1981 - Effects of Cooperative Learning Teams on Student Achievement and Race Relations: Treatment by Race Interactions

Attribution: Slavin, Robert E., & Oickle, Eileen
Researchers: Eileen OickleRobert E. Slavin
University Affiliation: Johns Hopkins University
Email: rslavin@jhu.edu
Research Question:
Investigation of race by treatment interactions on student achievement and race relations.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Sociology of Education
Journal Entry: Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 175-180
Year: 1981
Findings:
  • Minority students gain more than non-minority students as a consequence of learning cooperatively.
  • The cooperative treatment was somewhat better for Whites than was the control treatment in terms of achievement gains, but it is much better for Blacks.
  • Cooperative interracial interaction may overcome stereotypes that Whites hold about Blacks, but since Blacks hold fewer stereotypes about Whites, there is less to overcome.
  • Cooperative learning strategies tend to increase the achievement level of all students and they do so more for Blacks than for Whites.
Keywords: Academic AchievementAchievement GapCooperative LearningCross Race FriendshipsCultureEnglishIntergroup RelationsPeer EffectsRacial CompositionRegions: NortheastMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Quasi-ExperimentAnalysis Methods: ANOVA Sampling Frame:School District
Sampling Types: NonrandomAnalysis Units: StudentData Types: Quantitative-Cross Sectional
Data Description:
  • Quasiexperiment: 2×2 factorial design with external control group
  • 230 students in grades 6th-8th in a desegregated rural middle school
  • 33.9% Black and 66.1% White
  • Resulting design involved 84 students in Team group and six classes and 146 students in Non-Team Group
  • Taught by 5 teachers, all White.
  • Treatments: studied in teams to master academic material (cooperative learning method).
  • Measures: Academic achievement / cross-racial friendships choices
  • DV: Academic achievement, cross-racial friendship choices, cooperative interracial interaction
  • IV: Cooperative learning strategies
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts