T1 112012020 Full text

STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD COOPERATIVE
LEARNING STRATEGY IN ENGLISH CLASSROOMS

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Tetta Rakasiwi
112012020

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA

2016

v

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER PAGE ......................................................................................................... i
APPROVAL PAGE ................................................................................................. ii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ................................................................................ iii
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION .............................................. iv
TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLE ................................................................................................... vii
LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. viii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1
LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................................................ 4
A. Students’ attitudes and students’ engagement ................................................... 4
B. Cooperative leaning strategy in regard to students’ academic performances and
social relations ................................................................................................. 6
C. Principles of Cooperative Learning Strategy .................................................... 8

D. Students’ challenges on Cooperative Learning Strategy Implementation ........ 11
THE STUDY .......................................................................................................... 12
The Context of the study ....................................................................................... 12

Participants ......................................................................................................... 13
Instrument of Data Collection .............................................................................. 14
Data Collection Procedures ................................................................................. 16
Data Analysis Procedures .................................................................................... 16

FINDING AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................. 17
A. Students’ affective aspects on cooperative learning strategy ........................... 18
B. Students’ opinion about Cooperative learning Strategy...................................... 24
C. Students’ behaviors in Cooperative Learning Strategy ....................................... 32
vii

CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 39
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................... 42
REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 43
APPENDIX ............................................................................................................ 45

viii

LIST OF TABLE
TABLE 1: The Participants’ Demographic Info .................................................. 13

ix

LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE 1: Students’ individual feeling on CLS ................................................. 18
FIGURE 2: Students’ preference on individual works ........................................ 19
FIGURE 3: Students’ inferior feelings in CLS ..................................................... 20
FIGURE 4: Students’ feeling regarding “hitchhikers” ........................................ 21
FIGURE 5: Students’ feeling regarding diversity in opinions & personalities ... 22
FIGURE 6: Students’ view about CLS and Social relationship .......................... 24
FIGURE 7: Students’ opinions regarding group works and better grades ......... 26
FIGURE 8: Students’ opinions in regard to group works & individual tasks .... 27
FIGURE 9: Students’ opinions regarding better understanding on materials ... 28
FIGURE 10: Students’ opinions regarding individual tasks ............................... 30
FIGURE 11: Students’ behavior in group works engagement ........................... 32
FIGURE 12: Students’ behavior in regard to their jobs in the group works ...... 34
FIGURE 13: Students’ behavior in regard to the helping behavior ................... 35
FIGURE 14: Students’ behavior in regard to group work avoidance ................. 36
FIGURE 15: Students’ behavior regarding active contribution in group work . 37

x

STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD COOPERATIVE
LEARNING STRATEGY IN ENGLISH CLASSROOMS
Tetta Rakasiwi

ABSTRACT
The study examines students’ attitudes toward cooperative learning strategy in
English classrooms. The research was conducted in 2016 in a private senior high
school: SMA Kristen 1 Salatiga, Indonesia. There were seventy-five eleventh graders
participated in filling in 4-type Likert Scale questionnaires. Moreover, the study found
that the students had positive attitudes toward cooperative learning strategy which
was done as group works. Students tended to show positive attitudes where they could
get numerous benefits that could be attributed to cooperative learning, such as
building students’ social relationship and academic life, including enhancement in
mastery of the materials as well as improvements on students’ academic
performances. The study also indicated that students also saw the strategy as an
opportunity to gain understanding of materials and to express their ideas by engaging
in heterogeneous groups. Most of the participants felt happy, helpful, and optimistic
having to complete such mandatory group works. However, the study suggests that

cooperative learning strategy has its strengths and weaknesses. Students’ needs,
interests, culture values, beliefs, and teaching effectiveness should be more
considered in the teaching and learning processes. Therefore, further research could
be conducted to generalize the findings for a larger population and make the study
more complete.

