Collaborative learning is powerful but also fragile, or "savage" as some students call it. Its pedagogical benefit relies entirely on constructive transactive dialogue; a conversation among group members that incites learning. But what leads students to participate in this dialogue, or, what conditions foster this dialogue?

 Disappointing student achievements are strive in introductory courses at large open-enrolment universities. At least that is our experience in the first year. We have created a moderate structure Cell Biology course, with group-based activities, clicker-quizzes and more frequent in-course assessments, with the aim of reducing the mass experience and align teaching better with the secondary-school experience. The results are remarkably positive but…… the comprehensive final exam remains a destructive friction for a large subpopulation of students.

Working together, as a group, has important advantages over an individual approach. It provides an opportunity to lend each other the power of understanding, share burdens and uncertainties, learn from the skills of others, encourage and correct each other. If all goes well, there is also more room for a mastery approach and social recognition. How you can you foster a true collaborative attitude?

Collaborative learning is powerful but also fragile, or "savage" as some students call it. Its pedagogical benefit relies entirely on constructive transactive dialogue; a conversation among group members that incites learning. But what leads students to participate in this dialogue, or, what conditions foster this dialogue?

 Disappointing student achievements are strive in introductory courses at large open-enrolment universities. At least that is our experience in the first year. We have created a moderate structure Cell Biology course, with group-based activities, clicker-quizzes and more frequent in-course assessments, with the aim of reducing the mass experience and align teaching better with the secondary-school experience. The results are remarkably positive but…… the comprehensive final exam remains a destructive friction for a large subpopulation of students.