A Study Of Pre-service English Teachers' Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is one of the pedagogical theories which are most widely researched,including both theory and practice.In our country,cooperative learning began to attract wide attention and become popular again since the New Curriculum Reform in 2001,which advocated cooperative learning.Many teachers adopt cooperative learning in class,especially in some demonstration lessons.However,if we check closely,some cooperative learning practice is not scientific enough.For example,as for group composition,many teachers would divide students who sits closer into a group.The cooperative form usually takes on the form of group discussion,and so on.This suggests teachers lack enough understanding of cooperative learning.Since teachers' knowledge and understanding about cooperative learning may significantly influence the effectiveness of cooperative learning,and considering the special dual identity of pre-service teachers(as students as well as potential teachers),this dissertation aims to explore the pre-service English teachers' cooperative learning.There are three researcher questions:Questionl.What do pre-service English teachers know about cooperative learning?Question 2.How are pre-service English teachers' cooperative learning experiences and practices?Question3.What are pre-service English teachers' attitudes towards cooperative learning?Subjects for this study were 55 English MED postgraduates studying in Central China Normal University.The questionnaire and the interview were adopted as the research instruments.All the 55 students first participated in the questionnaire survey,and then 12 of them were invited to take part in the interviews.Based on the data from the questionnaire and interview,the following summaries are drawn.Pre-service English teachers do not have systemic and comprehensive knowledge about cooperative learning;they do not know much about theoretical underpinning of cooperative learning,representative scholars and their main ideas,and practical models of cooperative learning,but they can understand and agree with some theoretical underpinning for cooperative learning,and basic elements cooperative learning.Pre-service English teachers have plenty of cooperative learning opportunities and generally active and satisfactory performance;Specifically,there is some preparation work before cooperative learning;participants perform well both in individual participation and group participation during cooperative learning process;there is feedback from ihe teacher or classmates after cooperative learning.Also,it finds that only 61.8%of participants acknowledge they are very interested in cooperative learning;only 47.2%believe the effects of cooperative learning is better than individual learning.Pre-service English teachers generally hold positive yet objective attitudes towards cooperative learning.They can list some advantages as well as disadvantages of cooperative learning;they generally think theoretical knowledge is very important,and acknowledge their insufficient knowledge of theoretical knowledge of cooperative learning;they generally express positive attitudes towards their cooperative learning,arguing they generally perform well,propose and share ideas,and make due contributions,and also they benefit a lot;they hold positive attitudes towards application of cooperative learning in future teaching and have some objective and critical thinking based on their own cooperative learning experience.Based on the research results,some pedagogical implications are proposed to teachers and students alike,for example,teaching pre-service teachers some systemic knowledge about cooperative learning or giving some training;cultivating students'interest in cooperative learning;enhancing the effectiveness of cooperative learning,and so on.