Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of embedding cooperative learning (CL) into the Primary and Secondary Education Course (PSEC) on the academic achievement of undergraduate university students. The study also sought to gauge the perceptions of these students application of CL.

Design/methodology/approach

This was a mixed methods sequential explanatory design involving 136 undergraduate university students who participated in a 16 week semester intervention involving the implementation of CL into their PSEC. Achievement data were collected from all students pre- and post-intervention to determine if there were significant differences between the experimental and control conditions. Forty-four participants from the experimental condition were also interviewed post-intervention on their experiences of CL.

Findings

The results showed that there was a significant difference between the academic achievement of students in the experimental and control groups in favor of students in the experimental group (p < 0.001). The perceptions of participants in the experimental condition indicated that CL not only created an empathetic, safe and pleasant learning environment and strengthened students' individual and communicative skills, but it also helped to develop an understanding of quality learning.

Research limitations/implications

The results of this study have the potential to influence university instructors by demonstrating how CL provides opportunities to not only improve student learning but also their attitude to learning.

Originality/value

This study, while demonstrating the positive effect of CL on students' academic achievement also revealed the potential this approach to teaching and learning has for embedding it in other university courses.

中文翻译：

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本科生对合作学习对学业成绩影响的看法

目的

本研究的目的是检验将合作学习（CL）嵌入中小学教育课程（PSEC）对本科生学业成绩的影响。该研究还试图衡量这些学生对 CL 应用的看法。

设计/方法/方法

这是一个混合方法顺序解释设计，涉及 136 名本科大学生，他们参与了为期 16 周的学期干预，涉及将 CL 实施到他们的 PSEC 中。从所有学生在干预前后收集成绩数据，以确定实验条件和控制条件之间是否存在显着差异。来自实验条件的 44 名参与者也在干预后接受了关于他们对 CL 的体验的采访。

发现

结果表明，实验组学生的学业成绩与对照组学生的学业成绩有显着差异，有利于实验组学生（p  < 0.001）。实验条件下参与者的感知表明，CL不仅创造了一个有同理心、安全和愉快的学习环境，增强了学生的个人和交际能力，而且有助于培养对质量学习的理解。

研究限制/影响

这项研究的结果有可能通过展示 CL 如何提供机会来改善学生的学习以及他们的学习态度来影响大学教师。

原创性/价值

这项研究在展示 CL 对学生学业成就的积极影响的同时，也揭示了这种教学方法在将其嵌入其他大学课程中的潜力。