Cooperative learning shows benefits for gifted and high-ability students, though long-term evidence is lacking¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r2–r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 1993 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Evidence quality · No study behind this claim is a peer-reviewed article with a DOI: it rests on an ERIC document (a report, conference paper or thesis). It is kept because 3 design pages cite it; treat it as a lead to check, not an established finding.

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Johnson and Johnson report that in nine studies over 15 years, high-ability and gifted students showed higher mastery and retention in cooperative work than in competitive or individual learning, and more frequently used higher-level reasoning strategies when working cooperatively. → Blosser 1993 q2 i? Slavin admits there is no long-term research on the effects of garden-variety cooperative learning on the gifted. → Blosser 1993 (2)

Evidence¶

Blosser 1993¶

Blosser, P. E. (1993). Using Cooperative Learning in Science Education. ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED351207

q2 · i? · review · r3

The review attributes this to Johnson and Johnson's nine studies of high-ability and gifted students conducted over a 15-year period, including a cited physics study in which gifted students used expert reasoning strategies in cooperative groups but novice strategies alone. No effect sizes are printed in the digest.

"They have found mastery and retention of assigned material higher in cooperative work than in competitive and individual learning. When these students were given a task to be solved that could involve higher-level or lower-level reasoning strategies, they more frequently used higher-level strategies when working cooperatively"

Blosser 1993 (2)¶

Blosser, P. E. (1993). Using Cooperative Learning in Science Education. ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED351207

q2 · i? · review · r2

Slavin's stated evidence gap in the controversy section on cooperative learning and the gifted. He nonetheless thinks cooperative learning is good for gifted students because they are most likely to provide elaborated explanations, a behavior closely associated with learning gains.

"He admits that there is "... no long-term research on the effects of garden variety cooperative learning on the gifted""

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• General Cognitive Ability — moderator: an instructional effect differs with it

Related Claims¶

• The effect of cooperative learning did not differ statistically by teaching style, outcome type, publication quality, bias status, or report type — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• Collaborative Learning Improves Outcomes — a broader claim this one bears on
• Meta-analyses by Johnson and Johnson find cooperative learning promotes higher achievement than competition or individual work across ages, subjects, and tasks — a broader claim this one bears on