Comparing homogeneous and heterogeneous ability grouping in collaborative computational lab activities in Financial Mathematics

Collaborative learning is an engaging methodology to captivate students in problem-solving activities and inclusive computational lab practices and to foster sensemaking. The knowledge co-construction process can be influenced by group composition. This study aims to investigate how group composition affects knowledge co-construction in student-led computational lab activities in Financial Mathematics. This was done by comparing two different group compositions working within a Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning environment, in two consecutive academic years, namely AY 2020/2021 with internally homogeneous ability groups and AY 2021/2022 with internally heterogeneous ability groups. 572 student responses to a weekly survey were included in the analysis and the adapted Interaction Analysis Model was used to investigate peer interactions.