While the positive impacts of collaborative learning are well recognized, relatively little is known about how group characteristics (e.g., group size and composition) affect learning outcomes. Consequently, this article explores how group characteristics affect learning. We leverage a random assignment of students into groups of predetermined sizes to explore the effect of group size on learning outcomes in an undergraduate economics class. Though confirming the benefits of collaborative learning, our results indicate smaller group sizes (i.e., groups of about 5 or 6 members) are preferred to enhance learning, in our study context. We also find group learning effects tend to be limited for students with cultural and/or language barriers that limit participation. This is an important consideration for many US institutions with increasing enrollments of international students, particularly from Asian countries.

尽管人们公认协作学习的积极影响，但是关于群体特征（例如，群体规模和组成）如何影响学习成果的知识知之甚少。因此，本文探讨了群体特征如何影响学习。我们利用将学生随机分配到预定大小的小组中的方式，来探讨小组规模对本科经济学课学习成果的影响。尽管证实了协作学习的好处，但我们的研究结果表明，在我们的学习环境中，较小的小组规模（即，大约5或6个成员的小组）更适合于增强学习。我们还发现，对于那些文化和/或语言障碍限制参加的学生，小组学习的效果往往受到限制。