Key words: senior high students, attitudes, group work, cooperative learning

INTRODUCTION
The need to shift from traditional teacher-centered method to student-centered
method is increasing in pedagogy worldwide. Cooperative learning strategy is one of
student-centered approaches which is commonly used in many classroom teaching

1

and learning processes. Cooperative learning is viewed as “a valuable instructional
strategy that strengthens active learning at school and promotes the cognitive and
social development of students” (Krol, Veenman, &Voeten, 2002 as cited in Kouros
& Abrami, 2006, p.3). Cooperative learning strategy is also used in senior high school
classes in which the strategy fits the school’s curriculum.

From previous studies, there are many researchers (e.g. Gross, 1993; Springer,
Stanne, & Donovan, 1999; and Porter, 2006) suggested many benefits of cooperative
learning strategy. It can encourage the students “to explore or discuss an assigned
topic, or to complete cases, projects and group assignments, to answer a few
challenging questions, or to engage in an exchange of ideas, and share some insights
with group members” (Holter 1994; Porter 2006 as cited in Campbell & Li, 2006). It
can also help students to enrich and develop their understanding on the content of
knowledge and course materials (McKeachie, Pintrich, Lin, & Smith, 1986; Kimber,
1996; Bacon, 2005 as cited in Hamer & O’Keefe, 2013). Furthermore, Colbeck,
Campbell, & Bjorklund, (2000); and Coleman (1996) as cited in Hamer & O’ Keefe
(2013), have also shown that taking part and being involved in a group work will
enhance students’ group skills which later will be beneficial for their career activities.
Davis (1993) as cited in Altun (2008) also added that group work does not only
provide benefits in a work environment, but also provide positive effects in academic
settings. Therefore, some teachers believe that by using cooperative learning strategy,
it will help students to get involved in learning activities. Teachers also expect that by
using cooperative learning strategy in classroom activities, the students will be able to
reach the objectives and get better understanding on the materials.

2

Despite the benefits which are stated in Hamer & O’Keefe (2013), Altun
(2008), and Campbell & Li (2006), it is obvious that there would be conflicts and
some diversity of thoughts, opinions, and expectations among the academic group
work members regarding how to complete the group works (Martinez, Cheng, Smith,
Smith, & Yoon, 2002). Students have various reasons why they like or dislike group
works. Butts (2000) as cited in Martinez et al., (2002) stated that “it is common for
students not to enjoy group work (p.3).” Meanwhile, if the students often dislike
group works, these negative attitudes might affect their performance and the
effectiveness of the group works (Martinez et al., 2002). The other problem is there
will be dominant students and passive students. These different attitudes might affect
students’ engagement. Furthermore, the challenges on implementing cooperative
learning strategy become an issue which is related to students ‘participation.
Based on the researcher’ experiences, students who were assigned to do group
works tended to show various negative or positive attitudes. Some students would
willingly participate on the group works and take their responsibilities to the groups.
However, some students tended to avoid working in the group and preferred to do the
task individually. Furthermore, regarding the researcher’s observation and experience,
teachers view that cooperative learning strategy is suitable for their students. Teachers
note that by working in groups, students can enhance their performances on learning

processes and get better achievements. However, in reality, not all students can
engage in cooperative learning activities, and not all students can enrich their
academic performances and get the better achievements after engaging in group
works. Thus, it is important to examine how students view cooperative learning
strategy in English classrooms.
3

This study aims to answer the research question: What are senior high school
students’ attitudes toward cooperative learning strategy in English classrooms? The
eleventh graders of senior high school were chosen as the participants of this study
based on several reasons. First, the eleventh graders are exposed to assigned English
group works for many times. It means that the students have more experiences in
doing the group works compared to elementary and junior high school students. It is
acknowledged by Baines, Blatchford, & Kutnick (2003) as cited in Gillies & Boyle
(2009) who found that “elementary children rarely worked together in cooperative
groups.”
Therefore, this research is important because its findings may help teachers to
be more aware of students’ attitudes toward cooperative learning strategy during the
English class. Afterwards, the teachers can discover and create other methods or
teaching strategies, and create variety of classrooms activities which make the

students totally engage in the teaching and learning processes.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Students’ attitudes and students’ engagement
Basically, there will be diverse attitudes which represent an evaluation
response towards certain objects. Bohner & Wanke (2014) acknowledged “attitude as
a summary evaluation of an object of thought” (p.2). While Eagly, Alice, & Chaiken
(1998) stated that attitude is “a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating
a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor” (p.3). Attitudes comprise
affective, behavioral, and cognitive responses. Those three components cannot be

