| Summary: | 碩士 === 中華大學 === 科技管理學系 === 104 === In response to activated teaching program of 12-year compulsory education, cooperative learning has become an important strategy to activated teaching. The purpose of the research is to explore junior high school teachers’ perceptions of using cooperative learning strategies in the classroom. The investigation includes the exploration on teachers’ teaching process, the problems they encountered, the influential factors that affect the choice of teaching strategies, and the professional growth in implementing cooperative learning strategies.
The research was conducted under the perspective of hermeneutic phenomenology. Seven participants were involved in the research by purposive sampling. Through semi-structured in-depth interview, the participants showed their experiences of using cooperative learning strategies in the classroom. These interviews were taped and transcripted into written texts, which later were analyzed and sorted by thematic analysis. The analysis would help understand the lived experience of teachers using cooperative learning and also interpreted the hidden meanings in the teachers’ teaching experience.
After intersubjective agreement with the participants, six essential themes were indentified as follows: (a) to be attempt steadily with cooperative learning strategies, (b) to be familiarize with the cooperative learning strategies, (c) to get achievements through the teaching and learning processes (d) to have positive effects on learning atmosphere (e) to block the progression due to working stress (f) to realize the principles of cooperative learning strategies and then keep progressive.
Findings are as follows: First, junior high school teachers prefer to group students heterogeneously and to teach cooperative learning strategies, which are believed to enhance students to participate cooperative learning. Second, teachers have chance to reflect how to effectively carry out the cooperative learning through constant lesson preparations with the partners, professional learning workshops participation and classroom observations. Three, with the supports of the teachers with the same interests, teachers are able to solve the problems they encountered in class right away and promote their teaching professionals. Therefore, most of the teachers change from being a blind follower to being an active supporter of cooperative learning. Meanwhile, students learn to communicate with each other by using cooperative learning strategies. The successful communication experiences gradually turn students’ passive learning attitudes into active ones. Fourth, many factors may cause the obstacles to promote cooperative learning, such as teachers’ unfamiliarity with cooperative learning strategies, students’ negative feelings towards cooperative learning and the fixed teaching schedule. Finally, many teachers, during the interview, enclose it is important to implement the principles of cooperative learning in class because these principles may facilitate students to solve problems and also to develop good social skills within their classrooms. Based on the findings of the research, the implications are discussed and useful suggestions for future study are also provided.
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