Transcript Attachment 10a Javiera Mena PowerPoint

“Education is an act of love, an act of courage; it
is a practice of liberty focused on reality without
fear; it aims to transform that reality through
solidarity and a fraternal spirit”(Paulo Freire)
International Conference On Learning And Community Enrichment
COOPERATIVE LEARNING (CL) AND
STUDENT FORMATION
A study about attitudes, beliefs and intentions of
Chilean early childhood (EC) teachers
Javiera Mena R-T
PhD© in Education
The University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia
CRICOS Provider No 00025B
Singapore, July 2012
• Population: 17
millions spread
across 4.300 km
north to south.
• 88% lives in cities
• 39% lives in the
capital of
Santiago.
CHILE
8-4 structure: 8 years of
primary compulsory for
pupils 6-13 years old.
4 years of secondary
education for pupils from
14-17 years old.
CHILE
Three main types of school
• Public: administered by the
country’s 341 municipal
governments (public)
• Private subsidized:
financed through an
attendance-based, per-pupil
public subsidy.
• Private paid: receive no
government subsidies and
operate entirely on parental
contributions..
EDUCATION
Challenge in
matters of
equity in
Education
Since 1990
investment in
public sectors.
Reforms one
important in
ECH. Not as
successful
(Cox, 2004)
CHILE
Percentage of students that
achieved results corresponding to
advance level (above 300 points in
SIMCE) by SES group (MINEDUC,
2009)(p.45).
EDUCATION
Local factors are ignored
Student movements
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CHILE
Few intervention.
Erroneous beliefs
young children
cannot cooperate.
Little research in
Latin America.
EDUCATION
Part of the culture,
alternative
COOPERATIVEeducation. Little in
public
LEARNING IN formal
education
EDUCATION
Transmission mode of
learning
ECH (0-8
years)
Hierarchical
educational
institution
• Necessity:
– Need of research about CL in Chile and in Early childhood
education.
– Need of considering the point of view of the Chilean EC teachers
about their practice, in this case the use of CL in their
classrooms (local factors).
• Aim of the study:
– Investigate Chilean early childhood teachers beliefs, attitudes
and intentions towards the use of CL.
• Relevance:
– Base line data for designing future effective interventions CL in a
Chilean early childhood educational contexts as a way of
nurturing student lifewide learning.
Cooperative Learning (CL)
Pedagogical practice that involves two or
more students working together through a
reciprocal interaction, engaged in a
voluntary way in sharing decisions for
achieving a common goal.
(Cohen, 1994; Denise, 1999; Gillies,2007; Johnson, Johnson &
Holubec 1990, Myers, 1991, Chrislip & Larson, 1994;
Dillenbourg, Baker, Blaye & O’Malley, 1996; Panitz, 1996,
Roschelle & Teasley, 1994; Friend & Cook, 1996) .
5 elements have to be included
• Positive interdependence
• Individual accountability
• Face to face promotive interaction
• Social skills
• Group processing
(Hamm & Adams, 1996; Dillenbourg,
1999, 2002; Johnson, Johnson &
Holubec1999)
Why CL in early childhood?
High quality early childhood education, strengthens
socio-affective and cognitive development. Success
in higher levels. (Peisner-Feinberg , Burchinal,
Clifford, Culkin, Howes & Kagan, 1999)
It is a critical stage where the brain is in its best
condition to instal important learning (Rutter &
Rutter, 1993)
Most research in CL has been conducted
with older children (Vernett, Harper & Di
Millo, 2004)
Young children’s academic and social behavior
improves when they are exposed to CL
experience and they are teach to. (Gillies, 2007;
Kutnick, Ota & Berdondini, 2008; Slavin, 1996;
“What they can do together today,
they can do it individually tomorrow”
(Vygotsky, 1979).
Vernette Harper & Di Millo).
Role of teacher…
• No guarantee (CL) will happen just because students work together
(Dillenbourg, 2002)
• Early childhood teacher must create supportive environment,
positive relationship and model cooperative skills. (Battistich &
Watson, 2003)
• Importance of beliefs to understand teacher behavior (Brown, 2005;
Calderhead, 1996; Clark& Peterson, 1986; Ertmer, 2010; Fang, 1996;
Hegde & Cassidy, 2009; Kane, Sandretto, & Heath, 2002; Kagan, 1992,
Pajares, 1992, Zacharia, 2003; Zint, 2002).
