HVE Design Youniversity
Affiliation
Affiliation - A Design Quality of Choice
Affiliation, which refers to the possibility of designing tasks so that students are provided the opportunity to work with peers as well as with parents, outside experts, and other adults, including but not limited to the teacher. What has been the prior experience of students with work that required collaboration, and how do they feel about the experience? Do students have the team skills and group skills that might be required to work with others? Do students know enough about group processes to analyze and evaluate the operation of their own groups?
Affiliation –
• Does task design encourage cooperation among student and adults?
• Is the task difficult enough that it encourages cooperation to complete it?
• When individual work is required, is the result of the work linked to products requiring cooperation for completion?
Affiliation. Students are more likely to be engaged by work that permits, encourages, and supports opportunities for them to work interdependently with others. Those who advocate cooperative learning understand this well and also recognize the critical difference between students working together and students working independently on a common task, which may look like group work but isn't.
When Focusing on the Design Quality of Affiliation, Ask Yourself These Questions
- What are some ways that I could structure interdependence in the work?
- What structures and norms are needed when students work together?
- When students are given work that requires them to work with others, what might I do so each student finds meaning in the work?
All information has been taken from the Schlechty Center.