Fairness in Student Group Formation:Perspectives, Priorities, Compromises, Mechanisms, and Tooling

Allocating students to groups is a critical yet under-researched challenge in computing education, with significant implications for fairness and student outcomes. Little is known about existing allocation approaches and their treatment of fairness, whilst practical realities faced by educators and students remain largely undocumented. Without rigorous attention to fairness, group formation risks amplifying bias and disadvantaging vulnerable students. This study provides the first holistic exploration of fairness in group formation within higher-education computing contexts through a systematic review of 262 papers, analysis of 18 allocation tools, interviews with 20 educators, and six student focus groups. Findings reveal a lack of evidence linking fairness definitions to groupwork characteristics, processes, and outcomes. To address this gap, we propose a framework for pedagogically informed group formation that embeds fairness, supporting educator decision-making and improving student experiences. We also establish definitions of fairness, groupwork characteristics, and processes to guide future research in computing education.

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Research Portal (King's College London)
Published
2025-11-28
Primary Topic
Teaching and Learning Programming
Type
article
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article

Fairness in Student Group Formation:Perspectives, Priorities, Compromises, Mechanisms, and Tooling

Shao-Heng Ko, Cristina Alexandru, Merel Steenbergen, Vladimiro González-Zelaya et al.
Research Portal (King's College London)
Teaching and Learning Programming
article

Fairness in Student Group Formation:Perspectives, Priorities, Compromises, Mechanisms, and Tooling

Shao-Heng Ko, Cristina Alexandru, Merel Steenbergen, Vladimiro González-Zelaya, Svetlana Peltsverger, Vangel V. Ajanovski, Seán Russell, Joshua Burridge, Rutwa Engineer, Carolin Wortmann, Ellert Smári Kristbergsson, Matthew Forshaw, Olga Glebova, Maíra Marques Samary, Mireilla Bikanga Ada, Caitlin; id_orcid 0000-0002-2602-601X Bentley, Julian Brooks, Alex Chao, Mitsuka Kiyohara, Tasmina; id_orcid 0000-0002-6437-8251 Islam
article en

Abstract

Allocating students to groups is a critical yet under-researched challenge in computing education, with significant implications for fairness and student outcomes. Little is known about existing allocation approaches and their treatment of fairness, whilst practical realities faced by educators and students remain largely undocumented. Without rigorous attention to fairness, group formation risks amplifying bias and disadvantaging vulnerable students. This study provides the first holistic exploration of fairness in group formation within higher-education computing contexts through a systematic review of 262 papers, analysis of 18 allocation tools, interviews with 20 educators, and six student focus groups. Findings reveal a lack of evidence linking fairness definitions to groupwork characteristics, processes, and outcomes. To address this gap, we propose a framework for pedagogically informed group formation that embeds fairness, supporting educator decision-making and improving student experiences. We also establish definitions of fairness, groupwork characteristics, and processes to guide future research in computing education.

Research Portal (King's College London)
University College Dublin (IE), Boston College (US), Reykjavík University (IS), University of Leeds (GB), Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (IN), The University of Melbourne (AU), Duke University (US), Kennesaw State University (US), University of Toronto (CA), University of Münster (DE), University of California San Diego (US), The Alan Turing Institute (GB), University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava (SK), Reykjavík Energy (Iceland) (IS), Newcastle University (GB), Delft University of Technology (NL), University of Edinburgh (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 29%
Teaching and Learning Programming
Open Access PDFOpenAlex
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