Browsing by Subject "Yhteistoiminnallinen oppiminen"

The aim of the study was to find out what kinds of perceptions students of Education have concerning co-operative learning. In addition, the subject of the review were differences in students' perceptions and opinions about learning in a group, own activity in a group, a good learning group and the challenges that arise in the group learning. In the background of co-operative learning are learning theories created by Piaget and Vygotsky, whose main idea is the importance of so-cial interaction in human learning. Vygotsky's theory of zone of proximal development emphasize learning occurs in conjunction with the skilled individuals so the learners can perform challenging tasks than independently. Current understanding of co-operative learning empha-sizes interaction, activity, positive social dependency and shared responsibility of the work. A common way to implement co-operative learning is the use of group work. Also, the university has begun to emphasize the importance of co-operative skills, for example, from the perspective of the needs of working life. The teaching has begun to develop new methods applying co-operative learning. The research data was collected by a questionnaire which was directed the students of Education. The questionnaire contained 20 attitude statements and two open questions. The survey was answered by 51 students. The results were analysed using quantitative methods. The analysis included the review of the frequencies, percentages and standard deviations, and the examination determining connections and differences between the variables. Open questions were analysed qualitatively, so the grouping the answers according to research problems was under examination. Data related to open questions were used to deepen results of standardized questions. The results showed that the students reacted to co-operative learning mainly in a positive way. Studying in a group was considered as an effective way to study and interaction with others was considered important for learning. Results also reveal challenges and critical thoughts concerning group work. On some statements background variables appeared to have statistically significant associations. The conclusion of the results is that the students of Education are aware of the positive effects of group work in learning. However, it seems that because a time pressure and stress caused by group work at least some students favour independent learning methods.