4

separated and do not necessarily represent three independent factors (Bohner &
Wanke, 2014).
Here, students’ performances on cooperative learning strategy are influenced
by the learners’ attitudes. There are negative and positive attitudes which might
influence their engagement on group works in English classrooms. For instance, as
cited in Hamer & O’Keefe (2013), learners tend to express negative attitudes in group
activities and constantly express complaints, negative feelings and opinions on the
assigned group works. According to Felder & Brent (2001), as an example for

students’ negative attitudes on cooperative learning is students can be relegated or
will relegate themselves to a passive role in group works. Moreover, students
sometimes find themselves as the minorities and isolated in workgroups.
As another example, students’ negative attitudes on group works appear
because of the group members. According to Felder & Brent (2001), students tend to
express complaints during group works when some of their members are slackers. It
means that their teammates dominate or even do not involve on group discussion and
generally become obnoxious or annoying. It also means that the teammates are not
doing what they are supposed to be doing.
Furthermore, Felder & Brent (2001) added that group conflicts are also
included in students’ negative attitudes in which students might have different
expectations among group members. These negative attitudes will influence learners’
performances on the groups, whether the learners tend to be “free riders” or not.
Whether or not they engage in the group and take responsibilities to achieve the goals.
Furthermore, Gottschall & Garcia-Bayonas (2008) as cited in Hamer & O’Keefe
5

(2013) added that “conflicts impact the day-to-day performance of the group and
almost certainly impact the individual evaluations of members by other teammates
and in the end, the overall project outcomes” (p.2).

Despite those students’ negative attitudes, their positive attitudes also
influence them to get involved in the group works. Students who show positive
attitudes on cooperative learning strategy might tend to willingly participate in the
group works. Moreover, students will take their responsibilities to the group to
achieve the same goals. Furthermore, learners’ positive attitudes help them to get
learning experiences by working in homogeneous and heterogeneous groups.
Furthermore, learners’ personal opinions and affective aspects on the group
might influence their involvement on group works (Gillies & Ashman, 2003). Positive
opinion on getting higher achievements by working in groups will increase their
motivation to get involved and engaged in the groups. While individuals have the
same opinion to achieve higher accomplishments, they tend to help other learners to
achieve the same common goals. It means that a helping behavior helps learners in
accomplishing the group works. Also, learners’ attitude of being helpful to each other
might help students to increase their performances and engagements in the groups.
Cooperative Learning Strategy in regard to students’ academic performances
and social relations
Cooperative learning strategy is one of student-centered approaches which is
commonly used in teaching and learning processes. Johnson & Johnson (1999)
acknowledged that cooperative learning strategy is “the instructional use of small
groups in which students work together.” Cooperative learning strategy is aimed to
increase “students’ level of understanding and reasoning, develop critical thinking,
6

and increase the accuracy of long-term retention” (Koppenhaver & Shrader, 2003 as
cited in Farzaneh & Nejadansari, 2014). Therefore, many studies prove that this
approach tends to be highly effective for enhancing students learning and promoting
higher achievement (Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne, 2000; Gillies & Ashman, 2003).
Cooperative learning or workgroups might enhance students’ academic
performances and social relationship through peer tutoring in the groups. Peer tutoring
happens when more expert students or smarter students help the less expert students
to understand materials better and achieve the objectives while they are working in
groups. From a social psychological view, “social isolation might be reduced, the
functionality of the subject modeled, and aspiration rose” (Topping, 1996, p.6). Here,
peer tutoring will help students to engage with their peers or teammates in order to
achieve the same goals. According to Moust and Schmidt (1994a) as cited in Topping
(1996), students who were working in a small group and doing peer tutoring felt that
peer tutors were interested in their mates’ lives and personalities. It gains intimacy
among teammates and decreases the feeling of being isolated.
Furthermore, peer tutoring in group works might be one of the ways for
students to increase students’ academic performances. Gillies & Ashman (2003)
acknowledged that peer tutoring can enhance learners’ achievements and their
academic purposes. “Peer tutoring is fully understood through social interactionists
view of cognitive development” (Topping, 1996, p.3). Peer tutoring which can be
done by students who are working in small groups might help students to cooperate
with each other. By doing peer tutoring in small groups, students involve further
cognitive challenge to do simplification, clarification, and exemplification with their

