One way I often model and practice what it means to be a strong learning partner is by having a “game” period where children play checkers, chess, mancala, pick-up sticks, partner card games with each other followed by the partners filling out a “partner reflection sheet” to comment on what they learned from playing with a partner. Then we come together as a whole class to find out what we have learned as partners. I then  can remind them what we learned when we are using partners in academic activities.

From a developmental perspective, learning is the “social negotiation of meaning in practical activity.” The pioneering Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, introduced this concept in the 1920’s , but it did not receive major recognition until his works were translated into English and more widely explored in the 1960’s. Vygotsky’s idea that “all the higher mental functions originate as actual relations between people,” challenges the long-held Euro-American idea that learning occurs primarily inside the individual, and that in school this learning should be focused on the completion of individual assignments and individual achievement measured by standardized tests that compare children’s academic growth according to individual performance.

In elementary classrooms where a balance of individual and cooperative learning takes place, children learn that learning is multi-layered, learn that they can learn as much from another as on their own, learn that divergent ideas and different perspectives enrich their own lives. In such classrooms, teachers model, practice and emphasize the value of “partner learning,”whether that be partner reading, math partners or lab partners in science. Learning to work with and learn from one other person is a prerequisite skill for learning to work effectively in a group. Too often instruction moves too quickly to cooperative learning projects before children have learned partner skills.

What are some of the ways you have children share what they know or the questions they have with each other in the classroom? These strategies are among the most important for deepening children’s academic capacities for learning. It would be great for some you to share such a strategy by posting your idea to this blog.