Gender Composition and Small-Group Learning in Fourth-Grade Mathematics

Fourth graders (N = 112; 50 boys and 62 girls) from 4 classrooms participated in research on students' affective experiences and achievement outcomes in small-group learning in mathematics. Teachers designed and implemented a study that examined students' reported affective experiences in small groups associated with individual gender and group gender configuration. Students' reported experiences and achievement were assessed after each of 6 lessons and again after a 10-day delay. In general, students' reported personal experiences changed with increased exposure to their small group and were differently-adaptively-reconstructed upon delayed reflection. There were no results associated with individual student gender; group gender configuration emerged as an important dimension in students' reported helping behavior and affective experiences. Considerations based upon these and other results are offered that might be useful for teachers as they plan, enact, or reflect on their experiences with small-group learning.