Collaborative learning and anxiety: a phenomenographic study of collaborative learning activities

Collaborative learning encourages deeper learning, producing significant benefit in learning outcomes. There has been an increasing trend to adopt collaborative activities, due to the expected learning benefits but also because of the expected social benefits and their impact on transition concerns. However, collaborative activities may also introduce additional stress and anxiety for students as they cope with altered participation expectations, and the need to develop collaboration, communication and management skills concurrently with their discipline skills. In this paper we describe a phenomenographic analysis of student's reflections on collaborative activities, including their perceptions of the purpose of such activities, and corresponding behaviours.