Procedural and conceptual knowledge acquisition in mathematics: where is collaboration helpful?

While research has generally shown that collaboration may facilitate student learning in mathematics, such positive effects are not always found. We argue that the effectiveness of collaboration may depend on the type of knowledge the instruction targets: The interaction with a partner can slow down students and may thus decrease the amount of practice necessary for procedural skill fluency. On the other hand, collaboration could be particularly useful for conceptual knowledge acquisition, as here, the elaborative meaning-making activities ascribed to collaboration may facilitate learning. To evaluate the differential effects of collaborative learning, we compared four conditions: individual versus collaborative learning with procedural instruction, and individual versus collaborative learning with conceptual instruction. The study results support our hypotheses: Students who learned individually showed higher test scores in a procedural far transfer test. However, a combination test requiring both knowledge types revealed a positive impact of collaboration om stidents' conceptual knowledge acquisition.