Once Upon a Time

Hiya, mates! I can’t believe it’s already the middle of the winter break. It is true what they say, time flies when you’re having rum. Today I woke up and I realised that I ran out of tea bags. So I thought, fine, I’ll have vodka. Well, it’s the old saying, if life hands you lemons, make limoncello. I always try to stay positive. Every single morning I get up, I go out, to stop and smell the roses, and I know it sounds corny, but it’s true. My neighbour yells, “Get out of the garden!” and “put on a robe!” Nevertheless, I always try to be positive. Today's post is going to be about this. I think positivism is something we have to share, and sometimes it can be inspiring. 

You know I think that our experiences in life shape us. Good and bad experiences help us to see the world differently. So, I want to share a personal experience. When I was 7, I got meningitis. I had to be in a children’s hospital in La Plata. Meningitis can be life-threatening or lead to brain damage without quick treatment. By the time I got to the hospital, I could not walk. I remember I was scared. My mother couldn’t be with me because it was contagious. She was in the hospital, but I couldn’t see her. My father was at home taking care of my brothers. It was just horrible. I had to be there for more than two weeks. My mother sent me books with one of the nurses. I remember reading a lot of short stories. But there was a book that changed my life completely. That book was Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. As I told you before, I was alone. So, I started reading Alice, and you have no idea how that story helped me. Alice was going through a very difficult situation alone. She was scared, but she had a positive attitude.

  

“Why it's simply impassible!

Alice: Why, don't you mean impossible?

Door: No, I do mean impassible. (chuckles) Nothing's impossible!”

I read the entire book in two days. I loved it. Sadly the book wasn’t mine, so I had to return it. Days went by, and I was getting better. I went to my house, and I thought everything was going to be alright. Years later, something bad happened. My best friend got sick, and days later he died. I couldn’t understand why he was suddenly gone. My parents were very religious people. But they couldn't explain why this happened. So I changed. I started having a mind of my own. Again, I remembered a passage from Alice.

'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I — I hardly know, sir, just at present — at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.'

'What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. 'Explain yourself!'

'I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, 'because I'm not myself, you see.'

'I don't see,' said the Caterpillar.

'I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, 'for I can't understand it myself, to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.'

The doctors said that meningitis could cause the loss of cognitive speed. My mother was worried. When you are 7, you don’t understand what those terms mean. I went back to school. In the school library, they had Alice in Wonderland. I took out that book each year. My parents got divorced so I could not afford to buy the book. The day of my graduation the teacher, in charge of the library, gave me a brand new copy of that book. She wrote something beautiful there for me. So, I just moved on with my life. I went to college to study something related to animals. You know I love animals. The possibility of “the loss of cognitive speed” didn’t stop me from doing what I wanted to do. Then, I decided to study English. Now, I’m studying to be a teacher of English. Do you remember the movie based on Alice directed by Tim Burton? I think it’s excellent. There is a quote from the movie that hit me:

“From the moment I fell down that rabbit hole I've been told where I must go and who I must be. I've been shrunk, stretched, scratched, and stuffed into a teapot. I've been accused of being Alice and of not being Alice but this is MY dream. I’LL decide where it goes from here.”

This quote means everything to me. You should never let bad experiences define you. We can always do better, no matter what.  JK Rowling wrote, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” 

In 2012 I sat for the entrance exam at the teacher training college. The day of the exam I felt really bad. My back ached. I had a terrible headache, too. I took the exam, and after that, I went to the hospital. My gallbladder was about to explode. Doctors had to remove it immediately. It’s a simple operation you would think. Well, I had to spend sixteen days in the hospital. I spent Christmas there. I asked my mother to bring Alice to me before the surgery. I read it again. You know what? I read a completely different story. I could understand Alice a little more.

“I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”

I've probably read this book 15 times by now. I always find something different in the story. It makes sense if you think about it. In addition, this book opened the door for other stories like Harry Potter, Gulliver's Travel, Jurassic Park, and many other books. 

I think that books are powerful. The stories can help us a lot to go through difficult situations. I know this book makes the difference for me. That's why I love teaching fairy tales. That’s why I always encourage my students to read. Every year we read different fairy tales. I think it is our job, as teachers, to help them discover these wonderful worlds. I think books are worlds. 

