A Study Of The Correlations Among Positive Interdependence, Social Support And Classroom Climate In Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is mainly considered as a mode of classroom teaching by group activities, which stresses that students should be the center of classroom learning and the teachers only play the role of an organizer and a guider. Many theoretical and empirical studies have indicated that the positive interdependence between teacher and students and among students themselves can activate classroom climate, increase teaching efficiency and improve individual performance and academic achievements. But few studies have been done in the Chinese context. Taking this research gap into consideration, this study aims to investigate the relationships between positive interdependence, social support and selected aspects of classroom climate.The present study was conducted among 208 second-year non-English-major vocational college students and adopted the quantitative research method. A Modified Version of Classroom Life Measure by Ghaith, Shaaban and Harkous (2007), which was adapted from Johnson and Johnson's (1996) Classroom Life Measure, was administered to the students to measure the general relationships between positive interdependence, social support and selected aspects of classroom climate. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 13.0) was used for statistical calculation, which included correlation analysis and independent samples t-test.The results of the study show that both positive goal and resource interdependence had positive correlation with all aspects of classroom climate except for learners' feeling of alienation from school. Except for learners' feeling of alienation from school, social support was significantly and positively correlated with aspects of classroom climate in different degrees. The results also reveal that the high positive goal interdependence group had significantly higher perceptions of teacher academic support, teacher personal support, peer academic support, peer personal support and fairness of grading. In addition, significant differences were found between the low and the high positive resource interdependence groups on their perceptions of teacher academic support, peer academic support, peer personal support, valuing heterogeneity and fairness of grading.Based on the discussion of the results and findings, the present study puts forward some suggestions for teachers and students in cooperative learning classroom of vocational colleges. As the organizer and guider of cooperative learning classroom, teachers are advised to master the demands and characteristics of students, stimulate students' interests in English learning, provide timely academic and personal support and create a harmonious and effective cooperative learning environment. For students, they are supposed to build up their confidence and interests in English learning, take part in the cooperative learning activities positively and help their group members personally and academically. Finally, limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are provided.