There are many reasons to make use of collaborative learning of one sort or another in your classes. Collaborative writing assignments, in particular, are one of the most compelling opportunities for students to strengthen and—importantly—reflect critically upon their written work for a class. As noted by Dale (1994), students who co-author a text are able to develop a sense of their purpose and an awareness of the audience for the writing that they produce together. Students who work together in composing a text may also become better planners for their own writing. As collaborative writing situations are common in the workforce, students can benefit from a familiarity with the processes that occur in a collaborative environment.
Instructors from throughout the disciplines have experimented with writing assignments that make use of collaboration (if you would like to share one of your own, tell us about it), but one easily implemented, in-class strategy is one that John Bean calls "The Frame Strategy:"
Using this strategy, the instructor gives students a mapping sentence that predicts the shape of a short essay but not the content. Students have to create content topic sentences to head each predicted section and develop a supporting argument for each one. Often the instructor can include in the task a blank tree diagram or an outline indicating the slots that students' ideas must fit. This task requires not only that students generate ideas but also that they place these ideas within a clear structure.
The following are links to materials about collaboration that have been generated by instructors throughout the university:
Even though this page focuses on collaborative writing, the benefits of collaboration toward critical thinking might also worth your consideration. As Bean notes in his book, Engaging Ideas, "one of the best ways to coach critical thinking [...] is a goal-directed use of small groups" (149).