“No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever.”-J.K. Rowling

While I was doing my research, I found this amazing video. Have a look. 

People say that children do not read. Actually, I think they have not found their “Alice” yet. That’s why it’s important to present different stories. In my next post, I will talk about this. I believe that in one post I can't say everything I want to say about reading. Finally, I want to end this post with one of my favourite quotes.

Have a nice day 

You CAN teach an old dog new tricks

Look what the cat dragged in! How are you? Fine? I can’t listen to you so back to me. I still have this horrible cold. It is hard not to get sick during this season. There are these big molecules travelling around everywhere on every surface. Not molecules. What are they called? People. I tried everything in order to feel well. I drank ginger and chewed tabasco. I tried eucalyptus, menthol oil, honey and lemon, but nothing worked. So I put it all back, and I left the grocery store. 

The sad part is that I have to work anyway. You probably don’t know this, but apart from work as a teacher, I also work in a Canine day-care. I like working with animals.

I love doing different things. Some of you know me for a long time. You know I love learning about different cultures. I love cats, and I enjoy vodka. But there is something you don’t know about me. Wow! That’s a good promo for my post: “Claudio reveals something about himself he´s never told, anyone.”

Here it is: I hate routine. I mean, it’s not a big deal, I know that. But it's still something I haven't talked about before. Yesterday, I told a friend of mine about this, and he said I should go to therapy. And I said wait a minute why should I pay a stranger to listen to me talk, when I have a blog. So that’s when I came up with the idea of writing this post. So, today I want to talk about breaking the routine. A few months ago I turned 30, and you know what that means. 

But before I start knitting a new scarf while I’m watching “Caso Cerrado,” I want to learn as much as possible. It could be learning how to cook, learning a new language or playing a new instrument. In March I took a cooking course on vegetarian and vegan food. I loved it. I am the kind of vegetarian who doesn’t like buying frozen food. I love learning how to cook. I also learn a lot, about cooking, with Youtube videos. From how to make seitan to discover that a cat is running for mayor in the USA. Here you have some pictures of the things I’ve been doing.

I think that continuous learning is essential for our health. Learning something new helps our brain to make connections quickly and give us a rush of dopamine. According to Radiyyah Hussein, dopamine, or The Molecule of Happiness, is highly related to being happy, excited or experience satisfaction. This molecule is also related to love, lust, gambling, addiction and motivation. Basically, dopamine is the Kim Kardashian of molecules. Experts also say that learning a new skill can slow cognitive ageing. 

True story 

When I was 20, I decided to take saxophone lessons, and I honestly enjoyed the process. I felt really good about myself. Two weeks ago I learnt how to use the coffee machine. What's more, in a few months, I’m going to start taking Korean lessons. Why Korean? (Shut up, Emiliano) I love different cultures, and I enjoy learning about them. 

Benefits

According to Dustin Wax, editor and project manager at Lifehack:

• Learning helps us more easily and readily adapt to new situations.
• A broad knowledge of unfamiliar situations feeds innovation by inspiring us to think creatively and providing examples to follow.
• Learning deepens our character and makes us more inspiring to those around us.
• Learning makes us more confident.
• Learning instils an understanding of the historical, social, and natural processes that impact and limit our lives       

In the classroom

When I’m teaching, I don’t like to use the same activities every year. I get bored. So, I’m always looking for new ways to teach the same topics. This year I had to deal with numbers and colours. I used Pinterest to find new games for this. I have never used that app before. Someone recommended that I should use Pinterest. As a result, here you have this lovely activity. I changed it a little bit. I had an audio recorded by my niece and my nephew. My students had to feed the dog following the instructions. We had a great time feeding Hedwig. Yes, Hedwig. 

So, I hope this convinces you to try something new. It's going to make you happy. You will also have a young brain. Finally, I hope this post convinces you to vote for Tuxedo Stan.

Have a nice week :) 

Link: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/learn-something-new-every-day.html

Other interesting links: https://www.psychologies.co.uk/want-be-happier-learn-something-new. 

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/learning-new-skills-keeps-an-aging-mind-sharp.html. 

