Running Head: The Effects of Collaborative Learning 1

The Effects of Collaborative Learning on Students Reading Comprehension

Sarah Murgia
Franciscan University of Steubenville
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Introduction
Do you enjoy working with others? Do you feel that working with others helps you to

accomplish more? Looking back throughout all of my years of education, elementary school,

middle school, high school, and even now in college, I have appreciated working in groups and

collaborating with other students. When I was younger, working collaboratively was something

I always looked forward to throughout the school day, and I felt it was very beneficial to me as a

student to interact with my peers to bring learning to life. Working collaboratively builds

students’ self-esteem, helps students to develop higher level thinking skills, promotes a positive

attitude toward the subject matter, and helps develop student’s social interaction skills. For the

purpose of this study, the effects of collaborative learning on students reading comprehension

was explored. “Reading comprehension has been described as the most critical skill students

need to be successful in school” (Boardman, 2016). It is imperative then, that educators continue

to research the effects of collaborative learning on students reading comprehension to determine

which strategies work best and how they should be implemented.

Purpose

The goal of an effective teacher is to instill in her students a lifetime love of learning.

Teachers desire for their students to have a passion and an excitement every day when they come

to class. Lastly, educators want nothing more than to prepare their students for later in life and

guide their students into the best version of themselves. An essential skill that all students must

have from a very young age is a solid reading ability. Not only do students need to know how to

read, but they also must know how to comprehend. Reading comprehension is something I still

struggle with today, and that may be due to the fact that I was not taught the proper strategies when

I was in school. Reading comprehension does not just deal with English but it is used in all subject
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areas: math, science, social studies, etc. Because reading comprehension is so widely used across

all subject areas, it is critical that students know how to comprehend and be able to do it well.

Through research, I plan to answer the question: what are the effects of collaborative learning on

students reading comprehension? I want to find out if collaborative learning benefits students

reading comprehension and if teachers and students believe that it enhances the classroom learning

experience.

One of the procedures that I will utilized through this research was sending out two

different surveys, one for teachers, and one for students. I sent the surveys to my old middle

school, which is a Catholic School in Middle Class Suburban Bucks County, PA. The school that

my mom teaches in was another school I sent my surveys to. It is an economically and socially

depressed urban public school in Delaware County, PA, outside of a major metropolitan area

(Philadelphia, PA). I also sent my survey to some other public school districts in affluent New

Jersey as well as two private Catholic schools in Delaware and Ohio. I did this in order to receive

their perspectives on collaborative learning in primarily the English Language Arts classroom, but

also in other subjects. I plan to discover if and how collaborative learning impacts student’s

reading comprehension and how to best use this teaching strategy in my own future classroom to

maximize student reading comprehension, motivation, and desire to learn.

I predict that my research will show collaborative learning improves student engagement

and involvement in the classroom. When students are fascinated and passionate about what they

are learning, it is much easier for them to participate, work harder, and become fully invested in

their educational goals. Such that, I predict that collaborative learning will improve students’

reading comprehension. Although some teachers and students may be against collaboration in the

classroom, I think that an overwhelming majority of those I contact will respond positively to the
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idea of collaboration. I expect most teachers will be in full support of using collaborative learning

strategies in the classroom and will be able to provide tangible examples of this. I also expect

most students to respond positively in that working with others helps them to better understand the

texts they are engaging with.

Review of Literature

Karen Littleton and Maricela Vélez (2014) discussed how collaborative learning helps develop

reading comprehension. The main aim of this study was to explore the promotion of reading

comprehension in primary students, with the implementation of an educational program called

‘Learning Together’ (LT). The program focuses on collaborative learning activities, and aimed to

promote oral and written communication, including reading comprehension strategies, in Mexican

primary school children. A sample of 120 sixth-grade students (11- to 12-year-olds) from two

equally ranked public primary schools located in Mexico City participated in the study. Sixty

students came from School 1, termed ‘experimental’, and they participated in the LT program

throughout the year, intermixed with their regular classes. The LT program included collaborative

work at least every day. The other 60 came from School 2, termed ‘control’, and they continued

with their regular classes only. Results showed that, in general, the children who participated in

the LT program produced summaries of better quality than the students in the control condition,

not only when working in groups, but also independently. Students who participated in the LT

program, showed a greater capacity to read, comprehend, write up summaries, and generate

inferences. In contrast, students who had not participated in the LT program showed almost no

improvement across the academic year.

