Cooperative learning in the Primary Education Degree: the voice of your students

Abstract

The current complex reality in higher education suggests incorporating active methodologies based on interaction between peers, such as cooperative learning, which favours the active participation of students and promotes the ability to reason critically. Based on this, the purpose of this study is to present the assessment made by future Primary Education teachers about cooperative learning. For this purpose, a two-phase sequential exploratory research was carried out on the 47 teaching guides studied and 57 final year students of the Degree in Primary Education at the University of Vigo were surveyed, using an analysis sheet, a scale and a SWOT. The evaluations obtained suggest that cooperative learning enhances learning related to the subject being studied and to the competences of the degree linked to group work, as there is a correspondence between the objectives that cooperative work aims to achieve and the specific learning objectives of the subject.  It is found that collaboration between students and teachers, and among students themselves, contributes to the construction of knowledge in the university classroom. It also concludes with a series of indicators that guide improvements in the methodology studied.