The impact of the teacher’s role and pupils’ ethnicity and prior knowledge on pupils’ performance and motivation to cooperate

Abstract

How can the teacher bring about effective cooperative learning (CL) in multiethnic elementary classrooms? To answer this question we hypothesized that when the teacher stimulates pupils' helping behaviour (experimental group), this increases pupils' performance and CL motivation more than when the teacher lets pupils fend for themselves (control group). Subjects were 166 pupils from 10 schools. The results show that national pupils in the experimental group outperformed pupils in the control group and teams with low and medium prior knowledge performed better in the experimental group. Additionally, immigrant teams with high prior knowledge in the control group outperformed their low prior knowledge counterparts and had a higher CL motivation. Our results suggest that, next to the teacher's role, attention has to be paid to both the pupil background characteristics ethnicity and prior knowledge and the teacher's experience with CL.

Multilevel predictors of differing perceptions of Assessment for Learning practices between teachers and students

“…Student language proficiency has been found to be strongly related to learning success (Oortwijn, Boekaerts, & Vedder, 2008), to student approaches to learning (Biggs, 1990) and academic achievement (Collier, 1989;Van der Slik, Driessen, & De Bot, 2006). AfL, with its provision of formative feedback, is a linguistic endeavour.…”

Quality of group interaction, ethnic group composition, and individual mathematical learning gains

“…The data for this article originated from a study by Oortwijn et al (2008a) that focused on student background characteristics (i.e., prior mathematical knowledge and motivation for cooperative learning) and teacher stimulation as key factors in the effectiveness of a mathematics curriculum implementing cooperative learning. An informed consent procedure was followed: Parents or caregivers received an information letter that explained the goal, methods, and procedures of the study.…”

“…The original study (Oortwijn et al 2008a) took place in 10 multiethnic fifth-grade classes from 10 schools in the Netherlands where a nine-lesson mathematics curriculum was implemented. Based on their prior mathematics performance, 172 students were placed in either of two types of heterogeneous mathematic competence groups each composed of three to four students (high and average competence or average and low competence) before the start of the curriculum.…”

“…Without prior notification, each group was videotaped during two lessons, preferably once during lessons 1-4 and once during lessons 5-9. The original research team (Oortwijn et al 2008a, b) randomly chose and wrote down which lessons were videotaped. Based on this description, we have selected episodes suitable for further analyses for the current study.…”

Attitudes of Preservice Teachers Towards Teaching Deaf and ESL Students

“…Studies have shown that the best predictor of language acquisitionand consequently understanding of the content being taught -is when students have opportunities to practise English within meaningful interactions (Gersten, 1999;Haneda, 2008;Lee, 2004;Mickan, 2007). Strategies that allow ESL students to practise English include informal opportunities for meaningful discussion within the classroom (Olivo, 2003), collaborative learning (Oortwijn, Boekaerts, & Vedder, 2008), and encouraging students to practise writing for multiple contexts and multiple audiences (McCarthey & García, 2005).…”