The author of this article does an excellent job of emphasizing how effective collaborative

learning is and why teachers should implement it more often in their classrooms. By including
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tables and graphs along with the article, and then elaborating in depth on the results, the researcher

made it easy to understand and interpret for the reader. Seeing the results of this study visually,

makes it very clear that students who participated in the LT program were much more successful

than those who did not participate in collaboration. To improve this study, it could be done in

American schools, not just Mexican schools. Conducting this study in the US would be helpful

and insightful to educators here. It would be interesting to see if the results would still be the same.

Another improvement that could be made is to incorporate more students into the study. 120

students is a good amount, but having more subjects to test is always helpful and might affect the

results differently. This article clearly supports my hypothesis that collaborative learning has

positive effects on reading comprehension.

For my second literature review, in an article regarding how the type of task influences

student performance and social regulation of collaborative learning, Santiago Acuña and Gabriela

López-Aymes (2018) explain in depth and discuss the results of a study done on Mexican

university students. The focus of this study was to explore the effects of the type of collaborative

task (elaboration of concept map vs elaboration of expository summary) on the performance and

on the level of collaboration achieved as well as the processes of social regulation that are utilized

in these collaborative tasks. Forty-five students (17 female and 28 male) in which the average age

was 18, grouped in 15 triads participated in the study. Each triad was assigned to one of the two

collaborative conditions: elaboration of concept map (8 groups) and elaboration of an expository

summary (7 groups). The groups had 30 minutes for the collaborative learning task, constructing

the concept maps and the expository summaries according to the assigned condition. Then, the

participants answered a domain-specific knowledge questionnaire and a self-assessment

questionnaire on collaboration in teams. The students elaborated the concept maps and the
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expository summaries with digital pens (Smartpen Livescribe) that gathered the verbal exchanges

during the task. The summaries and verbal exchanges on the computers were also transcribed

using a word processor. The article states that “Collaborative learning requires apprentices to

socially regulate the realization of a joint task, that is, to put into play a series of processes to plan,

manage, monitor and evaluate interactions and exchanges during the group activity” (p. 35) The

results of this study showed a positive effect of the use of a collaborative concept map in some of

the aspects related to the learning level reached by the students, compared to the task of

collaborative elaboration of the summaries. The collaborative construction of a concept map

allowed students to attain higher scores in the questionnaire to assess performance in learning.

Regarding the level of perceived collaboration, the students who worked collaboratively on the

concept maps highlighted aspects related to the possibility of discussing a variety of ideas when

performing the task and improving skills during their development.

The authors of this article were very thorough in explaining their findings. Their use of

charts and graphs to display the data were helpful. To see results visually represented always

makes it clearer for the reader. At times, this article was a little difficult to understand mainly

because of the language. It is important to focus on the results of this study rather than who

participated in it. Although the study was done on university aged students, the results showed

that concept mapping was much more effective, as it pertains to collaborative learning.

Collaborative concept maps offer a wide range of possibilities to generate interactions that allow

for the elaboration of knowledge. For example, the amount of shared information would increase

by presenting it visually. To improve this study, it could be conducted with more students. Forty-

five students are not many and to receive more exact results, involving more students would be

best. Another way to improve this study would be to present it to middle schoolers, it would be
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interesting to see if the results would be the same. Collaborative strategies will work with middle

schoolers because they naturally enjoy talking and will have no problem discussing with fellow

friends and classmates.

