COOPERATIVE LEARNING – APPLICATIONS FOR CHILDREN FROM PRIMARY SCHOOL

Abstract

This study was intended to assess the efficacy of an intervention program built on the principles of cooperative learning. We assumed the classroom climate of 4th graders would improve for the experimental lot (n=32) as compared to the control lot (n=30). Our research tool was The Classroom Climate Questionnaire designed by Johnson & Johnson (1983, 1996) and adapted for the Romanian population by C. Popa (2010). The intervention program was conducted on a 5-week period of time, on a basis of 3 hours per week, and it completed 15 cooperative learning activities in History, Civic Education and Religion.The results showed that working in cooperative learning groups leads to both, minimize the need for teacher support and minimize the need to learn independently from one’s peers. The intergroup comparisons showed that the need for independent learning in relation to one’s peers had dropped for the children in the experimental lot as compared to the children in the control lot, in posttest (t=-2,247 p=0,028). The results for intragroup comparisons for the experimental lot are statistically significant for the following subscales: teacher support (t=2,326, p=0,025), having a lower mean in posttest, and independent learning (t=2,298, p=0,029), having a lower mean in posttest. For the control lot, there were statistically significant results for the subscale of independent learning (t=-2,147, p=0,040), having a higher mean in posttest.