Because we know that active engagement in collaborative projects can create a synergy among students that often surpasses what can be learned individually, we find ourselves designing assignments that create opportunities for students to collaborate and learn from one another. Also, the ability to work together in teams is a skill needed in today’s workforce. So for many reasons, assignments that foster collaboration have become essential parts of a well-designed course.
Peer review has been a standard collaborative strategy in English for decades. The activity strengthens students’ editing skills, helps develop confidence in their own writing, and creates a sense of community among writers. With proper guidance students can give each other valuable advice on works in progress and come to rely on that extra set of eyes looking over their work. But building student trust in peer response takes time. Because students see the teacher as the most important source of knowledge as well as the person in charge of grades, they find it difficult to trust peer opinions. I have developed an assignment that hastens this trust building process as it shows students the value of collaboration, with the added bonus of establishing a sense of community in the class.
Although any text could be used for a collaborative assignment of this nature, we can use Carol Dweck’s Mindsets: The New Psychology of Success because the content of the book reinforces many of the learning outcomes of the course. This book, a popularized version of Dweck’s psychological research on individuals’ attitudes toward failure and challenge, defines two types of mindsets, growth and fixed. People with a growth mindset accept failure as a challenge and a means to improve. Growth-mindset people believe that intelligence is expandable. Fixed-mindset individuals consider intelligence static and unchangeable and, therefore, see failure as a threat to identity. Fixed-mindset people are less likely to take risks for fear of appearing inadequate. The book, which is full of personal examples of famous people who demonstrate the two mindsets, provides a rich discussion platform for establishing attitudes about learning. It could be used in many different kinds of courses, such as first-year seminars or senior capstone courses. ♦
