The Collaboration Penalty: Why Groups of Students Show Lower Performance on Complex Information Search Tasks

• In Event: Library Research

Abstract

Information seeking success during classroom inquiry exercises is conditioned by the type of search task assigned as well as the presence of peer collaborators. In a field-based experimental study of 120 middle school students, searchers who worked in groups of three performed the same as individual searchers on fact-finding tasks, but lower on explanatory and evaluative tasks, the kinds of task where they should have enjoyed a theoretical advantage. The process losses in the group condition significantly affected student performance for more complex inquiry activities. This finding has implications for the types of inquiry work teachers and librarians assign, as well as the intermediation practices of school professionals.

Author

• Eric Meyers, The University of British Columbia