Developing cooperative learning in efl contents. Introduction

CHAPTER II. THE ADVANTAGES OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING AND RESEARCH FINDINGS
2.1. Advantages of Cooperative Learning
Cooperative Learning has been among the most widely investigated approaches in the educational research literature. Hundreds of studies have compared the effects of CL with other instructional methods such as the lecture method or individualized instruction. Many of these studies coincided with the flowering of the cooperative learning movement in the 1980s. Nevertheless research is ongoing as is evidence by the large number of publications and journal articles reported in the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education (IASCE) newsletter. Latterly research has revolved around specific issues, age groups or cultural contexts, and in some countries, such as the UK, research has more recently gained pace.
Research conducted in many different subject areas and various age groups of students has generally shown positive effects for CL in the following areas: academic achievement, development of higher order thinking, self-esteem and self-confidence as learners, inter-group relations including friendships across racial and ethnic boundaries, social acceptance of mainstreamed students labelled as disabled, development of social skills, and the ability to take the perspective of another person.
What are the key findings from research? Johnson and Johnson (1989, 2001), Slavin (1990), and Sharan (1990) all identify three main categories of advantages:
(1) Achievement. Over 375 studies in the past 100 years (Johnson and Johnson, 1994) have shown how working together to achieve a common goal produces higher achievement and greater productivity than working alone. In 1981 Johnson and colleagues published a meta-analysis of 122 studies examining cooperative learning and its impact on achievement. This showed that cooperation promotes higher achievement for all age groups and for a variety of tasks. The cooperation also improved the more group members were required to produce a group product. CL also results in process gain (i.e. more higher level reasoning), greater transfer of what is learned within one situation to another and more time on task. Slavin (1989) reviewed 60 studies of cooperative learning and found that gains in academic achievement were maximised if group goals and individual accountability by members of the group were embedded. He found that motivation was enhanced through use of STAD²⁵.
Sharan (1980) reviewed five methods of cooperative learning including Jigsaw, Teams-games-tournaments, student team learning, leaning together and group investigation. He found that children perform more effectively in small groups than traditional whole class settings and the group investigation method produced higher levels of cognitive functioning. This he found was due to the peer interaction which clarified misunderstandings and developed problem-solving skills.²⁶The ESRC funded SPRinG project (Blatchford et al, 2005) also found a positive impact on pupils' academic progress. At Key Stage 1 the benefits were found in reading and mathematics; in Key Stage 2 particularly in problem-solving and inferential thinking and in Key Stage 3 there were benefits to higher cognitive levels.