Procrastination

Hello, fellas! How your winter break is going? I'm not feeling well. Damn you cold! So I'm here writing this post while I'm drinking a nice cup of tea. Louisa Clark says:"there really isn't much that can't be solved by a decent cup of tea." Have you read that book? The second one is horrible. I should be writing about procrastination but, I'm just putting it off.  The other day I read an article about this problem. A group of scientists discovered that there is a gene for procrastination. It seems like there is a gene for all our bad habits. There is a gene for smoking, gambling and even for hoarding. If you ask me, I think we are just lazy. Every time I have to do something important I tried to organise everything in advance. But I procrastinate a lot. For example, the other day I said I was going to study for my finals. Five seconds later I was watching my 900 favourite cat videos on Youtube.  Don't you love cat videos? I love cats. After that I said I was going to study but, I just listened to some Korean music. So I decided to break this bad habit. 
My secret
I'm breaking the code. I'll tell you that. Probably I'm not going to be allowed back in Vegas. I'm thinking about magicians. Well, I honestly want to pass my exams so, I decided to stop procrastinating. I did some research, and I found something called Kaizen. 
Kaizen is a Japanese word that means continuous improvement. According to this approach, you can learn better in a small amount of time. You are wondering: what kind of tea are you drinking, Claudio? But let David Wolfe explains Kaizen for you: 
"One of the main principles of Kaizen is that big changes result from small changes over a period of time. This can prevent the burnout that comes from trying to tackle one big task at once. Under the principle of Kaizen, you’d want to break a larger task into smaller chunks of time." -David Wolfe
Wikipedia: 
"Kaizen is a daily process, the purpose of which goes beyond simple productivity improvement. It is also a process that, when done correctly, humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly hard work (“muri”), and teaches people how to perform experiments on their work using the scientific method and how to learn to spot and eliminate waste in business processes."

I'm lazy so here you have a video that explains everything:

Now you don't have any excuse to do the things you must do. But at the end of the day it's like Ellen Degeneres says: 

My students are the best

Howdy, mates? I love this Scottish weather. It is perfect for staying at home with a cup of tea, milkshake or chocolate and watching movies. 

Today I want to tell you something that happened this week with a group of secondary students that I have. This is my first year working at a secondary school. We were dealing with vocabulary related to movies and tv shows, and something amazing happened. I told them that I love horror movies, but I don't like movies with real animals. One of my students told me about a movie called "Okja." I saw this movie a couple of days ago. The movie is about a genetically modified pig that it is super big (almost like a hippo). Okja is the best friend of a Korean girl. The company who creates Okja wants her back to make her food. This girl would do anything to save her friend. The movie shows how cruel the food industry is with animals. 

For 10 idyllic years, young Mija (An Seo Hyun) has been the caretaker and constant companion to Okja-a massive animal and an even bigger friend at her home in the mountains of South Korea. But that changes when a family-owned multinational conglomerate Mirando Corporation takes Okja for themselves and transports her to New York, where image obsessed and self-promoting CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) has big plans for Mija's dearest friend. With no particular plan but single-minded in intent, Mija sets out on a rescue mission, but her already daunting journey quickly becomes more complicated when she crosses paths with disparate groups of capitalists, demonstrators and consumers, each battling to control the fate of Okja...while all Mija wants to do is bring her friend home. Deftly blending genres, humour, poignancy and drama, Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer, The Host) begins with the gentlest of premises-the bond between man and animal and ultimately creates a distinct and layered vision of the world that addresses the animal inside us all. Okja is a Plan B Entertainment, Lewis Pictures and Kate Street Picture Company production in association with Netflix. - Written by Netflix

I told my students that I'm a vegetarian since I was a kid. So, without me even asking a debate started. They started giving their opinions about vegetarianism and animal cruelty. They were using English to discuss.  Half of the class was in favour and the other half against Vegetarianism. It's amazing when your students change your plan completely. 
I loved it because they were giving their opinions in English. This school is not a bilingual school, but they did their best to convey what they wanted to say. They were eager to express their ideas, and they didn't care to make mistakes. They took turns to present arguments and respond the other students. Finally, my students agreed animal cruelty exists. They said that there should be some regulations in food production. We had a great time discussing something very controversial. This experience has made me realise how unpredictable a lesson could be. 

