This paper explores some of the alternatives for collaborative learning. Today's Classroom Begin with what happens in today's classrooms. Research and individual experience attest to lectures dominating faculty delivery styles. Research on the effectiveness of lecture and its implications on what education values are revealing. Dominance of Lectures.
Collaboration is a rare style in higher education classrooms.
Unfortunately, the abundance of lectures does not equate with it being the most effective learning modality for all students. Much of classroom teaching is based on faculty presentation of information to a group of students who are then responsible for demonstrating that they have accumulated it. The instructor is on center stage and determines the official agenda of the course. In the audience of lecture halls and classrooms, students are called on occasionally to demonstrate their comprehension and are tested periodically to determine their retention. The emphasis is clearly on teaching with the expectation that if it is done well, students with ability and ambition will learn.