A Study On Group Cooperative Learning In The Instruction Of The Australian Studies Course

With the proposal of the “Belt and Road” initiative,talents with a good understanding of relevant countries and areas are in great demand in China.To meet the demand,a tertiary institution in Northeast China has attempted to develop a curriculum on country/area studies(CAS)for undergraduate English majors.Based on the framework of five essential elements proposed by Johnson and Johnson,the study was to probe into the status quo,the problems and possible solutions in group cooperative learning in the instruction of the Australian Studies(AS)course.With semi-structured interviews,classroom observation and questionnaires as the research instruments for data collection,a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative research was employed.Questionnaires were administered to all of the 49 students in the AS course,and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 students from different groups and 4 teachers responsible for the course.Major research findings were as follows.Firstly,students in the groups were dependent on each other,but some students' passive behavior and negative attitude lowered the interdependence among members.Secondly,group leaders had a good sense of responsibility and members had a clear understanding of tasks,but some students failed to fulfill their responsibilities in group cooperation.Thirdly,there was positive interaction between group members supporting and encouraging each other to achieve the group goals,but interactions and mutual assistance were not adequate.Fourthly,students developed some social skills,but discussions in groups were not well organized.Finally,evaluations targeting at group cooperation were not adequate and most students were ignorant of group processing,and evaluation mechanism needed to be been established within the groups in the course.Teachers need to pay adequate attention to cooperative learning in organizing group work in the AS course to improve the instruction and the instruction of all similar courses that involve cooperative learning.