Little is known about the skills children need to successfully collaborate with
classmates on academic assignments. The purposes of this study were to
identify grade-schoolers’ collaborative skills, evaluate the importance of
identified skills for collaborative work, and determine whether differences
in skill use were related to children’s social and scholastic competence.
Initially, third through fifth graders (N = 113) described attributes of
‘‘good’’ collaborators, and these attributes were distilled into distinct skill categories
or ‘‘types.’’ Next, third through fifth graders (N = 212) rated exemplars
of each skill type as a basis for skill importance and peers’ skill use
and provided data that were used to construct measures of work partner
preference and peer acceptance. Teachers reported on participants’ achievement
in multiple academic domains. Four categories of work-related and
interpersonal skills were identified, and these skill types were differentially
associated with children’s work partner preferences, peer acceptance, and
achievement. Overall, the findings help to specify the types of skills gradeschoolers
need to relate effectively with classmates in the context of collaborative
academic tasks.