Cooperative Learning, Theoretical Perspectives

Cooperative Learning, Theoretical Perspectives

Research on cooperative learning is one of the greatest success stories in the history of educational research. Although there is some research on this topic from the early days of the last century, the amount and quality of that research greatly accelerated in the early 1970s and continues today, more than a quarter-century later. Hundreds of studies have compared cooperative learning to various control methods on a broad range of outcome measures, but by far the most frequent objective of this research is to determine the effects of cooperative learning on student achievement. Studies of the achievement effects of cooperative learning have taken place in every major subject, at all grade levels, and in all types of educational settings in many countries. Both field studies and laboratory studies have produced a great deal of knowledge about the effects of many types of cooperative interventions and about the mechanisms responsible for these effects. Further, cooperative learning is not only a subject of research and theory; it is used at some level by millions of teachers. One national survey (Puma, Jones, Rock, & Fernandez, 1993) found that 79% of elementary teachers and 62% of middle school teachers reported making some sustained use of cooperative learning. By 1998, a study by Antil, Jenkins, Wayne, and Vadasy found that 93% of teachers sampled reported using cooperative learning, with 81% reporting daily use.

Given the substantial body of research on cooperative learning and the widespread use of cooperative learning techniques, it might be assumed that there is little further research to be done. Yet this is not the case. There are many important unresolved research questions on this topic, and a great deal of development and evaluation is still needed. In its fullest conception, cooperative learning provides a radically different approach to instruction, whose possibilities have been tapped only on a limited basis. According to David Johnson and Roger Johnson (1999), two of the leading authorities in the field, “cooperative learning exists when students work together to accomplish shared learning goals” (p. 1). Though conceptually straightforward, the functional definition of cooperative learning is the subject of considerable discussion and will be at issue throughout this chapter.

Although there is a fair consensus among researchers about the positive effects of cooperative learning on student achievement, as well as a rapidly growing number of educators using cooperative learning in all levels of schooling and many subject areas, there remains much confusion, even controversy, about why and how cooperative learning methods affect achievement and, most important, under what conditions cooperative learning has these effects. Different groups of researchers investigating
cooperative learning effects on achievement begin with different assumptions and conclude by explaining the achievement effects of cooperative learning in terms that are substantially unrelated or contradictory.

In earlier work, Slavin (1989, 1992, 1995) identified motivationalist, social cohesion, cognitive-developmental, and cognitive-elaboration as the four major theoretical perspectives on the achievement effects of cooperative learning. The motivationalist perspective presumes that task motivation is the single most impactive part of the learning process, asserting that the other processes such as planning and helping are driven by individuals’ motivated self-interest. Motivationalist-oriented scholars focus more on the reward or goal structure under which students operate, even going so far as to suggest that under some circumstances interaction may not be necessary for the benefits of cooperative goal structures to manifest (Slavin, 1995). By contrast, the social cohesion perspective (also called social interdependence theory) suggests that the effects of cooperative learning are largely dependent on the cohesiveness of the group. This perspective holds that students help each other learn because they care about the group and its members and come to derive self-identity benefits from group membership (Hogg, 1987; Johnson& Johnson, 1989, 1999; Turner, 1987). The two cognitive perspectives focus on the interactions among groups of students, holding that in themselves these interactions lead to better learning and thus better achievement.Within the general cognitive heading, developmentalists attribute these effects to processes outlined by scholars such as Piaget and Vygotsky.



Work from the cognitive elaboration perspective asserts that learners must engage in some manner of cognitive restructuring elaboration) of new materials in order to learn them. Cooperative learning is said to facilitate that process. One reason for the continued lack of consensus among cooperative learning scholars is that each perspective tends to approach the topic without deference to the body of similar work from other perspectives and without attending to the larger picture.

Historically, it has been useful that divergent paths of research have developed around this topic. First, the sheer amount of interest and energy that has been directed toward understanding this complex set of processes reflects a general consensus concerning the enormous implications of cooperative learning for education practice. Second, as a result, a great many possible explanations and scenarios have been explored. It should be little surprise, however, that no single explanation has been sufficient to describe fully the functioning of cooperative learning. Depending on the nature of the tasks, objectives, and students involved, any of the major perspectives can rightfully claim some explanatory power in relating students’ learning to the functioning of cooperative learning.

Although disagreement among cooperative learning perspectives may have served to accelerate advancement in the field from an academic view, this disagreement has resulted in problems of confusion, skepticism, and divergent expectations among policy makers, administrators, practitioners, and
the general public. Already there are a few voices advising caution. There is, for example, growing frustration among practitioners with the many different cooperative approaches that have passed through their campuses but that have inconsistently yielded the promised results (Battisch, Solomon, & Delucci, 1993). There is also pressure at the policy level.

Lawmakers have begun to demand increasingly rigorous evidence of effectiveness in the reform models that receive federal and other funding. In order not to jeopardize the tremendous opportunity that is currently available in the form of public, professional, and political trust, it has become imperative that cooperative learning scholarship move beyond competitive attempts to resolve the individual terms of what we now know is a complex equation. We must move toward a unified theory, which in bringing together dissident theoretical perspectives may teach us how best to configure cooperative learning for large-scale classroom implementation under common sets of conditions.

In 30 years of intense activity in cooperative learning scholarship, there has never been an accepted cohesive model of the relationships among the important variables involved in cooperative learning. This chapter offers as a framework for discussion and continued debate a theoretical model of cooperative learning processes that intends to acknowledge the contributions of work from each of the major theoretical perspectives. It places them in a model that depicts the likely role that each plays in cooperative learning processes. This work further explores conditions under which each may operate and suggests research and development needed to advance cooperative learning scholarship so that educational practice may truly benefit from the lessons of 30 years of research.

The alternative perspectives on cooperative learning may be seen as complementary, not contradictory. For example, motivational theorists would not argue that the cognitivetheories are unnecessary. Instead, they assert that motivation drives cognitive process, which in turn produces learning. They would argue that it is unlikely that over the long haul students would engage in the kind of elaborated explanations found by Webb (1989) to be essential to profiting from cooperative activity, without a goal structure designed to enhance motivation. Similarly, social cohesion theorists might hold that the utility of extrinsic incentives must lie in their contribution to group cohesiveness, caring, and prosocial norms among group members, which could in turn affect cognitive processes.

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cooperative learning, educational research, research, student achievement, knowledge, teacher, Slavin, learning process, Piaget, Vygotsky