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There are many advantages and disadvantages to both homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping in a cooperative learning environment. The decision to which one is best is up to the discretion of the teacher. The teacher knows their student’s ability level and personalities best.
Heterogeneous Grouping
Heterogeneous grouping allows students with diverse backgrounds and learning needs to interact with someone who is different from them. This “maximizes opportunities for peer tutoring and support, improves cross-gender and cross-ethnic relations, and ensures that each group has at least one student who can do the work” (Samsudin, Das, & Rai, 2006, 2) Other benefits include “for high ability students is that through their explaining of subject material to their classmates, they will attain higher-level processing of the subject material themselves and remember it longer. This is known as cognitive rehearsal”. (Samsudin, Das&Rai,2)
The disadvantage to heterogeneous grouping is having a group that is mixed with low, high and medium abilities can lead to negative interaction within the group. “the medium-ability students might get left out to some extent; high-ability and low-ability students might form a teacher-student relationship in these groups, excluding medium-ability students from group interaction.” (Samsudin, Das, & Rai, 3) also, it may put pressure on the students who understand the content quicker to be able to effectively explain the content to students who are having difficulty understanding the content. According to research by Matthews (1992), “students having difficulty explaining the material to their group mates who do not want to listen to them, students who explained without bothering if their group mates understood their explanation at all and students who end up dominating a group or doing all the work themselves as they are concerned about the quality of the work. As a result, the students have a negative attitude towards fellow group mates.” (Samsudin, Das & Rai, 2)
However, there are changes that you can make as a teacher to have a positive outcome when it comes to heterogeneous grouping such as having smaller groups, have clear common goals and expectations for each group, and self-assessment for the group’s work. (Samsudin, Das & Ras,3-4)
Homogeneous Grouping
Homogeneous grouping has students grouped with similar ability levels and needs. The advantage of having homogeneous grouping is “Students may feel more comfortable in a group of their peers who are able to learn at about the same speed.” (Lewis, 2018) As well as, higher level students are able to go ahead of the assignments while the lower to medium level students can work at a slower pace that best suits their needs. Homogeneous grouping could be beneficial for the teacher since he or she could spend more time with the medium to lower level groups.
The disadvantage of homogenous grouping is the stigma surrounding students with special needs, minority, and economically disadvantaged students. According to Beth Lewis, “Some studies showed that reduced expectations for such groups were a self-fulfilling prophecy. Students may be given a curriculum that wasn’t challenging and therefore didn’t learn as much as they would in a heterogeneous group. There have been concerns that minority and economically disadvantaged students were more likely to end up in a lower-level group.” (Lewis,2018)
“Students may have varying abilities by subject and therefore being grouped into a classroom that labels them either gifted or special needs ignores that they may be high-performing in some subjects and need more assistance in others.” (Lewis,2018)
Assessments
For cooperative learning, formative and summative assessments are appropriate as each gives an opportunity to enhance key elements such as positive interdependence and individual accountability. (https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/cooperative/assess.html)
When a cooperative learning exercise is complex, time intensive and the content could be difficult, its best to do a pre-exercise assessment. A ticket to participate is an example of a pre-exercise assessment. Ticket to participate requires “individual students to complete a task prior to the start of the cooperative learning exercise. The purpose of these assignments is to prepare students, focusing their attention on content relevant to the exercise and reducing the likelihood of unprepared students. Those who fail to complete the assignment are placed in a group together and required to complete the exercise.” (https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/cooperative/assess.html)
During the exercise, the teacher can assign roles for each student in the group. This provides a formal evaluation during the exercise for the teacher and students. To assess individual accountability, the teacher can also call on students at random and check for content understanding as well as general understanding of what is expected of them.
After the exercise, the teacher can use summative assessments such as presentations, posters and extended essays to assess each group.
Cooperative Learning 