• What is wrong with this scenario?

In a class in Singapore, there are students of three races: 20 Chinese students and 20 Malay students, and one Indian student, with 20 females and 21 males. The teacher asks students to form groups of four. The resulting groups are homogeneous as to race and sex: groups of Chinese girls, groups of Malay girls, groups of Chinese boys, groups of Malay boys. The only mixed group is the one with the Indian boy.

Homogeneous groups can sometimes be useful, for example if the students in the class speak several different languages and you want to give them a chance to discuss a difficult topic in their own language to assure they understand it before engaging in a discussion with the whole class in the language of instruction. In general, however, heterogeneous groups have advantages in terms of learning and in terms of building a society in which people interact harmoniously and productively with other people who are different from themselves. This is why the CL principle of heterogeneous grouping is so important and why most books, websites, etc. on CL support the use of groups that are heterogeneous, groups that reflect the diversity which exists in the class overall. For example, as in the example in the previous paragraph, if half the class are Chinese and half are Malay, each group of four students should have two Chinese members and two Malay members.

Of course, many types of diversity exist in any class. Thus, we will seldom have groups that are perfectly even as to each characteristic of this diversity. However, with teachers’ guidance, groups can be formed that allow students to enjoy the advantages of heterogeneity. Also, while some groups might stay together for several months or even more, in many CL techniques, student form temporary groups that stay together for only one activity. In this way, students have opportunities to interact with a wide range of classmates.

Here are four ways to form groups.

1. Students select their groupmates. This may be the most popular option among students. However, student-selected groups can lead to some students being left out, as well as to homogeneous groups.
2. Groups can be formed at random. For instance, if a class of 60 students into 15 groups of 4 members, the class counts to 15, and then all the #1s form a group of 4, all the #2s, etc. The advantage of random grouping is that it seems very fair, but there is no guarantee that random groups will be heterogeneous on important variables, such as past achievement.
3. Convenience grouping occurs when students form groups based on where they happen to be sitting at the beginning of class assuming the distribution of students in the classroom is fairly random.
4. The surest way to form heterogenous groups is for teachers to set up the groups. For example, teachers can list all the students in order according to past achievement, maybe using grades from a previous year or term or quiz or other type of assessment. In order to form groups of four that are heterogenous based on past achievement, teachers can select one student from near the top of the list, two students from the middle of the list, and one from near the bottom of the list.

However, in addition to past achievement, other factors can be important when forming heterogeneous groups. Depending on context, some of these factors might include ethnic group, socio-economic group, personality, multiple intelligence profile, nationality, first language, and special education / regular education.

Teachers can take one or more of these other factors into account when forming heterogeneous groups based also on past achievement. For instance, if a class has students from two ethnic groups, Ethnicity A and Ethnicity B, teachers can choose a high achiever from Ethnicity A for one group and a high achiever from Ethnicity B for another group. Of course, life is complicated. Thus, teachers and students will need to be flexible.

Finally, a hybrid method can be used for forming heterogeneous groups for cooperative learning. Teachers can give criteria, and students can form groups on their own based on those criteria. An example of criteria would be to form groups based on (1) past achievement and (2) first language.

Reflective Break

Past achievement is an important characteristic when forming heterogeneous groups, as high achievers can help lower achievers. However, some high achievers feel that helping students is the teachers’ job, not their (the high achievers) job. How can you deal with this? Also, some teachers worry that students’ feelings will be hurt if they are labelled as low achievers. What is your view?

Sample Response

The first point is to convince high achievers that “Those who teach learn twice.” In other words, higher achievers benefit by helping lower achievers. In one famous study by Webb et al. (2009), the researchers found that when higher achievers only told answers to lower-achieving groupmates, neither category of students benefitted. However, when higher achievers explained to groupmates, everyone learned more. Thus, higher achievers need to learn how to teach others. Part of how to teach others is to do so kindly and skilfully. When lower achievers are taught kindly, they will be happy to receive help, and the lower achievers will look for opportunities to repay that help. Furthermore, lower achievers need to learn how to skilfully and diligently use the help they receive. Also, please notice the term used refers to “achievement,” not “ability” or “strength.” Achievement can easily change as we learn, whereas ability or strength seem to be long-term, fixed qualities that are not easily changed. Last but not least, positive interdependence is crucial. If group members feel that they all sink or swim together regardless of background, e.g., regardless of religion or nationality, regardless of current level of achievement, they will want to help each other, and they will not be embarrassed to ask for help.