A comparison of cooperative -cooperative and cooperative -competitive goal structures and their effect on group problem -solving performance and student attitudes toward their learning environmen

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of cooperative-cooperative and cooperative-competitive classroom goal structures on group problem-solving performance and students' attitudes toward their learning environment within the context of a problem-solving activity in a high school technology education laboratory. Three research questions were considered in this study. Two research questions were related to students' attitudes toward various aspects of their learning environment and the third question was related to group problem-solving performance.;Eighteen classes from six schools (388 students) were randomly assigned to the two treatment groups. Students were presented with an open-ended problem-solving activity in which they were asked to work in cooperative groups in order to design and develop a solution to a problem. The activity was designed so that in one setting the cooperative groups in the class were asked to cooperate with other groups in order to achieve the learning goal and in the other setting the cooperative groups were in direct competition with each other in order to achieve the learning goal.;The classroom goal structure was the independent variable of which there were two levels: (a) cooperation-cooperation and (b) cooperation-competition. The dependent variables were group problem-solving performance and students' attitudes toward variables in their learning environment.;A posttest questionnaire was used to collect information concerning student attitudes toward their learning environment and a time measurement was used to measure group problem-solving performance. Standardized mean difference (SMD) effect sizes were used to determine the practical significance of the findings and a t test for the difference between two independent means was used as a test of statistical significance.;The findings of the study showed that while questionnaire scores from both treatments indicated positive student attitudes, students participating in the cooperative-cooperative environment generally expressed more positive attitudes toward various aspects of their learning environment than students participating in the cooperative-competitive environment. Differences between mean scores of the two groups indicated small to medium levels of practical significance. In regard to group problem-solving performance, the magnitude of difference between mean scores of the two groups was too small to have statistical or practical significance.