For the third literature review, it seems that more and more students are being identified

with learning disabilities. An effective educator needs to incorporate specific strategies when

teaching reading and one of those strategies is collaboration. Alison G. Boardman and Sharon

Vaughn (2016) do an excellent job in their article explaining the positive effects collaboration has

on reading comprehension with regard to students with learning disabilities. CSR, which stands

for collaborative strategic reading is a multicomponent reading comprehension instructional model

theoretically grounded in cognitive psychology (Flavell,1979) with a focus on explicit instruction

for struggling learners. The article emphasizes “Reading comprehension has been described as

the most critical skill students need to be successful in school” (p. 421). The purpose of this study

was to see if using collaborative strategies would have a positive impact on reading

comprehension. This study took place in 14 elementary schools located in three urban/near urban

school districts. Sixty teachers were randomly assigned, 30 would integrate CSR into their

classrooms and the other 30 would not. There were 1,372 students who participated in this study.

Some of the categories of learning disabilities present in these classrooms included deaf, emotional

disability, physical disability, speech and language, autism spectrum disorder, and significant

limited intellectual capacity. Teachers participated in one full day of CSR professional

development. This is important because the teachers participating in this study need to be sure

they know exactly what to do and how to implement CSR into their classrooms. Students would

take the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test at both the beginning and at the end of the year to measure

basic reading comprehension skills. The results of this study show that students who participated
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in CSR had greater scores and made much more progress throughout the year than those who had

not. It was estimated that students with learning disabilities scored an average of 4.86 points higher

on the GMRT when in a class implementing CSR, compared to students with LD who received

typical instruction.

The authors of this article do an exceptional job, and they fully dive into teaching students

with learning disabilities. They describe in detail collaborative strategic reading, Gates-

MacGinitie Reading Test, and various learning disabilities. Understanding these three components

is a major factor in fully comprehending this article, therefore it is much appreciated that the

authors took the time to explain these terms to ensure that the reader is not confused. They also

had numerous charts, graphs, and tables to represent the results which was very helpful. This study

shows that students with disabilities gain greater reading comprehension when working

collaboratively. To improve this study, the teachers who participated could be interviewed.

Interviewing the teachers who incorporated CSR into their classroom would provide feedback on

how they saw their students grow throughout the year and uncover some pedagogical practices.

That would add another interesting facet to this study.

Methodology

Some of the research obtained in this study was through empirical articles on the topics

of collaborative learning and reading comprehension, this methodology includes a data collection

on these same topics. After consulting with Dr. Poyo for some ideas, as well as with my mother,

Tanya Murgia, who has been an English Language Arts teacher for over 20 years, I created two

different surveys, one for teachers, and the other for students to collect their data, knowledge,

and opinions on the effects that collaborative learning has on reading comprehension.
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After reading through the literature reviews, I knew that I wanted to survey as many

teachers and students as possible, and that I wanted a diverse group. I sent the survey to well

known school districts, such as in Central Bucks County as well as lower ranked inner-city

school districts such as Chester Upland. I think having students and teachers from both

backgrounds, wealthier and more well off, and those from a lower social economic standpoint

offered a real cross-referenced body. Using these different cohorts offered me more range,

diversity, and variety in collecting data. I decided to focus my student surveys on middle school,

since that is the area I will be licensed in after graduation. I surveyed 86 students in 6th, 7th, and

8th grade. As for the teachers, I surveyed 9 from a variety of different schools. Most of the

teachers surveyed were middle school teachers except for one or two. Because there was a

variety in my participants, this seemed to have an accurate representation of the effects of

collaborative learning on students reading comprehension from multiple different standpoints

over various grade levels.

For the teacher survey, I began by asking a few analytical questions about what grade and

what subject the participant taught. This information was helpful to know because at different

grade levels and subject areas, collaboration and reading comprehension are implemented

differently. The next couple of questions on the survey asked were yes or no type questions

regarding their students’ learning levels when working collaboratively and how that relates to

reading comprehension, and accountability when working collaboratively. The last survey

question was formatted for a short answer response. The questions asked “In your classroom, in

what ways do you use collaborative learning? Do you feel it is effective? Why or why not? In

your opinion, are students better able to comprehend a text through this experience?” By asking

this question, I was able to receive specific examples, tangible explanations, and honest
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professional opinions on whether or not collaborative learning effects reading comprehension

and some of the best tried and true ways to implement it into the classroom to maximize results.