Sharing moment

Hi there, mates! It's a wee bit dreich outside today.

You know, the other day I was thinking about what I wanted to share in the "sharing moment" section. Last year I worked in a primary school, and I had a nice experience with a 4th grade. They were so calm and intelligent. I just love working in a primary school.  It was the first time I had an integrated student (I don't know the exact name in English for it) in my classroom. He had Down syndrome. I didn't know how to teach English to him. I was really worried because I didn't feel prepared. I asked a teacher for help, but she didn't help me at all. I had to do some research about it. Sadly, there is very little information about Down syndrome and second language learning. What I can tell you, from my experience, is that my student understood some of the things we were doing. For example, he could complete successfully the activities we had to do on the board (mostly games). He wasn't able to write anything, but he could recognise words and the objects.  I remember that one day he stood up and rearranged the words with the pictures on the board. He did it without being asked, and he did it very well. Sadly, I was with this course less than six months. I want to share with you the research I did about Down syndrome and second language learning. 

Can children with Down syndrome learn more than one language?

Sue Buckley is a leading expert in education and development for young people with Down syndrome. Sue began research examining early reading instruction for children with Down syndrome in 1980 and founded Down Syndrome Education International in 1986. Her research and contributions to the lives of young people with Down syndrome has been widely recognised through numerous awards.

Sue Buckley

---

Can children with Down syndrome learn more than one language? Does learning a second language affect progress in a first language? These are questions that professionals are often asked but there is very little research evidence available on which to base advice. They are questions that are not easy to answer by designing a research study as, in many countries, so few children with Down syndrome are expected to learn more than one language. Parents could be very helpful in enabling us to answer these questions by recording the progress of their children with Down syndrome when they are in a bilingual situation and I hope that this article may encourage parents to write to me with information on their own children's progress with a second language. I am aware of many children and adults with Down syndrome who have achieved a functional level of competence in speaking a second and sometimes a third language, through contacts with families and professionals in many countries. I have also met children with Down syndrome who can read and write in more than one language but we need much more information their levels of general ability and on how they have achieved this in order to advise other parents. Case studies would be a good starting point for more research.

Learning a second language in school

In many countries, all children are expected to learn two or even three languages and they may begin to learn more than one language before starting full-time education or they may not be exposed to a second language until they are in school. For many of these children, only one language will be spoken at home and the other language may be used by some people in the community or only in school. Teachers and parents want to know if the child with Down syndrome should be included in second language learning. For example, should English-speaking children with Down syndrome be included in Irish or Welsh lessons in primary school? Should children with Down syndrome learn a second language in secondary school when their peers begin lessons in the new language? As far as I am aware, there are no published studies of children's progress in these situations but I have met children with Down syndrome who have done well when learning a second language in both primary and secondary school. For example, I know children doing well in Irish language and Welsh language primary schools even though their first and home language is English. One lad in an English secondary school learned French in his first year as well as his non-disabled peer group – by going home and writing out everything he had to learn, as he knew that he had to see the French words to remember them. His mother commented that he was learning a second language in the same way as she had taught him his first language – by reading it. (For more on the benefits of early reading on speech and language development see 5,7)

The bilingual family

The other common situation that raises queries is the bilingual family. In a bilingual family, two languages will be used in the home because the first language of each parent is different and they wish their children to be able to speak both languages. If typically developing preschool children (under 5 years of age) are exposed to two languages used naturally they usually have no difficulty in becoming fluent in both languages.

Bilingual families are often advised not to speak two languages to babies and toddlers with Down syndrome on the assumption that, since children with Down syndrome have significant speech and language difficulties, they will be further disadvantaged by hearing two languages. There is actually no published evidence to support this view but there is one study in progress in Canada that suggests that there is no disadvantage. At least in the early stages, children with Down syndrome who are becoming bilingual are making the same progress in their first language as children with Down syndrome who are learning only one language (monolingual). Preliminary findings from this ongoing study by Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird and her colleagues were presented in July at a joint conference combining the Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders held annually at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA with the IX International Congress for the Study of Child Language.^[1]

Is bilingualism affecting their first language?