7

peers. Through peer tutoring, the learners also assist one another to learn. Topping
(1996) also added that peer tutoring in small group works helps students to participate
in learning process, give and receive peer feedback, do swift prompting, and decrease
anxiety. At the end students get input from their peers and achieve knowledge and
skills which can be applied in the new real situation. Moreover, peers will tend to
facilitate each other on academic performances. Therefore, opportunities for learning
will be increased through peer tutoring in small groups.
Thus, we can draw a conclusion that cooperative learning strategy helps
students to enhance their academic performances through peer tutoring. It is because
peer tutoring in small groups will reduce their anxiety to engage in the learning
process. It will also laid students to increase their academic performances and gain
more knowledge

and

skills

from doing

simplification,

clarification,

and

exemplification with their peers during peer tutoring. Peer tutoring in small groups
will increase individual attention and self-esteem. In addition, peer tutoring in small
group works will increase students’ social relationship. It is because intimacy among
the teammates is high. Thus, it increases the opportunity for closeness among the
teammates and develops helping and giving behavior for better social relationship.
Principles of Cooperative Learning Strategy
There are five essential elements which should be included to design cooperative
learning activities in classroom, (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). The five principles are as
follows.
1. Positive Interdependence

Johnson & Johnson (1999) stated that “Positive interdependence is the
perception that we are linked with others in a way so that we cannot succeed
8

unless they do” (p.71-72). Here, students are aware of their own learning for
the success of the group. Moreover, Yager (2000); Jensen, Moore & Hatch
(2002)

as

cited

in

Dat-Tran

(2013)

acknowledged

that

positive

interdependence means that in cooperative learning situations, students are
required to work together as a cohesive group to achieve shared learning
objectives. In this aspect, building positive goal interdependence in group
works is important to enrich group members’ performances. Achieving
positive interdependence requires the group working towards a reward or final
learning objectives. Furthermore, Johnson & Johnson (2009) also added that
“learning situations are not cooperative if students are arranged into groups
without positive interdependence” (p.102). In the process, students must be
responsible for their own learning and for the success of other group members’
learning Slavin (2011) as cited in Dat-Tran (2013).
2. Individual Accountability

The purpose of CLS is to make each member of the groups stronger and to
ensure that every group member is strengthened. “Individual accountability
exists when the performance of each individual student is assessed and the
results are given back to the group and the individual (ibid, p.71).” The
existing of individual accountability is also used to strengthen individuals by
working together in groups. According to Yamarik (2007) as cited in Dat-Tran
(2013), cooperative learning activities in the group will be effective if all
group members have responsibility for a defined part of learning materials and
give their effort to group’s achievement. In addition, all group members are

9

required to share their ideas and opinions, do their part well, ask for assistance,
help one another, and make the group run well.
3. Face-to-face Promotive Interaction

In this interaction, “individuals promote each learner’s success by helping,
assisting, supporting, encouraging, and praising each other’s efforts to achieve
the objectives” (p.71). In face-to-face promotive interaction, students promote
each other’s learning, and afterwards they can get involved in the groups to
discuss materials and solve problems. Students are also required to interact
verbally with one another on learning tasks, exchange opinions, explain
things, teach others and present their understanding. Therefore, those activities
will help them to develop cooperative learning skills and support one another
in their learning process (Dat-Tran, 2013).
4. Social Skills

