Perceptions and educational needs of pre-service primary and secondary teachers on cooperative learning in science

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the perceptions and the educational needs of pre-service primary and secondary teachers on cooperative learning in science. The survey was administered to 102 seniors at the department of science education in three universities of education and 64 seniors at the department of chemistry education in three colleges of education. The results revealed that the pre-service primary and secondary teachers learned the theories and experienced the practices on cooperative learning through various methods in the several subjects, and especially had many difficulties in appling cooperative learning to the demonstrations and/or the actual science classes. The degree of their understanding on cooperative learning was comparatively high, and the perceptions on the advantage/disadvantage of cooperative learning in science, the willingness practicing it, and the outside aids influencing on implementing it were relatively positive. They highly perceived on the necessities of diverse educations related on cooperative learning in science in pre-service teacher education processes. The willingness implementing cooperative learning in science class was significantly correlated with the necessities of diverse educations. These were also significantly correlated with the perceptions on the advantage/ disadvantage of cooperative learning in science, the educational assessments on the advantage/disadvantage of it, and the educational assessments on the outside aids influencing on implementing it, respectively. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.