This chapter introduces the concept of collaborative competence. A broad view of how collaboration has been defined and studied within fields ranging from human–computer interaction to team cognition to dialogic education and collaborative problem-solving is discussed. Contexts for researching such processes have included shared narrative and experiential awareness of internal states, among other nontraditional procedures. The account of collaborative competence presented here synthesizes key aspects of prior findings while proposing a more broadly applicable theory and method for understanding development as a collaborative process. Accordingly, collaborative competence allows for an assessment of interactive quality along multiple dimensions. These include the extent to which all participants contribute to a shared activity as well the cognitive and social-emotional complexity of the collaboration. Elements of collaborative complexity include jointly created conceptual understandings, shared meanings, and the degree of emotional attunement and social reciprocity that characterize both the processes and products of the collaboration.

This chapter summarizes the evidence provided in the previous chapters that Anglo-European developmental psychology and education have been limited by a pervasive bias toward individualism. This is despite the focus of international educational assessment bodies on collaborative skills as being necessary for all students. The result of this has been a lack of robust findings, especially regarding social development, and an education system that is largely ineffective for students who are not from Anglo-European backgrounds. Addressing these related issues requires a shift in educational practice and policy toward collective achievement and collaborative forms of pedagogy. The chapter recommends the first steps toward moving education away from an individualistic paradigm. These include changing the unit of analysis from the individual to the interaction, creating group-level outcome variables, and restructuring learning environments. Multiple levels of schooling – the curriculum, instructional designs, the structure of schools, policy, assessment, and teacher training – are all discussed in terms of how they would need to shift to support collaborative competence as a goal for all children.