Learning is not an unidirectional endeavor. Instead, learning should be an enjoyable and multidimensional process where we can all learn from each other. Indeed, learning is more powerful and more meaningful, when we construct our knowledge together.
Recently, students at our Project Management class experienced the power of learning together while working on a class project and leveraging tools like the Work Breakdown Structure, the Activity List, Network Diagrams, Gantt charts, top-down and bottom-up budget estimating, Responsibility Assignment Matrix and many others. To strangers of project management, these tools might sound foreign; however, our students learned how to apply them by constructing knowledge through their specific business case context, developing critical thinking skills and putting their creative thinking to work. By teaching each other, they practice what good leading and managing should look like embracing a win-win collaborative approach to learning.
It is great to see our students finding the joy of learning, while they realize the tangible results of hard work through teamwork. Students are many times surprised by the number of pages of data generated in a short span of six weeks. This happens because they are able to fulfill weekly objectives and milestones without paying attention to the number of words or pages written. This humanistic and organic way of learning together sets a more productive and positive classroom environment, where the ultimate goal is to leverage constructive social interactions, moving in the direction of a behavioral transformation to meet the challenges of complexity.
I absolutely agree with this article. Nothing beats the power of learning together how ever small or trivial the subject matter might be. When people get together to discuss a subject matter, as long as the the rules are followed whereby everybody is given a chance to contribute without interruption, the power of group dynamics, can just bring the best of everybody and a formerly “an unattainable” goal becomes a piece of cake, because people work together, share ideas and solve complex issues.