Cooperative Learning as a Democratic Awareness Method (Interdependence, Responsibility and Self-esteem)

Abstract

The dissertation thesis is dedicated to the study of democratic awareness in adolescents. At the same time, it studies the ways of intervention, which are more efficient in the process of teaching and will increase democratic skills by using cooperative learning. The study discusses the benefits of collaborative learning compared to individual learning. The survey was conducted on 543 students from eighth grade in secondary schools. The classrooms were selected randomly as the experimental group and the control group. In the experimental group cooperative learning was employed, while in the control group traditional lecture-based teaching. The intervention was carried for 1.5 years.

Qualitative and quantitative methods were used for the research. Some research instruments were adapted in Georgian language: Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Questionnaire and Janis-Field Feeling of Inadequacy Scale (self-esteem); The Intellectual Achievement Responsibility (IAR) Questionnaire (responsibility); Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal (RISC) Test (interdependence); Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA) (attitude toward the subject). There were surveyed 543 students from eighth grade in secondary schools of Tbilisi (4 local schools; 53rd, 1st, 122nd and Iberia were randomly chosen; 3 were state schools and 1 was private). On the first stage of survey there was identified the indexes of the variable scales (self-esteem, interdependence, responsibility and attitude toward the subject; chemistry and Georgian language).

On the next stage of survey, there was conducted the pedagogical experiment, which lasted for three terms. There were used some cooperative strategies on teaching three times a week for 1, 5 y. period. “Buddy System” was developed for communication in class room. Therefore the observation on the learning processes and group working was regularly. During the experiment, the direct interviews by Krueger content-analysis method were implemented. After a specified period of time there was examined the effectiveness of intervention by the identical questionnaires. The survey results showed the benefit from cooperative learning was more compared to traditional lecture method which was teacher-centered.

The survey revealed a significant increase of variable scales results (self-esteem, interdependence,

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