Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Chapter 14 Instructional Methods 327 One person may be the leader or facilitator, another, the recorder, and oth- ers in roles such as brainstormer or mediator. Similar to cooperative learning teams, collaborative teams utilize the social benefits of group work. Collabo- rative teams, however, place greater emphasis on completing the task at hand together as a group rather than as individuals working together. The results tend to be more dynamic and in-depth with less emphasis on teacher-led activity and more emphasis on group-directed activity. In collaborative teams, students gain additional critical-thinking skills, teamwork and communication skills, social skills, empathy and sensitivity, and more insight into a topic. Teamwork in classes can often be part of career preparation as team projects serve as a bridge between school and the work that students may encounter in the workforce. Indeed, surveys of hiring managers regularly note the importance of past teamwork experience and interpersonal skills when hiring recent college graduates. Collaborative teams consistently outperform individuals acting alone in the completion of complex tasks. There are two overriding goals for collaborative learning teams: to function together and to complete their work. After establishing goals, the next step in effective teaching is to set specific, measurable learning out- comes. The learning outcomes are the written hopes that the teacher has for each student individually and for every team as a whole. They are what the instructor anticipates the students or team can know or realistically do by the end of the experience. By definition, in collaborative learning groups, the teacher steps out of the authoritative role and empowers, or gives authority to, students to complete the task set before them. Together, the group completes a task. The task is often open-ended, complex, and needing more definition. This requires that the task at hand must have shared meaning and that the end product must require collective participation or voice. This complexity adds to the richness of the assigned task or assignment. It also adds to the complexity of planning learning outcomes. This does not mean that there cannot be instructor planned and measurable learning objectives. It does mean that the specific outcomes may not be what the teacher intended or expected when designing the learning outcomes. The instructor, like the collaborative learning team, needs to be flexible and adaptable to a chang- ing environment. Interdisciplinary Learning Human rights, global warming, food scarcity, the lack of clean water, pesticide use, racial profil- ing, or homelessness following an act of nature or social conflict—these are big, complex issues that face our world. But, they are real world problems that demand creative solutions—and problem solutions require multiple perspectives and the application of multiple disciplines (Figure 14.20). When breaking down big world problems into real life community issues, such as making sure that all children at a school are respected and not bullied, rich learning opportunities may be pres- ent. How might a teacher approach such a topic? Approaching complex problems is best served by using an interdisciplinary learning approach. PonyWang/iStock/Getty Images Figure 14.20 Global problems require creative solutions and input from multiple disciplines.