Cooperative work in classroom: opinions by university students

Abstract

Opposite the traditional methodology, cooperative work is a key element for the education reform in university environment. It is based on a holistic conception of the teaching / learning. It is a practice that implies linking classroom efforts, agreements and reciprocal relationships among people. Social exchange is the principal axis of classroom organization. It answers the plurality; allows interaction from the difference; and is a gap in the general education curriculum and the university one in particular. Our research was focused on the promotion of cooperative learning in the university classroom, in 4 subjects of the Teacher Degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. Our goal was that students valued cooperative learning as a teaching strategy and alternative to traditional learning methods, and analyze potential gender differences in attitudes to the previous methodology. The study was descriptive in nature and was framed within a pre-experimental methodology with a pretest and posttest design. For 6-8 class sessions of 90 minutes, 69 students in total, guided by the teacher, lived their own experience of cooperative work, developing practical content related to subjects of these activities, in small and big groups. Students were assessed for their skills in cooperative work, before (pre-test) and after (post-test) of the intervention plan in the classroom. The results of this experience testify opinions that future teachers of Early Chilhood and elementary education give to the cooperative teamwork as competence for their own personal and professional development.