When talking doesn't help: An investigation of microcomputer-based group problem solving

Microcomputers are now widely used in primary schools and predominately by groups of children working together rather than one child working alone. This paper reports two experiments which examined whether and in what situations, groups of three children (10/11 year olds) showed superior performance to individual children on a series of microcomputer based mathematical problems. Groups showed superior on-task performance to individuals, with no loss of efficiency in time to solution. Surprisingly, task relevant concurrent verbalization had no significant effects on performance, suggesting that intragroup discussion is not essential in group superiority. These results are discussed in relation to psychological theory and educational practice.