Social skills require interpersonal and small group skills in which learners “are
taught the leadership, decision-making, trust-building, communication, and
conflict-management skills” (p.71). Therefore, each group member should
know how to manage the group, how to make decisions and how to solve
conflicts that arise among group members. If these skills are not taught,
cooperative learning activities are rarely successful (Slavin, 1996). In addition,
Killen (2007) as cited in Dat-Tran (2013) stated that social and interpersonal
skills, such as listening attentively, questioning cooperatively and negotiating
respectfully need be taught, to help students cooperate effectively in the
group” (p.103). Thus, the more socially skillful participants are, the more
social skills are taught and rewarded, and the more individual feedback
10

participants receive on their use of the skills, the higher the achievement and
productivity of the cooperative groups tends to be. Not only do social skills
promote higher achievement, they contribute to building more positive
relationships among group members (Dat-Tran, 2013).
5. Group Processing

The group processing occurs when “group members discuss how well they are
achieving their goals and maintaining effective working relationships” (p.71).
Therefore, when the face problems while doing the group works, they need to
adjust themselves to engage in the group processing, define, and solve the
problems together effectively. Moreover, the purpose of group processing is to
clarify and improve the effectiveness of the members in contributing to the
joint efforts to achieve the group’s goals (Dat-Tran, 2013).
In brief, cooperative learning groups will exist if the groups are structured in
ways they cooperate to each other and help one another’s learning. Moreover,
cooperative learning environment will be successful if the groups fulfill the five
principles of cooperative learning strategy. At the end, students will achieve better,
demonstrate superior learning skills (Johnson & Johnson, 2008 as cited in Dat-Tran,
2013), and experience more positive relationships among group members, and
between students and the teacher, and more positive self-esteem and attitudes toward
the subject area (Slavin, 2011 as cited in Dat-Tran, 2013).
Students’ Challenges on Cooperative Learning Strategy Implementation
Cooperative learning strategy in pedagogical practices promotes academic
achievement and socialization. Despite the benefits of cooperative learning, students

11

struggle with the implementation of cooperative learning strategy in classroom
activities.
Gillies & Boyle (2009) acknowledged that in doing a group work, some
learners are often passive or act as “hitchhikers”. According to Kaufman, Felder, &
Fuller (1999), the “hitchhikers” are team members who avoid their responsibilities to
the group. This kind of students tends to be passive recipients of the knowledge rather
than being active. The passive students or the “hitchhikers” might have problems
regarding motivation and immaturity or simply because they are too shy to get
involved in the groups. As another term of “hitchhikers” is the teammates who
become “free-riders”. Davies (2009) noted that, “free-riders” are the team members
who do not give any effort, but reaps the benefits of the group’ accomplishments
As another issue, the heterogeneous groups might be the challenge on
engaging in the groups. Learners who have diverse background knowledge,
characteristics, emotions, opinions, behaviors, and social skills might cause
difficulties for them to get involved and take an active part in the group learning itself.
THE STUDY
The context of the study
The study is a qualitative research study which was conducted in SMA Kristen
1 Salatiga. Moreover, 75 eleventh graders in total from three different classes
(Science, Language, and Social class) were the participants of the study. The
underlying reason why SMA Kristen 1 Salatiga was chosen as the research site was
because the students came from different public and private junior high schools in
Salatiga and outside Salatiga. These students might have different previous
background knowledge culture of education as well as levels of understanding about
12

English. They may also have different characters and personalities. Those diversities
were considered to have fitted the principles of cooperative learning strategy which
was often practiced in the school. Furthermore the school is accessible regarding time
constraint, distance constraint, and the legal approval from the school.
Participants
The study involved 75 eleventh graders of SMA Kristen 1 Salatiga who were
selected by using cluster sampling technique. The 75 participants included 40 male
students, and 35 female students who were around 15 up to 17 years old. The
participants’ demographic info was stated in the Table 1.
By using cluster sampling, the researcher chose the eleventh graders from
three different classes. Those three classes were from Science, Language, and Social
classes. The researcher chose the three classes because the reseracher was going to
explore various attitudes of students who were studying in different majors. Even
though the participants came from three different classes, the participants would
represent senior high school students as a whole.

