The Effectiveness Of Cooperative Learning On Alleviating Schoolwork Burdens—a Empirical Study On High School Students’ English Learning

Cooperative learning, a teaching mode extensively applied in many countries at present, has always been attracting the attention of educators all over the country since it was introduced into China in the1990s. There are three main reasons to explain this phenomenon. To begin with, cooperative learning agrees with the idea of the New Curriculum Reform which aims to develop students’ innovation and practice ability, pays more attention to students’"learning" than teachers’"teaching", and advocates new learning ways of self-directed study, cooperative study and exploratory study, in order to let students experience and understand the process of knowledge’s development and cultivate students’ scientific spirit and innovative thinking habits.In addition, with the economic globalization speeding up and the division of labor in the world deepening, organizations and individuals are being more and more closely linked with each other, so the consciousness and ability of cooperation have become one of the core qualities to survive and develop. Based on the interaction and cooperation in the process of teaching and learning, cooperative learning mode emphasizes interpersonal communication’s positive effect on cognitive development. Through participating in learning activities equally, all of the students can get the opportunity to express their own ideas. In the active classroom atmosphere their learning efficiency can be improved, and the spirit of cooperation gradually developed.Finally, Schoolwork burdens’ being overweight in primary and middle schools has been a persistent ailment of the elementary education in our country, especially under the current examine-oriented education system. Therefore, on one hand, we ought to deepen the reform of education system, especially the College Entrance Examination reform; on the other hand, more importantly, we should make every effort to enhance students’learning efficiency. To ensure fair competition, the College Entrance Examination will not be canceled or replaced in the near future, so exam-oriented education will also be stressed a lot and schoolwork burdens’ being overweight will not disappear, as well as extra classes. That’s why the situation isn’t changed, or even becomes worse in spite of so many relative policies alleviating schoolwork burdens. However, that’s not the case of cooperative leaning, which stresses exploratory and discovery study, and thus reduces learning burden by enhancing efficiency in class.In spite of many outstanding features, like the giant advantages in changing backward students, cooperative learning still meets a lot of problems when carried out, such as unreasonable grouping, lack of supervision and incomplete evaluating systems. All of these factors may lead to its failure. This thesis is to analyze the data from Xi’an Binhe Middle School, Changan No.1, No.2and No.3Middle schools and Hangtian Middle School, to find out its strengths and shortcomings when it is carried out, and to give possible solutions to these problems, hoping to improve the efficiency of cooperative learning. And only when the efficiency of teaching and learning is greatly improved, is it possible to reduce students’school work burdens.