The effects of grouping types on promoting critical thinking in EFL collaborative writing

Abstract

Nurturing critical thinking (CT) has been acknowledged as a core objective of tertiary education, and drawn attention from academia of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL), particularly in EFL argumentative writing. It has been claimed that collaborative learning which stimulates the active exchange of ideas within small groups not only increases interest among the participants but also promotes critical thinking. One of the important aspects of learning and teaching through collaboration is the group composition or grouping “who with whom”. The present study was an attempt to investigate the impact of homogeneous and heterogeneous groupings on critical thinking in collaborative writing. Having been required to write an argumentative essay as a pre-test, 75 participants, who were categorized by their prior critical thinking levels, were assigned into three group types: heterogeneous, homogeneous high and homogeneous low groups. As a consequence, four types of students were considered their improvement before and after the experiment: high-level students in heterogeneous groups, lowlevel students in heterogeneous groups, high-level students in homogeneous groups, low-level students in homogeneous groups. The results demonstrated that learners improved their critical thinking level through collaborative writing, whether working with stronger or weaker peers. However, heterogeneous grouping showed superiority over homogeneous grouping at the low level. The results revealed that cooperative learning could be especially beneficial for low students. It is hoped that the findings of the present study will give teachers deep insights into group compositions in collaborative learning courses, and will help them make better group experiences for students.

Investigating the Knowledge Co-Construction Process in Homogeneous Ability Groups during Computational Lab Activities in Financial Mathematics

“…When designing collaborative activities, one critical issue to address is group composition. There are studies that explore the differences between homogeneous and heterogeneous groups under several perspectives (e.g., [13,[37][38][39]). Some studies have suggested that homogeneous groups are effective to promote differentiated instruction (e.g., [40]); and that they can enhance engagement, especially in lower-achieving students (e.g., [13]).…”

“…Some studies have suggested that homogeneous groups are effective to promote differentiated instruction (e.g., [40]); and that they can enhance engagement, especially in lower-achieving students (e.g., [13]). On the other hand, a consistent body of research supports the use of heterogeneous grouping to enhance learning, since the lower-achieving students can learn from the higher-achieving ones [37][38][39]. However, many studies cannot find any difference between homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping, but that in both cases collaborative learning helps low-ability students more [41,42].…”