Abstract
The aim of this article is to investigate how and what kinds of relational and shared practices were co-created within a multicultural team in a higher education collaborative learning environment. The students interacted while working towards the shared goal of co-constructing knowledge. The study provides insight into how student teams can actively build collaboration in learning spaces through manifesting relational leadership. Shared and relational practices refer broadly to all the knowledge, attitudes and skills that emerge from team interaction. A compound theoretical framework combining relational leadership and leadership trichotomy was adapted to study what particular factors enable shared and relational practices. The qualitative study drew data from students’ reflections and group discussions in an intervention which served as a space for experimentation in collaboration and dialogue. The results showed that the students practised Co-sensing and Co-shaping to effectively allow knowledge co-construction. A broadening perception of diversity and the perception that barriers were a doorway to new relational possibilities enabled Co-sensing and Co-shaping to work in collaboration. The results of the study could provide new insights for other kinds of higher education learning environments.
Highlights
A large number of studies in higher education examine learning from a perspective that draws on knowledge co-construction in collaboration (e.g. DamŞa et al 2013; Heo et al 2010; Van Schalkwyk and D’Amato 2015)
We will exploit the relational leadership model combined with the knowing-beingdoing model as our theoretical framework to examine the shared and relational practices that a multicultural group of higher education students created in knowledge construction together
The aim of this research was twofold. It sought to examine the shared and relational practices that were co-created in higher education within a socially constructed learning environment by a multicultural student team
Summary
A large number of studies in higher education examine learning from a perspective that draws on knowledge co-construction in collaboration (e.g. DamŞa et al 2013; Heo et al 2010; Van Schalkwyk and D’Amato 2015). The perspective of sharing and relations is adopted in this article to explore how shared and relational practices in social interaction contribute to knowledge co-construction in higher education learning processes. Among current studies in higher education, few concentrate on face-to-face learning with a focus on how students work together towards knowledge co-construction. In such a context, social interaction becomes a fundamental element of collaboration (Valsiner 1994)
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