The social mind is the information that we have acquired socially. This could be through people, through what we’ve read and so on. In short, it is the knowledge our mind has acquired through our experiences.

When rope skipping for the first time with two people holding either ends of the skipping rope, you will have an idea on how to jump because of your social mind. Thus what you realise is, most of the time, when you take up a task for the first time, you might already have some knowledge about the task, or how to go about it, and this is due to the social mind.

Collective intelligence, like the name suggests, is nothing but the intelligence that develops from a group. For example, the intelligence that is put into a group project by all the group members is collective intelligence.

Collaborative learning has multiple benefits. Firstly, most students tend to feel more comfortable when learning as a group than individually and they tend to have a certain level of comfort with their classmates and tend to be more interested in learning and hence increases retention. This in turn also reduces class disruptions, if any. Secondly, students have access to multiple points of view, as opposed to just their own views when working individually. Thus, there will automatically be more individual learning since there is so much input that they are receiving. If the learning is done productively, it could also build a good support system amongst the learners. Finally, working in a group helps students develop their personality traits such as being empathetic, open etc.

This being said, it is important to keep a couple of things in mind when creating a collaborative learning task. It is extremely important to group learners together and assign work in a manner so as to create an environment where maximum learning can happen.

Works Cited

44 Benefits of Collaborative Learning, www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/c-learn/44.html.

Cherry, Kendra. “How Does Observational Learning Actually Work?” Verywell Mind, 1 Dec. 2019, www.verywellmind.com/social-learning-theory-2795074#real-world-applications.

“Collective Intelligence.” Collective Intelligence - an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics, www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/collective-intelligence.