International Journal of Pedagogics
61
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ijp
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue06 2025
PAGE NO.
61-64
10.37547/ijp/Volume05Issue06-18
Collaborative Learning Methods in Literature Education
Usmonova Umida
Teacher at Alisher Navo’i Tashkent State University of the Uzbek Language and Literature, Uzbekistan
Received:
14 April 2025;
Accepted:
10 May 2025;
Published:
12 June 2025
Abstract:
This article analyzes the content, theoretical foundations, and practical effectiveness of the “Rotational
Analysis” and “Interpretation” methods, which foster collaborative learning skills in literature education. Base
d
on an experiment conducted with third-year students, these methods were found to develop skills such as
aesthetic reasoning, analytical thinking, evidence-based argumentation, multi-directional problem-solving,
synthesizing core ideas, and rephrasing. The article also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these
methods and provides methodological recommendations for their practical application.
Keywords:
Collaborative learning, small group work, “Literature Circles” method, “Rotational Analysis” and
“Interpretation” methods
.
Introduction:
The
development
of
students'
collaborative skills in the process of learning analysis is
one of the tasks of literature. Collaborative learning is
“a teaching and learning strategy in which student
s,
divided into groups, collaborate with each other to
achieve common goals by evaluating the activities of
their groups”. “Along with the competence of critical
thinking, communication, teamwork and creative
thinking are necessary conditions for children to
develop into self-determined, active participants in
collective work, and free citizens”. [Helena Silvaa, José
Lopesb:2022,12]
Analysis of literature on the topic
. Theorists such as
Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Jean Piaget believe
that high-quality peer interaction (interaction) is
essential for cognitive, moral-social development,
mental
health,
and
academic
achievement.
Researchers David Johnson and Roger Johnson, who
conducted research, found that positive relationships
with classmates account for about a third of the
variation in academic performance. [David W. Johnson
and Roger T. Johnson:2015,2] Experts emphasize that a
teacher can organize teamwork, that is, the
cooperative activity of students who work together to
achieve a common goal, support each other, and
contribute to each other's learning, only by providing
five
characteristics
in
group
members:
the
understanding that they cannot succeed if their group
members do not succeed, personal responsibility,
mutual support, social skills, and shared discussion.
[David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson:2015,5-6]
These principles suggest that classroom tasks should be
centered around a “group goal,” that each student
should be held accountable for the group’s success, and
that they should be able to express their ideas freely.
“When these five characteristics are present in
cooperative group activities, students will share and
synthesize ideas, debate their points of view, and reach
agreements, thereby developing critical thinking skills.”
[Helena Silvaa, José Lopesb:2022,12] As a result, their
ability to discuss opposing views and draw independent
conclusions increases the level of critical thinking, so
cooperative learning methods serve to analyze the
issue in depth rather than simply memorizing facts.
Various methods have been recommended by
methodologists for collaborative work. Husanboyeva
Q. Niyozmetova R. recommends that the teacher
present various poetic fragments related to the poet's
personality to groups and give questions and tasks that
encourage them to discover the poet's personality
through poems and compare themselves with the poet.
The recommendation based on the lesson aimed at
studying the work of Muhammad Yusuf assumes that
the group members discuss the questions together
orally, and the teacher helps the groups. [Husanboyeva
Q. Niyozmetova R.: 2018,151-163] Qazoqboy Yuldosh
gives an example of working in small groups based on
the epic poem "Farhod and Shirin", which is intended
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International Journal of Pedagogics (ISSN: 2771-2281)
to be carried out without the intervention of the
teacher, based on Jean Piaget's research on working in
small groups. The methodologist recommends that
each small group be given a separate question or task,
that each member of the group engages in specific
sources (textbook, scientific journals, dictionaries,
social networks) and searches for a solution to the
problem, and that two students record the opinions of
their group members. This method of collaborative
work is based on the distribution of separate tasks and
the accumulation of information throughout the class.
[Qazaqboy Yu'ldosh:2022,86-88] In their research,
Albert Carter, DeSuan Dixon, and Xia Li recommend
methods for implementing the “Literature Circles”
method, developed by Harvey Daniels in the 1980s,
using modern technologies, in which the tasks of each
member of the group are clearly defined. In this
method, the teacher gives the class a book or story to
read. Then the class is divided into small groups and
each group is assigned certain roles. These roles can
change depending on the nature of the book, the
dynamics of the class, and the teacher's wishes.