Theory of Planned Behavior
Behavioral
Beliefs
Attitude Towards
Behavior
Normative
Beliefs
Subjective
Norm
Control
Beliefs
Perceived
Behavioral
Control
(Ajzen, 1987, 1988, 1991, 2005)
Intention
Behavior
Actual
Behavioral
Control
Research questions
• What are the beliefs, attitude and intentions of Chilean
early childhood teachers regarding the use of
cooperative learning?
• Are there differences between beliefs, attitude and
intentions towards CL between teachers of different
types of schools (Public and Private) and grade
levels (Kinder and second year)?
Group and
Individual
Interviews
N= 20
Attitude
Behavior
Subjective
Norm
Perceived
behavioral
control
Phase 2
Qual
Construction of the
questionnaire
Phase 1
Research design
QUAN
Questionnaire
N= 500
Identify and describes beliefs, attitude and
intentions of ECH teachers towards the use of
CL
Study 1: Qualitative, explorative
• General aim: eliciting and identifying the specific beliefs
and intentions of Chilean early childhood teachers
regarding the use of CL in their classroom.
– Specific aims
• Describe and identify the attitudes that early childhood teachers
have towards CL.
• Describe and identify the beliefs that early childhood teachers have
regarding others’ opinions about CL, and how this influences their
practice in their classes.
• Identify and describe teachers’ beliefs about the factors that may
facilitate or impede the use of CL in their classes.
• Describe and indentify their perceived competence in implementing
CL in their classes
• Identify if there are other issues that influence the use or non-use of
CL.
Study 1: Qualitative, explorative.
• Elicitation of beliefs study
• 20 teachers (5 each group)
• G1: kinder-public School
• G2: kinder- private school
• G3: second year- public school
• G4: second year-private school
• 4 Focus group and 4 Interviews: Open ended questions.
• Content analysis:
• Themes (behavioral beliefs) label the themes extracted.
Study 2: quantitative
•
•
•
•
•
•
Item constructed with the beliefs elicited in the Study 1
Translation /back translation
First draft with all the Items (80i).
Pilot Test (5 teachers experts)
Construct an on-line version
Test – retest reliability, twice to the same people, interval of
2 weeks (30 teachers)
• Application of final sample: 500 teachers
Some results: study 1 (qualitative)
• Attitude towards CL (AB):
• Advantages: Shyness loss, peer learning is more effective,
social skills, self-regulation, reinforces personality, solidarity,
abilities for life, get organized, meaningful learning, motivation,
and mediation skills
• Disadvantages: kid that does not work, untidiness, noise,
Inhibition, more work for the teacher, negative groups (passive
or not chosen by others), fighting for a role, difficulty of seeing
the achievements
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Some results: study 1 (qualitative)
• Perceived Behaviour control (PBC):
– Experience: some give priority for individual work, resistance for
CL because they are used to traditional classroom but the majority
says that they use GW.
– Competence: without the competence, teachers responsibility?,
lack of knowledge, few says they have the competence, they do it
instinctively, no support.
– Training: interested in training in CL, they don't have a lot of
advances courses.
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Some results: study 1 (qualitative)
– Facilitates: bigger classroom, desks (for 4 children), respect within
the children, number of children, adults disposition, resources, two
or more teachers, clear rules.
– Make it Difficult: too many students(40, 45), small number of
adults, reduced space, parents ask for individual work, little time,
schooling education (preschool learning very school like),
demands and evaluations, SIMCE, materials are not used,
interruptions, needs at home.
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• Subjective Norm (SN):
– Approves: head of technical pedagogical unit, parents, general
(not many disapprove it), advisor, colleagues.
– Disapproves: parents (they don’t like their kids sits with certain
classmates), headmaster, General (when is misunderstood).
• Others:
– Conformation of groups: they live the students choose their group
(most of them), little intention.
– School environment: little time, few group work between teachers,
is not a culture of cooperation, is more individual initiative (in
general), no special support for CL, less freedom that in other
cultures, too paternalists, more competitive.
– Actual rutine: 30% to 70%, In general they do not know the CL
methods (39%).
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“Education is not a preparation for life;
education is life itself” (John Dewey)
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