain content.The model is effective for three dimensions: participation,task coordination and joint information processing;while the results in the socio-emotion and social coordination dimensions are neutral,although there are certain effects,it may be disturbed by too many targets set;the communication dimension is not affected.Based on the above findings,this study recommends the relationship between the six dimensions of collaboration competency from the perspective of whether the dimension can be changed.Participation,task coordination and joint information processing are task-oriented dimensions and can be affected by intervention.Socio-emotion and social coordination are social-oriented dimensions,the goal should be more specific,and more forms can be considered to intervene in them,such as game learning or the transformation from non-academic fileds to academic subjects.Communication are the foundation of collaboration competency,and learners' ability to communicate tends to be stable.In addition,the development of collaboration competency goes through a slow to quick process.The task type affects the individual's competency performance in most dimensions,and most collaboration competency dimensions in content-dependent tasks is better than that of in content-independent tasks.Meanwhile,the individual's knowledge base,collaborative experience and individual collaboration belief also affect the development of each dimension of collaboration competency.Finally,based on the above findings,this study conducted a “model improvement”.The design perspective of the original model is a complete solution to develop learner' collaboration competency.The improved model points out that targeted programs should be developed for different competency dimensions.The starting point of the model should be the collaboration competency assessment.In addition,whether it is to develop any dimension of collaboration,certain learning preparation activities are necessary,such as stimulating learners' academic motivation,providing early basic knowledge,and enhancing collaboration belief.The conclusions of this study have certain implications for follow-up research and practice.First,we must design a detailed collaboration competency development intervention method for specific dimensions,and research should pay attention to the collaboration competency development process.Second,it is necessary to design support system for collaboration competency development.It should include the role of teaching agents,and design of real-time collaboration competency feedback.Third,we should provide teachers with a set of guidance materials for teaching collaboration competency based on the competency framework and behavioral indicators.Fourth,the integration of collaboration competency development in teaching requires consideration of different types of collaborative tasks and provides certain learning preparation activities based on the individual characteristics.In order to improve the feedback form of collaboration competency,future research needs to focus on the development of interdisciplinary fields,using rich techniques to collect behavioral indicators of learners' collaboration competency.