Constructive activity and learning in collaborative small groups.

Abstract

This study identified student behaviors that best predicted mathematics learning in peerdirected small groups among students who needed help. Two behaviors were hypothesized to predict achievement: receiving explanations instead of only the right answer and subsequently carrying out constructive activity (solving or explaining how to solve problems using concepts stated or implied in the explanations received). Six classes of 7th graders participated in 2 sequential instructional units. Students in 4 classes worked in heterogeneous small groups throughout a 3-week unit on operations with decimal numbers (Unit 1); students in all 6 classes worked in groups throughout a 4-week unit on operations with fractions (Unit 2). Analyses of the transcripts of tape recordings of students' verbal interaction confirmed the hypotheses. Level of constructive activity was the strongest predictor of achievement. The level of help that students received predicted level of constructive activity but did not predict achievement directly. One of the most pervasive changes in education in the past 20 years has been the increasing use of peer-directed small groups. School districts, state departments of education, national research organizations, and curriculum specialists have started to recommend or even mandate the use of collaborative and cooperative learning methods of instruction on a large scale (e.g., California State Department of Education, 1985, 1992; Mathematical Sciences Education Board, National Research Council, 1989; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1980, 1989). A primary motivation for putting students into groups is the opportunity for students to help each other learn. Students can learn from other students by giving and receiving help; by recognizing contradictions between their own and other students' perspectives, seeking new knowledge to resolve those contradictions, and constructing new understandings from them; and by internalizing problem-solving processes and strategies that other students use or that are created jointly with others (Bearison, Magzamen, & Filardo, 1986;