Adolescents' collaboration in the classroom: Do peer relationships or gender matter?

Abstract

Peer collaboration can be a useful tool in a school classroom to help students perform at their best. With whom should students be paired, though? Previous research yields inconsistent findings regarding whether the benefits of peer collaboration depend on the gender or friendship of collaborators. We paired students with a same-gender friend or a nonfriend in their classroom to examine whether friendship and specific dimensions of relationship quality were important for understanding adolescent (N = 132 high-school students) boys' and girls' performance on a scientific reasoning task. Dimensions of relationship quality were related to task performance with greater perceived conflict predicting poorer performance. Girls outperformed boys, but the difference was marginal and nonsignificant after accounting for dimensions of relationship quality. Friends' and nonfriends' performance was similar. Results are informative for educators who use collaboration as an instructional technique and for other professionals who work to support the development of effective reasoning and problem-solving skills among adolescents. C 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Friends With Performance Benefits: A Meta-Analysis on the Relationship Between Friendship and Group Performance

“…A review of literature shows mixed findings with regard to the question of whether groups of friends perform better or worse than groups of acquaintances. Whereas some studies have documented a positive effect of friendship on group performance (e.g., Harrison, Mohammed, McGrath, Florey, & Vanderstoep, 2003; Jehn & Shah, 1997; Shah & Jehn, 1993), other studies have not documented performance benefits of friendship groups (e.g., Andersson & Rönnberg, 1996; Nibler & Harris, 2003; Peker & Tekcan, 2009; Swenson & Strough, 2008).…”

Effects of Multi-Grade Teaching and Learning at Primary Level Schools.

“…In other studies of Cornish, (2009), Gnadinger, (2008), revealed that in modern era multigrade classrooms, the basic philosophy of classroom organization. In research studies of Many and Henderson, Swenson and Strough, (2008), the finding in the theoretical basis that student learn best through differential instruction and social interaction and peer collaboration. In another research study of Cheadle, (2008), the socioeconomic status factor has long had an influence on student achievement.…”

Do Friends Perform Better?: A Meta-Analytic Review of Friendship and Group Task Performance

“…On the one hand, cognitive tasks may heighten the positive effect of friends on group performance because friends should feel more comfortable engaging in cognitive activities such as problem solving (e.g., Azmita & Montgomery, 1993) or memory retrieval tasks (e.g., Andersson, 2001) as compared to non-friends. On the other hand, cognitive tasks may attenuate the positive effect of friends on group performance because friends tend to be less comfortable engaging in effective reasoning techniques when completing problem solving tasks (e.g., Swenson & Strough, 2008).…”

“…However, current research lacks consensus regarding the positive or negative effect of friendship on group performance. While some research has suggested a positive effect of friendship on group performance (e.g., Jehn & Shah, 1997;Shah & Jehn, 1993;Harrison, Mohammed, McGrath, Florey, & Vanderstoep, 2003), other research has documented that friendship negatively impacts performance (e.g., Andersson & Ronnberg, 1995;Swenson & Strough, 2008). In light of these mixed findings, the overall effect of friendship on group performance remains unclear.…”