Cooperative learning: Homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping of Iranian EFL learners in a writing context

Abstract

One of the important aspects of learning and teaching through cooperation is the group composition or grouping “who with whom”. An unresolved issue is that of the superiority of heterogeneity or homogeneity in the structure of the groups. The present study was an attempt to investigate the impact that homogeneous and heterogeneous groupings of Iranian EFL learners regarding their prior levels had on their writing ability when working cooperatively. Having administered a standardized preliminary English test (PET) and a writing test taken from PET sample tests as a pre-test, 66 high and low proficient learners were assigned into three groups: heterogeneous, homogeneous high, and homogeneous low groups. Following the end of the treatment that took 10 sessions each for 30 min, all groups received a writing test as a post-test. The results demonstrated that learners improved their performance through cooperation, whether working with stronger or weaker peers. However, heterogeneous grouping showed superiority over homogeneous grouping at the low level. Low students in the heterogeneous class made more relative gains than high students in the same class. It must be noted that low students did not improve at the expense of high students. 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 cooperative learning courses, and will help them make better group experiences for students.

Keywords:

• cooperative learning
• grouping strategy
• homogeneous grouping
• heterogeneous grouping
• cooperative writing

Public Interest Statement

Working together in groups has always been emphasized as an interesting feature of classroom practice. One important question is the best way these groups can be formed. In other words, researchers are interested in finding out the best group composition. Present study examines the impact of two different methods of grouping students in writing classrooms. More specifically, the study reports on the difference between homogenous (students of the same level) and heterogeneous (students of different levels) grouping of students in writing classrooms.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. The author received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Mona Zamani

Mona Zamani has her MA from Allameh Tabatabai University of Tehran. She is also an English language instructor at language schools in Tehran. Her main research interests include issues in second language teaching and learning.