For the student survey, I began by asking what grade the participant was in. Although all

participants were middle schoolers, when looking at the data, it was helpful to know what

percentage of my participants were in each grade. I continued by asking some yes or no

questions regarding if they receive better grades, participate more, and enjoy working

collaboratively. Lastly, I asked “How does working in a group help you to better understand the

text?” This question allowed the students to explain, discuss, and give me feedback. It was very

beneficial to receive insight first hand into how these students reflected on their own learning.

Data was collected using Google Forms for easy access and analysis of participant responses.

Findings

The findings presented in this document are the results of the survey sent out to many

different teachers and students. The responses to the surveys had varying levels of participation

and elaboration. Before I began analyzing this student data, I went through all of the responses,

and noticed that there were four students who responded yes and no, rather than just choosing

one or the other. Because these messed with the data slightly, I decided to discard those four

survey responses all together. That was a flaw in creating the survey on my part, I should have

made them so that the participant could only choose one response. When observing the total

number of responses for students, 27 (32.9%) were in 8th grade, 30 (36.6%) were in 7th grade,

and 25(30.5%) were in 6th grade. This data is displayed in Figure 1. For teacher responses, over

half were English Language Arts teachers 6(66.7%) and the rest were equally spread out having

11.1% in the remaining subject areas. This shows and solidifies the fact that reading

comprehension is used in more than just the ELA classroom. This is represented in Figure 2.
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Figure 3 depicts what grade the participants teach. As seen below, 5(55.6%) teach 8th, and

1(11.1%) teach 7th, 4th, 5th and 6th. Having this variety is helpful and provides insight to how

collaborative teaching is implemented best among multiple different grade levels.

Figure 1
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Figure 2

Figure 3
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Looking at the yes or no response type questions, 65(79.3%) of students responded

confirming that they feel they receive better grades when working collaboratively, whereas

17(20.7%) responded negatively. When asked if they participate more in small groups or whole

class, 70(85.4%) responded that they participate more in small groups. Only 12(14.6%) of

students indicated that they participate more in whole class activities or discussions. This piece

of data shows that students are much more comfortable speaking up, sharing their own opinions,

and being engaged when working in smaller groups. This makes sense, considering my

participants are middle schoolers, they probably feel more confident speaking in front of smaller

audiences. When participants were asked if they enjoy working collaboratively, the

overwhelming majority of them responded positively. 78(95.1%) answered yes and only

4(4.9%) answered no. I think a big part of why students in middle school enjoy working

collaboratively is because they enjoy the social aspect of it. They enjoy being able to talk and

converse with their friends and classmates. When students were asked “How does working in a

group help you to better understand the text?” many of them responded saying a lot of the same

things. The following are some examples of the student participants responses:

1. I can see the question that I am answering from many different perspectives.

2. Working in a group allows me to not only read, but also hear the text. The more ways I

can obtain information the better I understand it. I can also ask my group mates if I don't

understand something or don't know a word.

3. It helps because the ideas/findings of other group members can open up new

understandings to a story.

4. When working in a group, everyone contributes their knowledge. So, if there is text that I

do not understand, someone else in my group might understand it.

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5. It helps you to be able to learn and understand better because you can talk to the people in

your group together instead of just your teacher explaining it.

6. I think by working as a group helps me to understand the things that we are learning a

little bit better. When you work as a group you get to talk face to face to each other which

helps me more.

7. Working in groups helps me understand text better because as a group, I can share and

compare my thoughts and answers to those around me. Doing this, I get an opinion of

someone else. This can help me develop a final conclusion about the text and in a sense

understand it better.

8. When working in a group, I learn what other people think about the text. Hearing other

people's ideas helps me to formulate my own.

