Group and Individual Performance

Group and Individual Performance

The relationship between group and individual performance in cooperative or collaborative learning is not well understood. Slavin's work on cooperative learning emphasizes the role of individual accountability. His techniques depend on group rewards that are earned by each student in a team when performance is improved. In Slavin's work, therefore, there is continuity between individual and group performance. However, the question of the relationship between group and individual performance is often unexamined. The issue of what factors transfer from a group to subsequent individual performance is not well understood. Part of the difficulty in addressing this issue comes from the variability of approaches to peer learning, as the importance or relevance of this issue varies across approaches. Nevertheless, because of the prevalent use of cooperative and collaborative techniques in schools, the increases in high-stakes testing, and the concerns of parents in relation to their children's involvement in collaborative experiences, the relationship of individual and group performance warrants consideration.Teachers who wish to use cooperative and collaborative leaning to promote students'achievement need to be thoughtful in considering the implications of their decisions about group size, rewards, group composition, and their own role in the classroom. The variety of theoretical perspectives available to inform such decisions can be confusing.Fundamentally, cooperative learning that promotes student achievement depends on the quality of student interaction. Such interaction needs to be task oriented, helpful, characterized by deep processing of content that involves organization or restructuring of knowledge, and elaboration of that knowledge. Making decisions about group size, for example, becomes simpler if the teacher focuses on the expected quality of interaction among students. Large groups limit participation while smaller groups provide more opportunities for interaction. Other decisions such as the composition of the group will also be informed by a focus on the quality of interaction. If the group is of mixed ability, other interventions may be needed to maintain the quality of participation (such as the use of question stems or other ways of structuring the interaction to maximize quality) or to guarantee the inclusion of all participants.