An Investigation Into The Relationship Between Cooperative Learning, Perception Of Social Support And Academic Achievement

Cooperative Learning (CL), as one of the mainstream teaching theories andstrategies, appeals to numerous specialists in the education field around the world. It is astructure of interaction designed to facilitate the accomplishment of a specific goalthrough students working together in groups. Within cooperative activities students workcollaboratively in small groups of four to six persons, they divide each other tasks andshare each other resources so as to accomplish the common goals, ensuring that allmembers master assigned material. Hence, cooperative learning is considered to be oneway to promote social support in classrooms as learners work together to benefit eachother’s learning through positive social interdependence. And in turn, the positive socialinterdependence may result in a promotive interaction pattern among students, whichincreases students’academic achievement and interpersonal attraction in a large class.The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which involvement incooperative learning is related to students’ perceptions of social support and students’achievement. Three hundred and twenty-eight participants (196males,132females),who enrolled in College English course (referring to the listening&speaking course andthe reading&writing course) at Huazhong University of Science and Technologyparticipated in the study. The subjects completed a modified version of the ClassroomLife Measure and their answers were corresponded with their academic achievement.The questionnaire completed by the subjects consists of three parts: basic informationabout the subjects, students’ perceptions of social support and students’ experiences ofcooperative learning.The analysis of the data indicated that students held that they have the perception ofpeer personal support to the strongest degree, and teacher personal support next, teacheracademic support the third, and peer academic support last. The results of the present study also demonstrated that cooperative learning was positively correlated with learners’perceptions of social support, achievement, while the classroom social supports whichwere provided by teachers and students were found to be unrelated to academicachievement. Similarly, the results indicated that students’ perceived peer personalsupport, peer academic support, teacher personal support and teacher academic supporteach were positively correlated with cooperative learning in descending order ofcorrelation. Finally, the results were debated in light of previous research and with regardto the cultural context of the study. It is suggested that both teachers and students shouldtry to develop cooperative learning ability, adjust themselves to cooperative environmentand find more time to interact with each other. Moreover, teacher should encouragestudents to develop cooperative learning by establishing a harmonious relationshipbetween peers characterized with mutual value, respect, assistance, and support and thelike.