Developing cooperative learning in initial teacher education: indicators for implementation

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of supporting pre-service teachers to use cooperative learning in one initial teacher education institution in England. In a context where the government requires all teacher education to be ‘school-led’ and where school partners do not commonly use cooperative learning (Baines, Rubie-Davies, and Blatchford 2009), this presents challenges. Ensuring that government priority areas are fully addressed also squeezes the time available for pre-service teachers to develop the necessary depth of understanding of cooperative learning. Yet driven by a research-led programme that supports students to examine effective learning and teaching approaches, one university has endeavoured over the last five years to help all its student-teachers understand and adopt cooperative learning. In order to capture the impact, questionnaires and interviews with student-teachers have been utilised each year; results are summarised here together with research carried out by one of the students on the views of her cohort. Two short vignettes of former students in their early years of teaching signal the importance of formative experiences on teachers’ positive self-efficacy, and particularly the lasting impact of observing effective practice early in the journey to become a teacher.