Working alone and working together: Individual differences in the effects of collaboration on learning handicapped students' writing

Abstract

Differences between stories written by learning handicapped students working alone and those produced when they worked in dyads were related to individual differences in writing skills and to the collaborative interactions that occurred in the dyads. The relationship between individual and dyad performance was characterized in terms of several outcome models (synergistic, most-competent member, least-competent member, and mean). Of the 10 dyads examined, the synergistic model was appropriate for 2; the other 8 dyads reflected the least-competent member model or a mix of the least-competent and mean models. Synergistic outcomes were associated with lack of disagreeing and contentious interactions and relatively low rates of interaction among the members. Least-competent member outcomes were associated with high rates of interaction and/or high rates of disagreeing or contentious behavior. The discussion focuses on potential tradeoffs between interactions about writing and actual text generation, and the impact of the individual's performance level on this tradeoff.