An investigation of factors that influence the implementation of cooperative learning

Abstract

Schools are under attack for failing to meet the needs of students entering the workforce. Students graduating from high schools need to have skills that will allow them to be successful in the workforce. Corporate America is emphasizing interpersonal skills, negotiations, and teamwork to increase productivity. Many of the skills that workers now need are ones that will allow them to work together effectively in small groups. Cooperative learning techniques allow students to learn important team building skills that will allow them to be successful in the workforce. Cooperative learning has been proven by many studies, to be an effective teaching method that teachers can use. But, are technology education teachers in CESA 10 and 11 using these techniques? And, if they are, are they using them properly? If they aren’t using them, what are the perceived barriers that inhibit the utilization of cooperative learning methods? And, finally do any of the teachers have any type of training or experience that allows them to teach cooperative learning techniques successfully? Surveys were sent to technology education teachers of CESA 10 & 11 in West-Central Wisconsin. They were asked selected questions about their perceived levels of utilization of cooperative learning methods. Secondly, they were asked about their perceived level of barriers that inhibit them from using cooperative learning methods and lastly, they were asked to identify their amount of education or experience they have had in cooperative learning techniques. With these three variables, correlations were tested. The correlation between the level of implementation of cooperative learning techniques and the level of barriers that inhibit the use of cooperative learning turned out to be not statistically significant. From this study, one can’t conclude that a relationship exists between the level of implementation and the level of barriers. The next correlation tested was between the level of barriers that inhibit the utilization of cooperative learning techniques and the amount of cooperative learning education teachers have had. Again, the amount of correlation determined was not statistically significant. Once again, one can’t conclude that there is a relationship between perceived barriers of teachers and the level of training teachers have had in learning about cooperative learning techniques in these findings. The last correlation was between the level of implementation of cooperative learning methods and the amount of education teachers have had in cooperative learning techniques. The amount of correlation determined was statistically significant at the .01 level. Therefore, from this study, it can be assumed that there is a correlation between the level of implementation of cooperative learning methods and the amount of education teachers have received in learning about cooperative learning techniques. The findings of this study suggested that the level of implementation of cooperative learning methods increased as the level of teacher training in cooperative level methods increased. The findings also revealed that most technology education teachers are older than forty and have not received any education in cooperative learning and are not apt to start working on a Masters degree program that will allow them to learn about cooperative learning. Therefore, teacher workshops, in-services and professional time to work with other teachers learning about cooperative learning techniques, should be increased in order to expect teachers to utilize more cooperative learning strategies inside the classrooms in CESA 10 and 11.