The Transfer Effect Of Worked-examples Learning Of Rules By Cooperative Learning In Group On Pupils

This study aimed to examine the effect of learning methods(i.e.,cooperative learning or individual learning),group size of cooperative learning,group structure of cooperative learning,and group cooperative forms on pupils on the transfer effects of simple and complex worked-example learning of rules.The 4th grade pupils who never studied the problem of “chasing problem” were chosen as participants,the simple and complex worked-examples of rules about “chasing problem” were used as materials.The following studies were conducted:Study 1 examined the effect of cooperative learning and individual learning on transfer effects of simple and complex worked-examples learning of rules for pupils through Experiment 1.Study 2 examined the effect of three kinds of group size on transfer effects of simple and complex worked-examples learning of rules for pupils by means of Experiment 2.In Study 3,two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of different group structure of cooperative learning on transfer effects of simple and complex worked-examples learning of rules.In Experiment 3,the effects of the homogeneity and heterogeneous of the group structure on transfer effects of simple and complex worked-examples learning of rules for pupils were investigated.Experiment 4 explored the effect of three kinds of heterogeneous group structures on the transfer effects of simple and complex worked-examples learning of rules for pupils.In addition,for low-level participants,transfer effects of simple and complex worked-examples learning of rules were compared among the three heterogeneous group structures of cooperative learning.Study 4 examined the effect of the three cooperative forms of group on transfer effects of simple and complex worked-examples learning of rules for pupils.Experiment 5 examined the effects of two types of group cooperative forms of “question list” and “free discussion” on transfer effects of simple and complex worked-examples learning of rules for pupils.Experiment 6 examined the effect of cooperative learning between same grade and senior grade of “little teacher counseling” on the transfer effects of learning simple and complex worked-examples of rules by pupils,and compared the transfer effects of simple and complex worked-examples learning of rules under the three group cooperation forms.The paper draws the following main conclusions:(1)In near and far transfer tests of the complex worked-examples learning of rules,the mean performances was significant superior for cooperative learning than individual learning;for individual learning,the mean performances of near transfer test showed a significant advantage over simple worked-examples learning of rules than complex worked-examples learning of rules;for cooperative learning,the mean performances of near transfer test was significantly superior for complex worked-examples learning of rules than simple worked-examples learning of rules.(2)The performances of near transfer test of the complex worked-examples learning of rules in three-person group were significant better than both two-person and four-person groups;for the three-person group,under the complex worked-examples learning of rules,their performances of the near transfer test were significant better than simple worked-examples learning of rules.There were no significant differences in the far transfer test of the three kinds of group size.(3)For the performances of near transfer test of complex worked-examples learning of rules,which were significantly better in the heterogeneous structure group than in the homogeneous structure group;as for homogeneous group structure,the performances of near transfer test of simple worked-examples learning of rules were significant better than theirs who learn complex worked-examples of rules.Specially,only for simple worked-examples learning of rules,the performances of the far transfer test of the heterogeneous group structure were significant better the homogeneous group structure.(4)The performances of the near transfer test of simple worked-examples learning of rules were significantly different among the three heterogeneous structures.The performances of near transfer test of learning simple worked-examples of rules of "high-middle-low" and "high-low-and high" structures were significantly better than the "high-low-low" structures;in the near transfer test of learning complex worked-examples of rules,no significant difference was found among the three heterogeneous structures;for the far transfer test,no significant difference was found among the three heterogeneous structures;in the far transfer test of the three heterogeneous structure groups,learning complex worked-examples of rules was significantly better than simple worked-examples of rules.In addition,the “high-middle-low” and “high-low-low” structures have significantly promoted the near transfer performances of low-level students learning complex worked-examples of rules;for the low-level students,no significant difference on far transfer test performances was found among three heterogeneous structures.(5)In terms of learning simple and complex worked-examples of rules,the performances in near transfer test of "free discussion" condition were significantly better than that of the "question list" condition;the results of the near and far transfer tests of the participants who learn complex worked-examples of rules in the two forms of cooperation were significantly better than simple worked-examples of rules.There were no significant performances differences in the far transfer test between the two forms of cooperation.(6)Regardless of learning simple or complex worked-example of rules,no significant difference on the performances which were calculated in near transfer test was observed between the same-grade and senior-grade of "little teacher counseling”;Learning simple worked-examples of rules of two types of counseling were significantly superior to complex rules worked-example;Compared to the senior grade,the “little teacher counseling ” at the same grade is more effective in promoting the performances of far transfer test of learning simple worked-examples of rules.(7)For the low-level students,the "free discussion",as one of the three forms of cooperative learning,could evidently promote the effect on near transfer test of both simple and complex worked-examples learning,and the "little teacher counseling”,that means students were taught by a student who was also in the same grade,had a smaller promotion on performances of near transfer test.But,for the "problem list",it had a worse effect of near transfer test.In the three types of cooperation,the “little teacher counseling” is more effective in improving the effect of far transfer test of low-level students who learn simple worked-examples of rules.