Table 1: The participants' demographic info
AGE
MALE

FEMALE
15 years old

16 years old

17 years old

SCIENCE

14

10

1

20

3

LANGUAGE

14

14

0

16

12

SOCIAL

12

11

0

12

11

Total

40

35

1

48

26

13

Furthermore, the researcher chose the participants based on several
considerations. The first was because eleventh graders were exposed to many English
group projects. It means that the learners had more experiences on engaging in group
works compared to tenth, twelfth graders, elementary and junior high school students.
It is also due to the fact that tenth graders were rarely assigned to group works, while
the twelfth graders were also the same due to final examination which focuses more
on individual tasks and test drillings.
Furthermore, the eleventh graders are considered more mature to give various
thoughtful answers and reasons regarding the questionnaires. The learners also seem
to have more capabilities to reflect on their behavior, feelings, and opinions toward
cooperative learning.
Instrument of Data Collection
Initially, the researcher constructed 4-point type Likert scale questionnaire that
allowed the participants to state their degree of preferences. The Likert scale
questionnaires were adapted from Farzaneh & Nejadansari (2014) and Hamer &
O’Keefe (2013). Its underlying reason was because the data which were obtained by
using the items from both previous studies represent three aspects of attitudes
(cognitive, affective, and behavior) to be elicited.
Furthermore, by using Likert Scale questionnaires, the researcher might be
able to obtain and specify the participants’ preferences or degree of agreement
(Bertram, 2009). The questionnaires consisted of 15 items which represented three
components of attitudes (behavior, affective, and cognitive) to be elicited. Items
number 1 up to 5 elicited students’ affection on cooperative learning strategy. The

14

items number 6 up to 10 elicited students’ opinion on the strategy. At last, items
number 11 up to 15 elicited students’ behavior on the strategy.
The researcher adapted some statements of the questionnaires from the
previous studies (e.g. Farzaneh & Nejadansari, 2014 and Hamer & O’Keefe, 2013),
Dat-Translated those statements into Indonesian, and adjusted the context to ensure
that all participants could completely understand the meaning of each statement.
Therefore, the statements would be more appropriate for the participants.
Before distributing the questionnaires, the researcher piloted the statements to
13 eleventh graders of SMA Kristen 1 Salatiga to ensure that the statements were
clear enough to be understood and precise enough to elicit the data. The 13 students
included 9 male students and 4 female ones who were from XI IPS 3 (Social Class).
The participants who were around 16-17 years old only participated on piloting
session, so they would not be the main participants for the study. After collecting the
questionnaires, the researcher interviewed three participants in order to know their
responses to the questionnaires. It was done in order to make sure whether or not the
format of the questionnaires and the statements were clear.
Piloting the questionnaires was beneficial for ensuring whether or not the
statements were effective to elicit participants’ responses which later on could be used
to achieve the goal of this study. Therefore, based on the piloting results, there were
four items which were revised in order to elicit the data more effectively. Those
statements were: Statements no.3, 4, 10, and 15. The researcher revised those
statements because they might not answer the research questions, showed rambled
sentences, and contained ineffective words which confused the participants.
Moreover, statements no. 10 and 15 had similar ideas, so that the statements needed to
15

be revised by changing the ideas of the statements. In addition, the researcher added a
phrase “in English classroom” in every statement to keep the participants focusing on
their attitudes toward CLS in English classroom only instead of in general classes. It
would help the participants to avoid “jumping memory” when they reflected their
attitudes toward CLS. Therefore, those statements were revised in order to make them
more understandable and precise for the participants.
Data Collection Procedures
The researcher, afterwards, did the data collection following the procedures
below. Firstly, the researcher asked the Headmistress of SMA Kristen 1 Salatiga for
permission to conduct the research. Therefore, when the date and time were already
set, the researcher entered the classrooms and explained the purpose and goals of
filling in the questionnaires. Afterwards, the researcher also explained to the
participants how to fill in the questionnaires and facilitated the participants if they had
any questions or problems regarding the questionnaires. This procedure was done in
each class.
The researcher administrated the questionnaires to 75 participants during the
class time. The participants were from XI BAHASA, XI IPS 2, and XI IPA 1. The
data was collected on Thursday, 21 st January 2016 at 11.20 a.m.-11.40 a.m.;
Thursday, 28th January 2016 at 01.15 p.m. - 01.40 p.m.; and Friday, 29th January 2016
at 09.40 a.m.-10.15 a.m. respectively.
Data Analysis Procedures
To analyze the data, the researcher distributed the gathered data into Microsoft
Excel. The data were grouped into three subthemes: the statements no.1 up to 5
16

