Cooperative, competitive, or individualistic? Exploring the role of social interdependence in the classroom

Abstract

This study examines how different social interdependence structures influence students' perceptions of anticipated affective learning, motivation, classroom communication apprehension, and classroom climate. Participants were randomly assigned one of three conditions (cooperative, competitive, and individualistic) and were asked to complete a short survey. The highest levels of affective learning and motivation were found in the individualistic structure, followed by the cooperative and competitive structures. Regarding classroom communication apprehension, students in the competitive structure were most apprehensive, followed by students in the cooperative and individualistic structures. Finally, both students in the cooperative structure and students in the individualistic structure viewed their classroom climate more favorably than students in the competitive classroom.

Communication Apprehension and Psychological Well-Being of Students in Online Learning

“…The current study examined the links between communication apprehension, perceived learning, and learning outcomes when moderated with the intention to social media and psychological stress. Consistent with previous findings, the results of the current study show that communication apprehension is negatively related to students’ perceived learning [ 39 ]. University students’ fear that their thoughts or views will not be accepted by their classmates when they participate in the classroom.…”

“…In the current study, communication apprehension within the context of classroom was explored. Vu et al [ 39 ] stated that communication apprehension in the classroom is characterized by a certain level of anxiety or fear linked with participating in the classroom. It has a negative correlation with academic achievement [ 40 ], cognitive learning [ 41 ], affective learning [ 11 ], psychomotor skills [ 42 ], and communication competence [ 43 ], and acts as a main hindrance to student success across various contexts, especially in terms of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning outcomes.…”

“…On the other hand, there were some students who dealt with the feeling and eventually brought themselves to communicate despite being fearful, while others preferred waiting for the end of the class to ask questions to the instructors. It was also found that students tried to be discreet, skipped class at times to avoid the feeling of fear, experienced anxiety, and dropped necessary courses [ 39 ]. More apprehensive students performed worse academically compared to the students who reported low or moderate levels of communication apprehension [ 44 ].…”

Cooperative school climates are positively linked with socio‐emotional skills: A Cross‐National Study

“…We found that perceptions of competitive school climate were negatively associated with eight facet-level socio-emotional skills (e.g., self-control) and not significantly associated with seven other socio-emotional skills (e.g., curiosity). These findings align with past studies that highlight the tendency of students in a competitive climate to overlook the importance of social interactions thereby limiting the opportunities for developing socio-emotional skills (Roseth et al, 2008;Vu et al, 2021).…”

“…For example, Di Stasio et al (2016) discovered that a competitive climate was linked to higher levels of peer victimization and bullying behaviours, which could undermine socio-emotional development (Troop-Gordon & Gerardy, 2012). In another study, Vu et al (2021) suggested that a competitive climate could result in elevated communication apprehension.…”