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What Other Teachers Say… Values Based Spiritual Education (VBSE) ± An Exemplar for Collaborative Learning Te implementation of VBSE is an excellent example of “Collaborative Learning”. “Learning” is an active construction process. “Collaborative Learning” emphasizes the fact that learning is inherent in the social nature of individuals. Often collaborative learning is used as an umbrella term for a variety of approaches in education that involves joint intellectual efort by students or students and teachers. To learn new information, ideas or skills, the students have to work actively in purposeful ways. Tey need to integrate the new material with what they already know or use it to reorganize what they think they know, in collaborative learning situations. When groups of students work together, they search for understanding, meaning or solutions to create new ideas, artefacts of products for their learning. Tis process redefnes the traditional student-teacher relationships in the class room. Concept and Methodology In LMOIS, every class starting from class I to XII has VBSE sessions incorporated by a committee of international experts who have used the Nine Values as a basis for framing a spiral curriculum. Te nine values are repeated at every class level with activities suitable, relevant and practical for the specifed age group. At the primary level, the values are introduced and understood. At the higher primary level, they are felt and inculcated. At the higher and higher secondary level, they are practised. Tus, the values are inculcated in the sequence of knowing (head), feeling (heart) and practicing (hands/action). In addition to the weekly 2 VBSE sessions, students of OMEGA take part in activities that help them to integrate these values. Te activities that are naturally generated by Scholastic and Co-scholastic subjects are the seeding grounds to inculcate these values. Dr. Shamala. S.K. HoD Lalaji Memorial OMEGA International School, Kolapakkam, Chennai Collaborative Learning In collaborative learning students are engaged to capitalize on one another’s resources and skills. During the Work Education and General Studies classes, I have worked closely with class XI students, conducted various activities like: making and delivering PowerPoint presentations, bottle gardening, craft work, etc. During the process, students were involved in seeking information from each other, work planning and monitoring, group discussions and analysing one another’s ideas. 38 Collaborative Learning