“Literature circles” consist of the roles of moderator
(provides a summary of the chapters read and selects
one interesting passage for the group to read),
discussant (formulates questions), researcher (finds
additional information), connector (connects the text
to other texts, personal experiences, and the world),
illustrator (draws a picture that matches the text),
dictionary inspector (explains the literal and symbolic
meaning of the word), and language researcher (finds
artistic means of imagery). [Albert Carter:2024,160]
The distribution of roles allows students to delve
deeper into the topic, as they try to improve the
learning process due to the responsibility assigned to
them. However, Sarah Kraiter's research finds that
traditional literary circles, with their constant use of
roles, can hinder students' critical thinking and deep
analysis, and suggests new methods for working
together: The Pinwheel Discussion method is an
interactive method that involves students in active,
role-based discussions, mainly in the format of an
observational discussion method (fishbowl). Each
participant takes on a role that represents a specific
image or idea in the text and argues from their point of
view. The participant who leads the discussion directs
the conversation. Through this method, students gain a
deeper emotional and intellectual understanding of the
text, develop critical thinking skills and analyze
opposing points of view. According to the study, this
method provides a significant increase in activity and
analytical thinking by 96.7%. [Kraiter S.:2017, 71-119]
The above scientific and methodological sources,
analysis of research show that approaches to
collaborative learning serve to encourage students to
engage in independent research, develop critical and
analytical thinking skills. Based on methodological
experience and scientific research, we have also
proposed new methods that serve to more effectively
organize collaborative learning, develop students'
communication, analytical approach, and creative
thinking. The proposed methods are aimed at
organizing interactive lessons based on student
activity.
METHODOLOGY
The methods of “Circular Analysis” and “Explanation”
can be used to develop collaborative skills. These
methods teach in-depth analysis of a literary text.
“Circular Analysis” is a method that activates all
members of the group in the work process and allows
for the purposeful formation of common ideas. At the
first stage of th
e “Circular Analysis” method, a group of
four people sits around a large sheet of paper. Each
member individually reflects on a topic, problem or
question, writes their thoughts on their own section of
the sheet. In the second stage, four participants turn
the sheet over and discuss the thoughts of their group
members in writing, during which the remaining three
members successively make written corrections to the
thoughts of one member, then each participant reads
the comments written by their group members to their
thoughts, identifying their own strengths and
weaknesses. In the third stage, the group verbally
exchanges ideas, comes to a common decision, writes
them in the middle of the sheet, announces them to
other groups, and then answers questions posed by
other groups about their ideas. Within the class, each
group is a competitor, and the group with the most
correct answers and explanations for their answers
wins, therefore, group members are required not to
endorse their own opinion, but to endorse the correct
opinion.
In the process, the student expresses an opinion,
analyzes three opinions, studies the points of view of
others on their own opinions, understands their
strengths and weaknesses, draws conclusions together,
and defends the interests of the group in front of the
class. This method simultaneously develops four
speech skills. The “circular analysis” method can be
used to analyze complex, symbolic works, character
psychology, classical texts, and generally to study the
poetics of a work of art. The ability to rely on textual
evidence to defend each decision teaches the student
to logically justify his opinion and express it freely. In
the first stage of the “Explanation” method, each
member of the group individually selects ten important
passages from the literary text being studied and writes
the selected key word, phrase or sentences on one side
of the sheet, and the explanations of the selected texts
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International Journal of Pedagogics (ISSN: 2771-2281)
on the other. Then the members exchange sheets, get
acquainted with which parts of the text their group
members consider important and their explanations. In
the second stage, the members select the ten most
important passages from the collected passages by
addressing each other with the following questions:
Why did you consider this passage important? Which of
your explanations do you think serves to understand
the content of the work? What are the most important
passages and explanations for sequentially revealing
the main idea of the work? In the third stage, they
jointly write explanations for the ten passages that
have been edited. In the fourth stage, based on the
information collected, four members of the group write
answers to four tasks on a separate sheet of paper:
draw a content map of the work using keywords,
identify a chain of causes and effects, express the task
assigned to the character, and write the main ideas.
After reading the answers in turn, it becomes clear
what each member thought about the work, and the
group together writes an analysis of no more than one
page. In the sixth stage, each group announces its
analysis and a group discussion is held. The group uses
the evidence gathered to support its opinion. The
“Explanation” method directs the process of text
analysis to the development of students’ critical
thinking, communication skills, and collaborative
working skills. Through this method, students
strengthen their argumentative logic by selecting
important parts of the text, giving them individual
explanations, and then justifying their choices. While
writing group explanations provides constructive
discussion and shared decision-making, analytical tasks
stimulate analytical and creative thinking. Final
discussions develop the skills of working with evidence
and justifying opinions.
