CRITICAL EXPLORATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING FOR THE REALIZATION OF COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

Collaborative learning, as a method of working together in groups based on shared educational interests, has received considerable attention for past decades. A remarkable upsurge in research has taken place on the academic, attitudinal, and social interactive effects of collaborative learning. However, through many empirical studies on group task performance, it can be confirmed that the collaboration itself does not guarantee the ‘synergy’, and that the strict conditions are required to realize the collective intelligence beyond the sum of individual performance. Based on critical examination of precedent studies, the endogenous principles of collaborative learning for realization of collective intelligence and its implications for further research are suggested as follows. First, the value of the task in collaborative learning should be reconceptualized as a means to provide the synergy experience rather than as an end which needs to be accomplished in due time. Second, the interpersonal relations should be primarily based on the mutual and multilateral exchange rather than the hierachical and unilateral relation. Finally, the effect of collaborative learning should be assessed focusing on the subjective individual experience rather than objective group products.