Page 119 - Educational Technology A Primer for the 21st Century

7.2 Social Learning 109
7.2.2 Benefits of Social Learning

Social learning emphasizes the fact that individuals learn from social interactions in
communities and groups. When students act as a part of a group, they can gain
experience during collaboration and develop the important skills of critical think-
ing, self-reflection, and co-construction of knowledge (Brindley, Walti, & Blas-
chke, 2009). Specific benefits of social learning can be summarized into four major
categories: social, psychological, academic, and assessment as follows (Laal &
Ghodsi, 2012):
Social benefits:

• Contributes to the development of social support system for students. Learners
work in groups or communities through social learning, so they could get
suggestions and information from others to deal with questions and problems.
• Helps to build various understanding among learners and instructors. The
different experience of learner would result in various understanding to same
things. Positive relationships between different kinds of people are encouraged
in social learning to develop broad perspective and understanding.
• Establishes a positive atmosphere for collaboration. Learners participate in peer
interactions usually hold a positive attitude and motivation that lead to active
social responses to problems and results in a friendly environment.

Psychological benefits:

• Student-centered instruction increases students’ self-esteem. In a social learning
setting, instruction is learner-centered; learners are responsible for conducting
inquiries, applying knowledge, and making meaning of new concepts.
• Cooperation reduces anxiety. In social learning setting, learners are usually in
supportive environments to manage conflict resolution and get help to solve
problems.
• Develops students’ positive attitudes toward teachers. In a social learning set-
ting, the environment is open, which allows a teacher to have smooth conver-
sations with students. In addition, teachers can better know students and give
proper guidance.

Academic benefits:

• Classroom results are improved. Compared with face-to-face teaching, students
in social learning deliver more complete reports, make higher quality decisions,
and perform better on complex tasks that require groups to generate ideas and
solutions.
• Critical thinking skills are promoted. When a learner interacts with others, the
learner can analyze information from a broader perspective, which could
improve his/her critical thinking skills.