Cooperative Learning: Practices, Challenges and Its Implication for Quality Education in Undergraduate Regular Program of Wollo University

Bezabih Wondimu

doi:10.7176/jep/10-31-06

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the practices and challenges of cooperative learning and its implication for quality education in under graduate program of Wollo University, Dessie Campus. To achieve the purpose of the study, a concurrent triangulation research design was applied whereby collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data were undertaken at the same time in an integrated manner. The target populations for this study were students and instructors of Wollo University. From the total population of the study, 136 instructors and 346 students were taken as samples of the study. In addition, ten instructor informants were selected and interviewed. Moreover, three lesson observations were conducted by the writers. Thus, the instruments of data collection used for this study were questionnaire, interview, observation and document analysis. The data collected through questionnaire (quantitative data) were analyzed using frequency, percentage mean, standard deviation and independent sample t-test through SPSS 25.0. The finding of the study revealed that the implementation of cooperative learning in Wollo University is not satisfactory. It becomes evident that the characterizing features of good implementation of cooperative learning were not effectively practiced in the University. Furthermore, the finding of the study indicated that the benefits that students acquired due to the implementation of cooperative learning are not encouraging. The study also identified the challenges that hindered implementation of cooperative learning. From the findings of the study, awareness creation training about the practices and principles of cooperative learning was recommended as a recommendation of the study. Keywords: Cooperative Learning, Practices, Challenges, Quality education DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-31-06 Publication date: November 30 th 2019

Highlights

Orientation of the Study Background of the Study Teaching methods vary with the extent to which they involve the learners or with the roles the students and teachers assume during the teaching and learning process
From the discussion of the data, it is clear that lack of awareness about cooperative learning is one of the challenges for its implementation in Wollo University
Even some of the informants argued that cooperative learning has a negative impact on the academic status of students because as to them this method made many of the students to be dependent on the high achiever students

Summary

Introduction

Orientation of the Study Background of the Study Teaching methods vary with the extent to which they involve the learners or with the roles the students and teachers assume during the teaching and learning process. Cooperative learning is a student-centered method, in which learners work in pairs or in a small group on a project or a task to achieve a common goal through helping each other. It is the pedagogical use of small groups in which students with various ability, gender, nationalities and different level of social skills work together in such a way that they all strive to attain a common goal and in a situation that all group members feel responsible for their individual learning and for all group members’ learning (Johnson, Johnson& Smith, 1998). Within the last decade, ‘student-centered’ instructional methods have become increasingly popular in higher education, and one such method is cooperative learning

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