After reading through all the student responses, it is clear that most students enjoy and find

working collaboratively very beneficial to their own reading comprehension. I found that they

value their classmates’ opinions and insight to assist in formulating their own thoughts and

critical thinking.

Focusing on the teacher surveys, when asked if they thought collaborative learning helps

lower level learners comprehend the text, all nine participants responded positively. This piece

of data shows that these educators all agree that lower level learners benefit from working

collaboratively and it aids those students in their comprehension of the text. When teachers were

asked if there is higher level learning when students work in small groups in regard to students’

reading comprehension, once again, all nine teachers responded positively. Because all nine of

these educators responded this way, it demonstrates a positive correlation between higher levels

of reading comprehension and student collaborative work. 6(66.7%) of teachers responded

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positively when asked if they feel students are more accountable for their work when working

collaboratively, whereas 3(33.3%) responded negatively. My prediction is that those negative

responses are due to the fact that some students will become distracted when working

collaboratively, whether that be because the classroom is too loud, or they get easily distracted

by friends. My last survey question was formatted for a short answer, it asked, “In your

classroom, in what ways do you use collaborative learning? Do you feel it is effective? Why or

why not? In your opinion, are students better able to comprehend a text through this

experience?” By asking this question, it allows me to receive tangible examples of how these

professionals incorporate collaborative learning in their classrooms. It also provides insight into

my own professional learning community that I have formed. The following are some of the

teacher responses to this question:

1. During reading, I often put students in small groups so that every student can get the

experience of reading aloud. Struggling students find it easier to read out loud in front

of a small group, as opposed to the entire class. I also make sure that I have small

group discussions as well as whole class discussions. When I do small groups, I

generally have specific questions that must be answered by the group. Responses are

recorded, and work must be completed. This promotes accountability. Students who

struggle with comprehension tend to focus on understanding plot, vocabulary, and

critical thinking in order to keep up with their peers.

2. I believe collaborative learning is very effective. Students have many different

experiences and backgrounds, so when you put them together, they are able to use

their experiences to make more meaning from texts. Collaborative learning can look

very different based on the goal of the lesson, and it can be used in simple or complex
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ways. For example, having students talk to their "talking partners" is working

collaboratively. Students frequently make predictions or discuss the meaning of a new

word. They use what they know to work together and discuss the text. I also use

collaborative learning for students to work on other comprehension activities, such as

acting out a retelling of a story. Collaborative learning can be used by grouping

similarly leveled students or students at different levels. This can be helpful for

students who may need more support with a specific skill or to extend learning for

higher level thinkers.

3. I pair equal ability learners when writing and peer reviewing so they get adequate

feedback at their level. I pair lower level with higher for basic reading comp. Higher

level learners being able to vocalize and articulate their thinking process is an

important skill for them and, at the same time, the lower level learner, is able to

mimic what the other student articulated. Collaborative learning has a place in the

classroom, but I also know that those who prefer this way to learn have trouble being

independent as a test taker, learner, and in other areas of their life. Independent

learning helps build confidence bc they have to take a stand on their own and take

ownership of their own learning and persevere in seeking the truth. SO, are students

better able to comprehend a text through collaborative learning? Depends on the

learner, but overall, yes. Hope that helps.

4. If the lesson is designed appropriately, it can be highly effective. There needs to be a

high level of accountability for all students daily with peer ratings and evaluations

daily as well as assigned roles for each student to complete daily. Each of these roles

has to have well defined expectations. Additionally, it helps to hold ALL students to
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accountable by requiring EACH of them to complete a written task daily for teacher

documentation.

Through these survey responses, and literature review research, the findings relate to my

research question because they all supported my hypothesis. Both teachers and students agreed

that collaborative learning has positive effects on reading comprehension. Because collaborative

learning keeps the student engaged and interested, offers a variety of opinions and other points of

view from classmates, implements elements of teamwork, and allows learners to become more

engaged in the learning, I believe that it will be an effective strategy for use in my future

classroom.