represented students’ affections or feelings on CLS, statements no.6 up to 10
represented students’ opinions on CLS, and statements no.11 up to 15 represented
students’ behaviors on CLS. Afterwards, respective diagrams were created to show
the summary of the results.
After grouping the result and the diagrams, the researcher looked for certain
concepts and relationships between each statement in each group. Afterwards, the
researcher described each diagram and related it with the previous studies and theories
from experts. Then, the researcher drew a conclusion by discovering the relationships
between the three subthemes and organized them into an explanatory scheme.
Therefore, the results would be described, interpreted and analyzed by using the
theoretical frameworks provided.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The research aimed to answer the research question: What are students’
attitudes toward Cooperative Learning Strategy in English classrooms? In answering
the research question, the researcher defined the students’ attitudes into three aspects.
Those are students’ feelings, opinions, and behaviors. Therefore, in this part, the
researcher aimed to display the research results based on the three aspects. To attain
the goal, this study used a questionnaire as the research instrument, namely 4-point
type Likert Scale questionnaire.
Furthermore, the researcher would discuss the results obtained from the
questionnaire data that would demonstrate students’ attitudes on cooperative learning
strategy based on the aspects. Eventually, the results of the discussion would be the
answer for the research question.

17

A. Students’ affective aspect on cooperative learning strategy
After collecting and processing the data, the results would be presented in the
following explanation. The explanation is related to the result on students’ affective
aspect on cooperative learning strategy.
Figure 1 shows the results of the participants’ responses to the first statement
“I feel happy when I am assigned to do group works in English class”. It can be seen
from Figure 1 that 93.34% of the participants agreed with the statement, while 6.66%
did not. It indicates that most of the participants approved that they were happy in
doing group works in English classes. This result is in line with Campbell’s finding
(2006) in his study, which showed that students felt happy for doing group works.
Concerning such a happy feeling in doing group works, Johnson & Johnson (1986)
proposed that it may be because they simply like to work in groups and are willing to
participate in the groups.
FIGURE 1
Students’ individual feeling on CLS

Q1
Series1
58.67%

34.67%

5.33%

Strongly
Agree

Agree

Disagree

18

1.33%
Strongly
Disagree

FIGURE 2
Students’ preference on individual works

Q2
Series1
49.33%
29.34%
12.00%

Strongly
Agree

9.33%

Agree

Disagree

Strongly
Disagree

Figure 2 summarizes the finding based on the second statement in the
questionnaire, “I would prefer to do individual works”. The result from Figure 2
shows that 58.66% of the participants disapproved the statement. Interestingly, the
participants who agreed with the statement were also quite high. There were 41.34%
of participants who still like doing individual works. Therefore, the range of the
results is not too far.
However, although there was a slight difference in the percentage between the
participants who disapproved and those who approved to do individual works rather
than group works, the result seemed to show that the participants were quite
consistent in responding to the statements which elicited their feeling toward group
works. In other words, the results of the responses to questionnaire statements number
1 and 2 show some consistency that more students chose to work in groups rather than
working individually. This finding echoes the finding in Tiyong & Yong (2004) as
cited in Campbell & Li (2006) that participants seemed to have consistency on their
positive feeling toward group works.
19

FIGURE 3
Students’ inferior feeling in CLS

Q3
Series1

63%
18%

19%

0%
Strongly
Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly
Disagree

Figure 3 summarizes the finding based on the third statement in the
questionnaire, “I feel inferior when I am working in groups”. The result from figure 3
shows that 82% of the participants disapproved the statement while only 18% of the
participants agreed with the statement. The result shows that the majority of the
participants opposed the statement, “I feel inferior when I am working in groups”.
Regarding the principles of CLS, it indicates that the participants had positive
interdependence on group works when all members of the groups are responsible for
the success or the failure in their group (Dat-Tran, 2013).
It confirmed Johnson & Johnson (1999) who stated that there would be the
perception that the group members were connected to one another in such a way that
each individual will not succeed unless other members do. It means that when the
participants have positive interdependence toward the group works, they might
decrease their inferior feelings. Students will decrease their inferior feelings since
they will learn and work together for the success of the group.

