An exploratory study on how cooperative learning motivates student-learning

The purpose of this study was to examine primarily students' psychosocial perceptions of how cooperative learning affects their motivation level to learn. The study also examines, secondarily, how motivation levels and cooperative learning have changed over time during the length of the course, due to student-student and teacher -student interactions. This mixed-method, qualitative (Qual) integrated with the quantitative (quan) study, qualitative overarching the quantitative, used the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire , an educational survey tool used to study learning environments in school classrooms, a focus group open-ended survey questionnaire of an adult learning classroom environment, a closed-ended survey questionnaire on students’ opinion on their level of involvement in classroom learning and face to face interview sessions with selected students. A sample of students, 2 males and 2 females was chosen to represent the cohort of 78 (25 males and 53 females) post graduate students in this study. The students were equally divided into two cultural groups - Chinese and Malay – 1 male and 1 female for each of the cultural groups surveyed. The cohort of students had Indian or other ethnic groups but these were in the minority (13 in number) although they were homogenously assimilated into the classroom environment, being able to adapt well through the use of the national lingua franca, English, were able to relate well with the majority Chinese and could be represented quite comfortably in the overall study. Generally speaking, overall, students did feel motivated in the cooperative learning environment though other factors like the classroom environment, dominating groups of students in class discussions and the non-uniform arrangement of students in groups (all females or all males, all of the same ethnicity being in one group, students being in an age-specific group – older versus younger, more experienced in teaching versus the less experienced, senior versus junior level teachers, those still in the teaching profession versus those who are not etc) may have also affected the level or cooperation and motivation in the classroom. It should also be noted that there were still other variables affecting the cooperation and motivation of students in class and teacher’s classroom involvement, as a facilitator, also mattered although the survey impinged more on students’ involvement rather than the teacher’s.