A systematic review of ethics in students' collaborative learning and identifying what ethics is in collaborative learning from the perspective of University of Tehrans’ students

Authors
Mohammad Reza Karamati 1
khatoon alipour 2
Sayyedeh Fatemeh Zare Sheikhkalai 2
1 Professor of Curriculum Development, Department of Methods and Educational Programs and Curriculum, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Ph.D. Candidate in Curriculum development, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.61838/KMAN.IRPHE.32.2.8
Abstract
Simply emphasizing collaborative learning does not guarantee its realization in higher education. Therefore, ethics in students' collaborative learning – as a mediating link for realizing collaborative learning in higher education – becomes important because collaborative learning is based on ethical principles that also ensure the effectiveness of collaborative learning. We conducted a review of the research literature in two separate stages to more accurately identify the research gap. Therefore, the research was conducted with a mixed-methods approach and with an applied purpose. Corresponding to the two questions, in the first objective, we sought a general understanding of ethics in students' collaborative learning, and therefore, we identified components related to ethics in students' collaborative learning in documents. In the second objective, we sought to identify the nature of ethics in collaborative learning from the perspective of graduate students at the University of Tehran to know what definition students participating in the research have of ethics in collaborative learning. Therefore, we raised two specific questions, using a systematic review method for the first question and a focus group research method for the second question. The systematic review was conducted using Wright et al.'s seven-stage method. From screening 4017 articles, 29 articles were selected, the analysis of which was classified with open and exploratory coding (over 1000 initial codes) into 4 main themes and 15 sub-themes. In the focus group, we interviewed 12 master's and doctoral students from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Tehran. The answer to the second question was classified into 47 sub-themes and 15 main themes. In the review section, we had a more comprehensive look at the definition of ethics in collaborative learning, which included the definition, theoretical foundations, communication, challenges, and solutions of ethics in collaborative learning. In the focus group finding, we examined ethics in collaborative learning from the perspective of educational science students (because it had received less attention in the reviewed articles). The finding of the second question showed that students emphasized the sharing of knowledge and the absence of scientific stinginess.
Keywords
Learning strategies
Educational Policies
Ethical responsibility
Learning and social commitment
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 11 May 2025
  • Accept Date 12 November 2025
  • Publish Date 01 July 2026