RESULTS
In literature education, there are methods similar to
the “Circular Analysis” method, such as “Silent
Discussion” and “Collaborative Writing with Rotation”
[Moeller, VJ, & Moeller, MV:2007], but these methods
do not fully meet the requirements of collaborative
activity. I
n the “Written Discussion” method, students
write questions and answers or thoughts about the text
on a sheet of paper, which is passed around among
group members. The method is aimed at sharing ideas
only in written form and does not organize
collaborativ
e activity. In the “Collaborative Writing
with Rotation” method, each member writes an idea on
his or her own part of the sheet, then the sheet is
passed around in turn, and others write edits to the
idea. There is no oral discussion of the edit,
summarization of edited ideas, or preparation of a final
analysis conclusion. The “Explanation” method is
similar to the “Annotation” method [Fisher, D., & Frey,
N.:2012], which helps analyze a work by identifying key
words, symbols, or important passages from the text
and writing explanations for them, and the “Conceptual
Mapping” method [Novak, JD:2010], which requires
expressing the main ideas of the text through visual
schemes, but these methods are mainly intended for
individual work and are not aimed at organizing
collaborative activities in a systematic manner. The
“Peer
-to-
Peer” method [Palincsar, AS:1984], in which
participants in a group are assigned roles such as
“questioner”, “explainer”, and “predictor”, does not
ensure the participation of each member in the
explanation. The two methods we propose are aimed
at organizing cooperative work in groups based on a
strictly required procedure for implementation,
integrating the above methods. Both methods are
aimed at the student's ability to express his point of
view, identify shortcomings or flaws in his thoughts and
the most correct solution to the problem together with
his classmates. In the process, the student learns to
accept his own mistakes, as well as to help correct the
shortcomings of others. Before integrating other texts
surrounding the literary text with the work, it is
important to get to know the text itself in depth. The
two methods can be used before contextual analysis to
understand the artistic aspects of the work, to
understand the author's aesthetic intention, to create
a unique interpretation, and to increase the student's
independent analytical skills. For the effective use of
the methods, it is correct to carry out the analysis of
one work in two lessons. In the first lesson, the
student's point of view, personal experience and
knowledge are used, and before the second lesson,
groups are given homework to familiarize themselves
with the dictionary and context. Through this process,
students and groups have the opportunity to assess
how well their initial thoughts and personal
interpretations are combined with contextual analysis
and extended comments, which helps to develop their
analytical skills.
The experiment was conducted with third-year
students (Mother Language and Literature Education).
The "circular analysis" method stimulated active
discussion in the group. Oral exchange of ideas,
questions and answers, and active defense of the
decision forced students to listen carefully and justify
their opinions. The competitive factor (the need to
defend the most correct answers) kept students alert.
Students developed collaborative decision-making
skills; improved identification of the artistic aspects of
the text; students strengthened argumentative logic.
The second lesson showed that conducting contextual
analysis after studying the text in depth significantly
International Journal of Pedagogics
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International Journal of Pedagogics (ISSN: 2771-2281)
improved the quality of the analysis. It was observed
that the groups working with the previous content
developed skills for carrying out collaborative activities.
However, editing the comments took a lot of time, 25%
of students misunderstood the comments of their
classmates, and the process of turning and correcting
the comments created a rush due to the lack of enough
lesson time. Some students misunderstood the written
comments of their classmates, which led to erroneous
conclusions, the answers, comments, and revisions
were similar to each other, and it was found that there
was a lack of an individual approach. In the process of
implementing the “Annotation” method, students
clearly interpreted the symbolic aspects of the text and
became active in creating creative annotations. The
skills of identifying important passages of the work and
understanding their interrelationships were formed.
Through the process of exchanging comments in
groups, it was observed that 70% of students
developed the skills of justifying their own opinions and
participating in discussions while respecting the
opinions of others. However, the comments lacked
originality, and it was difficult for students to fulfill the
requirements of the fourth stage and generalize the
analysis. When implementing both methods, it is
necessary to draw up a lesson plan, pay attention to
ensuring that passive students do not rely on more
active participants, ask for mutual respect in oral
discussions, and check the activity of each student. To
apply the methods, it is advisable to initially use small
works.
CONCLUSION
The methods of "Circular Analysis" and "Explanation"
serve to effectively form in-depth analysis of a literary
text, develop the four speech skills, and work in a
group. The requirements of the methods for expressing
opinions based on the text, discussing in a group,
presenting evidence, and reaching a common decision
teach participants to self-evaluate, feel responsible,
and express individual opinions with justification.
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