Socially Oriented Theories
Despite both being prominent educational approaches, learning communities (collaborative learning) and cooperative learning are similar yet significantly distinct models. They share almost as many similarities as their differences. Essentially, both theoretical frameworks stress the importance of learning with the teacher as a facilitator. Also, much of the emphasis is put on the responsibility of the students to take charge of their learning and determine a greater percentage of the outcome. Just like learning communities, cooperative learning comprise situations in which the learners are required to share their ideas and perspectives in small organized groups. The final notable likeness between the two approaches is that they both make use of the diversity in the students to improve learning and ensure highly positive outcomes.
The similarities do little to overshadow the overt differences existing between the two theoretical approaches. Whilst cooperative learning is structured in a manner that every student has a particular role in the activities, learning communities has the learners organize, deliberate, and decide on the efforts among themselves. The learning of social skills happen in small groups in cooperative learning while learning communities as an instructional model presumes that students are already sufficiently socially skilled, thus, only need to improve their skills to meet the set goals. Finally, whereas in cooperative learning the students have to hand in their work for evaluation at the end of the project, collaborative learning requires that the learners retain drafts of their work to facilitate completion of further projects.
I think cooperative learning connects best with me as opposed to collaborative learning. Cooperative learning allows me to participate in an activity in a relatively small group that enhances my relationship with the instructor for tailor-made and timely feedback. In the past, I always preferred community learning as I thought I could easily conceal my weaknesses while in the crowd, just before I realized I was losing instead of winning. The fact that the community learning model treated me as though I had prior skills made me prefer cooperative learning as it inculcated newer social skills in me notwithstanding my existing ones. I felt more comfortable with cooperative learning then.