According to Sir John Dewey, the ability to learn is the most significant activity of a man. Learning enables us to understand the world, solve problems, and make decisions. To educators, learning of students is one primary concern. How to maximize learning of students is another.

Collaborative learning is one of the principles how learning takes place. It is enjoyable for students who like interaction or are open to interaction. Students who are eager to learn in a collaborative learning are interested in what others have to say, their ideas, or perceptions. In collaborative learning, they might encounter someone who has better ideas, someone who comes across thoughts well through classmates, or someone who does not explain further since ideas were covered or is just shy to share. Students get motivated to learn more or further to be able to better share for the next collaborative activities.

An experience I had during my school days (in an all-girls university) was when our teacher grouped us to collect poems from different sources. Each group had more than 5 members. Our teacher assigned one of our members to be a leader. What happened was our leader did the task all by herself without asking help from us. Our group was able to submit the task before the due date, but the task was meaningless for us group members.

What I had experience was the opposite of collaborative learning. It seemed to us (members) that our leader did not trust us in doing the task. There was no assigning or dividing of tasks. In collaborative learning,  students who are more able are expected to contribute more but don't do the task alone; take the task alone or own the task. Members who help more develop more.

As the African proverb goes, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Learning is limited when done alone, but when done together, it is vast, and varied.