Potential employers require graduates to be able to demonstrate competent teamwork skills in initiating ideas and solving problems cooperatively. Teamwork is prevalent in educational institutions and often included as a way of enriching learning and assessment. Whilst group working can provide a rich opportunity for cooperative learning, its…

In this paper we describe an instructional tactic of individually assigned homework that promotes and strengthens individual learning processes. We claim that current emphasis on the benefits of collaborative learning belittles the importance of individual learning processes and reduces the opportunities to require and assess individual learning…

Effects on achievement of generating summaries or analogies while reading a lengthy text were studied for 111 undergraduate students randomly assigned to paired or individual conditions. Posttest results were higher for those who generated summaries, and students scored more highly working alone. Implications are discussed. (SLD)