A Study Of The Relationship Between The Basic Elements Of Project-based Cooperative Learning And Project-Based Products

The coming of the diversified information era signifies that the project-based cooperative learning skill has become the core competitiveness of future talents, while the cultivation and development of this skill among undergraduates can scarcely be realized due to the limitation of traditional teaching approaches in higher education. Along with the appearance of new teaching ideas, more and more approval and importance are attached to the approach of the project-based cooperative learning, and relevant researches on the project-based cooperative learning have gained more attention in higher education, but few are on students' performance in the learning process and fewer are from the aspects of basic elements of the project-based cooperative learning.On the basis of relevant theoretical and practical researches both abroad and at home, the author investigates the relationship between students' performance in the basic cooperative learning elements and the project-based products, attempting to answer the following questions:1) How does the excellent project members' performance in the five basic cooperative learning elements correlate with their project-based products? 2) How do the differences of the students' performance in the five basic cooperative learning elements influence their project-based products?The objects of this study were 141 non-English major undergraduates, from 30 excellent project-based cooperative learning teams of the classes of Project-based Innovate Curriculum in Chongqing University. They had participated in the project-based cooperative learning program under the request and guidance of the instructors for one semester and had been selected from different classes to run for the First Prize among the whole grade. All of them also participated in the questionnaire survey about the learning performance in the basic cooperative learning elements. Through quantitative analysis, the author came to the following conclusions: 1) In project-based cooperative learning, there were significant positive correlations between students' performance in the five basic cooperative learning elements and the project-based products; 2) There was no significant difference on Positive Interdependence between teams of different levels, while significant differences did exist in students' performance in Face-to-face Promotive Interaction, Individual Accountability, Social Skills and Group Processing. Individual Accountability was the element that had the greatest impact on the students' project-based products, which differentiated the three groups. Social Skills and Group Processing were the second important CL elements that distinguished group 1 from groups 2 and 3 and Face-to-face Promotive Interaction was also a major influencing element that differentiated group 1 and 2 from group 3.With the findings, the study provides theoretical basis and suggestions for the instructors to guide the students to carry out the effective project-based cooperative learning. Meanwhile, the study hopes to be the reference for future relevant research both in theory and practice.