**1.4. Collaborative learning**

In the 1970s, Sir James Britton and others in England [6] created an active learning procedure known as Collaborative Learning based on the theorizing of Vygotsky [7]. Britton believed that a student's learning is derived from the community of learners made up of other students. Britton was opposed to providing specific definitions of the teacher's and students' roles, which he considered to be *training* (the application of explanations, instructions, or recipes for action). Instead, he recommended placing students in groups and letting them generate their own culture, community, and procedures for learning, which he considered to be *natural learning* (learning by making intuitive responses to whatever one's efforts produce). Britton believed the source of learning is dialogs and interactions with other students (and sometimes the teacher resulting from the positive interdependence among students' learning goals. The heart of collaborative learning, therefore, is the cooperative foundation of students working together to maximize their own and each other's learning.
