This study investigated the effects of group ability composition on group processes and outcomes in science performance assessments. Students in 21 eighth-grade science classes worked on science assessments first individually, then in groups, and finally individually again. Group composition had a major impact on group discussion quality and on student achievement. Groups with above-average students produced more accurate and high-quality answers and explanations about how to solve the test problems than groups without above-average students. As a result, below-average students who worked with above-average students showed higher achievement than did below-average students who worked without above-average students. High-ability students generally performed better when they worked in homogeneous groups than when they worked in heterogeneous groups. The fact that heterogeneous groups provide a greater benefit for below-average students than they impose a detriment on high-ability students is discussed.

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Cooperative learning is a well-known instructional technique that has been applied with a wide variety of subject matter and a broad spectrum of populations. This article briefly reviews the principles of cooperative learning, and describes how these principles were incorporated into a comprehensive set of cooperative learning activities for a CS1 course. In each activity, specific roles are assigned to group members in order to highlight important concepts and to enhance the overall functioning of the group. The group processing is followed by a whole-class debriefing led by the instructor, which works in tandem with the group activity to help students improve their understanding of the material. The effectiveness of these cooperative learning activities was assessed in a series of educational research studies which spanned three academic years and included two different instructors. The results of these studies show statistically significant benefits from the cooperative learning approach, both overall and for a broad range of subgroups of students. The article concludes with suggestions for faculty members who may want to use these cooperative learning activities in the classroom, or to develop their own activities along similar lines.