They are comparing the progress of 8 children with Down syndrome who are bilingual with a group of 15 who are monolingual, matched for mental age. All but one of these bilingual children are exposed continuously to both languages at home as well as in the community. The chronological ages of the bilingual children range from 4 years to 11 years. The two groups of children with Down syndrome do not differ in their English vocabulary sizes (English being the first or dominant language for all the children) or in their developing grammar as measured by Mean Length of Utterance (MLU). Learning two languages has had no negative effects on first language learning – no effects on vocabulary or on grammar in their spoken language.

Are they like other bilingual children?

When compared with typically developing bilingual children at the same stage of language development, the bilingual children with Down syndrome were making the same progress in vocabulary in both the languages. All the children with Down syndrome (both bilingual and monolingual) were using shorter phrases and sentences than the typically developing children, demonstrating the usual delay in mastering early grammar that is shown by children with Down syndrome.

This is an important study but, as the presenters emphasised, it is a small study which needs replicating and it is too early to see if bilingualism has any effect on the development of later grammar in one or both languages. However, they conclude that their study does NOT provide support for the advice to speak only one language to babies with Down syndrome – the advice that is usually given to parents at the present time. This research group are also looking at the way the bilingual children mix the use of the two languages and once they publish the findings of these studies we will publish the full references for our readers.

Other studies

There are two other published case studies of bilingual or multilingual individuals with Down syndrome, one of an Italian woman speaking Italian, English and some French ^[2] and one of twin girls who were bilingual in speech (English) and in sign, British Sign Language for the deaf (BSL) ^[3,4] as they had profoundly deaf parents, for whom BSL was the dominant language, and a hearing older brother. (Deaf sign languages such as BSL are full languages with fully developed grammars. Makaton is not a language, it is a set of signs used to support spoken language learning – without a grammar).

The Italian woman was reported as an exceptional case as she was seen to be particularly able, with an IQ of 71. She had standard trisomy 21 and she had good spoken Italian with better mastery of spoken grammar than is typical for a person with Down syndrome. She also had some competence in French and in English. She had been in Belgium until she was 6 years old on a NATO military base and therefore exposed to French. She learned English from a British sister-in-law and she was able to hold a conversation in English, watch English TV and speak on the phone. She had a full time job as an adult in an Italian advertising agency. Her abilities demonstrate that having Down syndrome does not prevent someone from learning several languages, as many parents and professionals know from their own experience.

Vocabulary learning may be easier in sign

At ten years of age, their dominant language was spoken English. They still signed to their parents and other signers, but used speech to each other and to other speakers. Their sign vocabulary was more extensive than their spoken vocabulary. In sign, their vocabulary age for comprehension was at the same level as their mental age. In spoken English, their vocabulary comprehension level was approximately two years behind their mental age. This specific gap between mental age and language age is the usual pattern reported for children with Down syndrome learning a spoken language. The vocabulary advantage in sign might reflect that sign language was their parents' first language therefore they may have experienced a richer vocabulary in sign. These findings could also reflect a sign advantage for learning vocabulary, supporting research that does indicate visual cues definitely support spoken word learning and that spoken words alone are difficult for children with Down syndrome to learn.^[5]

Grammar learning is not easier in sign

However, the twins' development of grammar comprehension was equally delayed in both languages, sign and speech and it is disappointing to learn that they did not show an advantage in learning a sign grammar. This may be an important finding for our understanding of the cause of grammar difficulties. Most children with Down syndrome have difficulty mastering the grammar of their spoken language and have vocabulary knowledge that is ahead of their grammar by their teenage years. It has been suggested by a number of researchers that poor short-term verbal memory may be a major causal factor, limiting the children's ability to process sentences and access the grammar, and also that speech-motor difficulties may affect the production of grammatical markers and complete sentences.^[5,6]

If the main problem with learning grammar was linked to learning a spoken language from listening, then children learning a sign language might be less likely to show a grammatical difficulty and may have more fluent production in sign rather than speech. However, the twins do show grammatical difficulties in both languages and use only short 'keyword utterances' in both speech and sign, suggesting a more fundamental language learning difficulty is associated with Down syndrome, regardless of the modality of the language. The girls are also now dominant in spoken English rather than in sign, despite sign being the dominant language of their parents. If sign was actually an easier language mode for children with Down syndrome, we might have expected them to prefer it and to have become more competent in sign than in speech.

