An Educational Psychology Success Story: Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning

Abstract

The widespread and increasing use of cooperative learning is one of the great success stories of social and educational psychology. Its success largely rests on the relationships among theory, research, and practice. Social interdependence theory provides a foundation on which cooperative learning is built. More than 1,200 research studies have been conducted in the past 11 decades on cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts. Findings from these studies have validated, modified, refined, and extended the theory. From the theory, procedures for the teacher’s role in using formal and informal cooperative learning and cooperative base groups have been operationalized. Those procedures are widely used by educators throughout the world. The applications have resulted in revisions of the theory and the generation of new research.

Teaching methodology used in the master’s degree programme for secondary education teacher training: student assessment

“…In this sense, we must develop student-centred learning, since this is an internationally useful concept and model that can be transferred to a range of settings in higher education (Bovil, Jordan, & Watters, 2015). The design and creation of spaces that encourage the development of collaborative learning situations should also be fostered (Johnson & Johnson, 2009) as should learning service experiences that can facilitate teacher reflection on the ethical aspects of the profession and the role those aspects play in professional work (Bell, Horn, & Roxas, 2007;Root, 2005).…”

“…This approach would reduce traditional on-site classroom sessions, which tend to focus on the acquisition of conceptual knowledge (Cano, 2008). Therefore, the design and creation of shared learning spaces that bridge gaps and stress relationships to foster the creation of methodologies that give rise to collaborative learning is proposed (Johnson & Johnson, 2009). …”

A Study on Jigsaw Model Application in Teaching and Learning Mathematics

“…To its opposition, Bloom's individualistic learning received attention as a mastery learning but it resulted in creating rugged individualism, which lacks sociality due to the absence of interaction with others. Cooperative learning is a new theory developed by Deutch in 1940's that redeems the shortcomings of competitive learning and individualistic learning based on the research findings of intellectual development of learner and social psychology about interaction among group members Jeong, 2006;Johnson & Johnson, 2009).…”

The Social Side of School: Why Teachers Need Social Psychology

“…Scholars studying achievement motivation (e.g., Midgley, 2002), cooperative groupwork (e.g., Johnson & Johnson, 2009;Slavin, 1996), attributions about intelligence (Dweck & Leggett, 1988), and teacher expectancy effects (e.g., Brophy, 1983;Rosenthal, 1991) have applied ideas from social psychology to educational settings. The success of these research programs is, perhaps, unsurprising given that the theories in these domains have obvious applicability to classroom settings.…”