Are your kids collaborating?

When setting questions for your children, do you tend to set ones that are...

Closed, with one solution. It’s important they learn facts and the right answer.

Open-ended or ambiguous, with multiple solutions. It’s good to make them think.

A mix of closed and open questions. It depends how they are getting on.

If you give a group of children a task, do you tend to…

Tell them what to do. I don’t expect them to make their own decisions at this stage.

Leave them to decide for themselves how they should allocate their time, roles and how to plan their approach to the task.

It depends. If they’re new to the topic, I might give more direction, but if not I may give less.

When working in groups on a task, do your children usually...

Contribute but talk over and interrupt one another.

Listen but not say all that much. One member usually dominates.

Take it in turns to speak and listen to one another's contribution.

If your children are struggling with a problem do you…

Help them - you want them to get it right.

Let them struggle - it’s important they’re resilient and work things out themselves.

Offer them hints, but not give them the answer!

When suggesting an answer to a problem, the children tend to…

Argue about their decision or struggle to agree a shared solution.

Reach an agreement but usually based on the views of the dominant group member or an adult.

Reach a consensus - they take account of all group members' opinions before agreeing on a solution to move forward with.

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