Physical education and university: Evaluation of a teaching experience through cooperative learning

Abstract

Cooperative learning is an educational methodology based on the interaction between work groups of 3-5 members. These members share the responsibility in their learning. This methodology is increasingly prevalent in pre-school education and primary and secondary education in Balearic Islands. For that reason, the present study was developed from the implementation of a teaching experience throughout cooperative learning in the subject of Physical Education during the second year of the primary education degree in the Department of Pedagogy and specific Didactics at the University of the Balearic Islands. The aim is to determine pupils’ degree of acceptance of the Physical Education subject based on cooperative learning. An important highlight lays in the use of practice logs as a main tool used for the development of the subject. Very satisfactory and promising results are shown regarding the assessment of the subject through cooperative learning in variables such as satisfaction, performance, students’ involvement and teacher evaluation, with a score higher than 8 over 10. According to the present results, students’ positive acceptance of the cooperative learning methodology in the primary education degree is confirmed. We propose to include cooperative learning also as a content of the subject, apart from as a learning methodology.