Recommendations

Through reading multiple different literature reviews and collecting and analyzing data

from the surveys, some recommendations and implications arise. The data collection implies

that collaborative learning should be used in the classroom as an instructional strategy for

reading comprehension. Each teacher surveyed, presented a variety of ways in which they

implement collaborative learning into their classrooms when dealing with reading

comprehension and explained how this helps both higher and lower level learners better

understand the text. From sharing with their “talking partner” to literature circles, this is all

considered collaborative learning. Not just did the educators respond positively, but so did the

students. A majority of the students surveyed responded encouragingly to their collaborative

learning experiences, explaining how working with their peers helped them to further and deepen

their understanding of a text.

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An additional implication for this research is for educators to realize the effects

collaborative learning has on student engagement. Over 95% of students confirmed that they

enjoy working collaboratively. Some students said, “it makes it fun” or “it helps me get better

ideas for studying.” After reviewing and observing the student responses, it was clear to me that

the vast majority of them enjoy collaborative learning and are much more engaged and motivated

through that experience of working with their peers, they are better able to comprehend the text

they are reading. The educators that were surveyed, responded by confirming the fact that

collaborative learning positively effects reading comprehension because it allows each student

the opportunity to read aloud, promotes accountability, allows students to work on

comprehension activities together and bounce ideas off of each other, and allows both higher and

lower ability learners to experience this collaboration.

A recommendation taken from these data collections is to further research the effects

collaborative learning has on student reading levels and comprehension of texts. While a

majority of respondents claimed collaborative learning improved each of these areas, they had

not scientifically tested out their claims. Each educator responded with many reasons backing up

their claims, and it seemed to work well in their individual classrooms. They each had their own

unique way of incorporating collaborative learning into their own classrooms. Another

important aspect to note is that collaborative learning looks different in each classroom. What

strategies work in one, may not work in another. Each student and each class is different, they

are unique, and it is the teacher’s job to figure out what will work best for her students at that

time. A significant portion of their reasons attributed the increase in motivation and

engagement to the improvement in student reading levels and comprehension of texts. Further

research is needed to solidify these claims.

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Although this survey included responses from 9 current educators in the field and 82

middle school students, there are some limitations to the overall data. The first limitation is that

there were very few educators surveyed. If more teachers were surveyed, expanding into

elementary education teachers, rather than just middle childhood, the data collected would be

more comprehensive. Additionally, the students surveyed only represented middle grade levels,

which also limits the responses. Hearing feedback from elementary students would have been

beneficial. Then, I could have explored how collaborative learning and reading comprehension

changes, grows, and develops through the years. Focusing on the middle grades, provided a

concrete base for initial data collection, but further research is needed to prove the conclusions.

“Reading comprehension has been described as the most critical skill students need to be

successful in school” (p. 421). Educators need to realize that this skill goes above and beyond

any other skill. Reading comprehension takes place in every subject, not just the English

Language Arts classroom. Because reading comprehension is so important, teachers should use

the best strategies to teach this skill, such as collaborative learning, in order to maximize student

learning and engagement with the text.

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References

Acuña, S. & López-Aymes, G. (2018). How does the type of task influence the performance

and social regulation of collaborative learning. International Journal of Higher

Education, 7(2), 28-42.

Alfassi, M. (2009). The efficacy of a dialogic learning environment. Reading

Psychology, 30, 539-563

Boardman, A. & Vaughn, S. (2016). Collaborative strategic reading for students with

learning disabilities in upper elementary classrooms. Exceptional Children, 82(4) 409–

427

Lin, C. & Yang, S. (2014). Exploring students’ learning effectiveness and attitude in group

scribbles-supported collaborative reading activities: a study in the primary classroom.

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 68-81

Littleton, K. & Vélez, M. (2014). Developing reading comprehension through collaborative

learning. Journal of Research in Reading, 37(2), 138-158.

Suwantharathip & Ornprapat. (2015). Implementing reading strategies based on collaborative

learning approach in an english class. Reading Matrix: An International Online

Journal, 15(1), 91-101

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Appendix
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