Does Group Size Affect Students' Inquiry and Collaboration in Using Computer-Based Asymmetric Collaborative Simulations?

This study investigated students' collaborative inquiry learning with 5th grade (N = 58, M-age = 11.3 years) and 6th grade (N = 74, M-age = 12.4 years) participants. Students were divided into two- and four-person groups to study whether group size affects their learning with asymmetric collaborative simulations. They worked in online digital learning spaces using tablet computers and communicated face-to-face. The Collaborative Rate of Photosynthesis Lab from the Go-Lab portal (golabz.eu ) was used to establish the condition of asymmetric collaboration, and tasks related to it were developed to assess students' inquiry. To assess students' collaboration, we used an adapted self-assessed collaboration skills instrument to measure three dimensions: contribution, interaction with others and team learning. The results show that collaboration did not statistically significantly differ depending on group size in the 5th grade, but did in the 6th grade, with 2-person groups reporting better collaboration. Regarding students' inquiry, analysis of performance on the asymmetric collaborative tasks showed that there were no statistically significant differences between groups in either grade. However, the inquiry task scores were generally low (28% and 40% for 5th and 6th graders respectively), indicating that asymmetric collaborative inquiry is challenging for students in these grades.