What can we conclude from the available information?

The evidence from individual cases and from these studies indicate that children with Down syndrome can become bi-lingual and they seem to be doing so in the same way and as typically developing children of the same mental age and first language level. There is no evidence that learning two languages has any negative effects on the development of the children's first language. The children with Down syndrome show difficulties in developing grammar in both languages, even if one language that they are exposed to is a full sign language such as BSL.

This suggests that the advice for parents should be to include their child with Down syndrome in ordinary family and community life like any other child. If their family is bilingual then they should use the two languages with the baby with Down syndrome in the same way as they do with their other children and he or she will be likely to cope perfectly well with this experience. Similarly, if other children in the family and local community are exposed to two languages in school, the child with Down syndrome can follow the same pathway.

With regard to teaching grammar, the evidence we have at the present time suggests that the best way to teach grammar to children with Down syndrome is through appropriately planned reading activities in their first language, as we have argued in the first issue of this journal for 2002. These reading activities are, of course, always accompanied by speech so that the visual and the spoken language forms have the same grammar and seem to work together to support the learning of one language. We are exploiting the fact that visual short-term memory is better than auditory short-term memory for children with Down syndrome.

Here you have the original article: https://www.down-syndrome.org/practice/180/

Other articles: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art51927.asp 

https://educarconsentido.com/2013/03/06/bilinguismo-y-sindrome-de-down/

http://www.downmx.com/escuela/segundo-idioma-y-sindrome-de-down/

http://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/letras/article/viewFile/271/224

Collaborative Work

Before reading this post, please do not think that this is personal or anything. This is only my opinion about something that really worries me. 

Hi there! Collaborative work or hell as I call it. When the teacher told us that we were going to work with other people, I was worried as hell. Last time I did this kind of work (with google docs and everything), the result wasn't that good. Do you remember Game of Thrones night's watch oath? Well...
I'm a lone wolf, mate. I know that working with others is very important, and enriching, but for me, it can be a stressful situation. Remember Pimpinela? They used to be three but they had to do a collaborative assignment, and they are two now. (that last part is not true. I felt like the post was starting to lull a little bit, and I wanted to embellish). Trusting is important to complete the task successfully. If you don't trust in someone you must work with...

So, I decided to investigate the pros and cons of collaborative work. Here you have part of an interesting article about this:

Shared Responsibilities

For some students, sharing project responsibilities with others provides emotional comfort as well as tangible value. Students can allocate tasks based on expertise. One student may take on creative tasks, while another gets involved more in the research and compilation. Spreading tasks among several students can also increase the production efficiency compared with individual projects. In some cases, students may also take on tasks outside of their comfort zone to expand their skills.

Different Perspectives

In workplaces, groups are used to enhance the number and qualities of ideas discussed. In college, students learn to appreciate that different students have different life experiences and backgrounds. By becoming more open-minded, group members may learn to appreciate the unique viewpoints presented by others. Diversity can add to the breadth and depth of the ideas discussed, as people from varied backgrounds usually come to the table with ideas based on their own backgrounds.

Inefficiency in Decisions

Students may view groups as a way to divide tasks, but ambitious students may engage in extra time-consuming conversation and debate, delaying the completion of the assignment. While end results may be improved, decisions often take more time in groups. Individuals can't simply go with their first instinct or idea. They usually have to introduce ideas and work through group conflicts together to come to a consensus. This is problematic on projects with pending deadlines where urgent decisions are needed.

Varying Attitudes

Much of the conflict in work groups in the classroom arises from different attitudes toward the work group experience. Each student may have different academic goals. Some just want to pass, while others hope for an "A." Some students embrace the benefits and opportunities that come from teamwork, while others prefer to work autonomously and don't adjust well to a group assignment. During group discussion and work, some students take on controlling roles that can turn off others, whereas other students sit back and frustrate cohorts who want them to participate actively.

Original article: http://education.seattlepi.com/advantages-disadvantages-group-work-classroom-situation-1333.html

I know that group work and collaborative work are not the same, but I think that I needed to do some research about this. My worries are the same in both.