20

Meanwhile, a few participants (18%) still felt inferior when they were working
in groups. Feeling inferior might happen because students found themselves as the
minorities and isolated in the groups (Felder & Brent, 2001). They might also feel like
having less ability and knowledge or feel like they could not give any contribution to
the groups. This attitude, as Martinez (2002) argued, may negatively influence their
individual performance while doing the group works, and in turns affect the group’s
success.
However, cooperative learning is actually designed to help students to
decrease their inferior feelings because there is an interaction in which individuals
promote each others’ learning by helping, assisting, praising, and encouraging each
group member. Furthermore, it was also added by Kirby (2007) as cited on McLeish
(2006) that through cooperative learning, students’ self esteem could be enhanced as
they all helped one another. Therefore, face-to-face promotive interaction among
group members while doing their works could help students to avoid feeling inferior.
FIGURE 4
Students’ feeling regarding “hitchhikers”

Q4
Series1
57%

27%
9%

Strongly Agree

7%

Agree

Disagree

21

Strongly
Disagree

Figure 4 summarizes the finding based on the fourth statement in the
questionnaire, “I don’t like working in groups because there will be group members
who do not participate in the group”, Figure 4 showed that 64% disapproved the
statements. Even though there were some group members who did not pull their
weight in the group works, most of the participants still like doing group works.
However, there were still 36% of the participants who stated that the existence of
“hitchhikers” (group members who are passive and do not get involved in the group)
made them dislike working in groups.
According to Campbell’s finding (2006), “hitchhikers” or “free-riders” were
the source of stress and destructive force in group works. His results showed that
many students would enjoy group works without any “free-riders” or “hitchhikers”.
They viewed groups negatively and disliked working in the groups. However,
according to Figure 4, the finding in this study seemed to oppose the finding in
Campbell’s (2006) study. Here, students still liked working in groups while there
were “hitchhikers” who did not take parts during group works.
FIGURE 5
Students’ feeling regarding diversity in opinions & personalities

Q5
Series1

63%
28%
9%

0%
Strongly
Agree

Agree

Disagree

22

Strongly
Disagree

Figure 5 shows the results of the participants’ responses to the fifth statement,
“I feel that it’s difficult to work with people who have different opinion and
personality,” Figure 5 shows that 72% of the participants disapproved the idea. It
meant that most of the participants might feel that it was easy to adjust themselves in
heterogeneous groups. Even though the majority of the participants disapproved the
idea, there were still 28% of them who felt that it would be difficult to work with
people who had different opinions and personalities.
The results might indicate that students actually realized that they could not
work merely with people who have the same opinions and personalities. Therefore,
working with different people who had different thoughts and ideas, personalities and
characters was not a surprise. The participants might see this as an opportunity to
express their opinions and come up with a wide range of their ideas. It might also help
them to see things from new perspectives while working with different people with
their own thoughts.
Regarding the statements number 1 up to 5, it could be concluded that most of
the participants have positive feelings about group work assignments. The majority of
the participants tended to feel happy when they were assigned to work in groups.
Their positive feeling seemed to be consistent when they faced the second statement
on “I would prefer to do individual works”. More participants opposed to the
statement and it showed that they had positive feeling on group works. Furthermore,
students’ positive feelings could be seen from the statement which showed that
students opposed the statement on having inferior feeling when working in groups.
The participants also showed their positive feeling on group works even though there

23

might be several hitchhikers among the group members. It shows that although there
were group members who do not pull their weight on the groups, the participants still
enjoyed working in groups. In addition, even though the participants worked in
heterogeneous groups, they still tended to show their positive feelings on group
works. The participants might see the differences among the members as an
opportunity to express their opinions and come up with a wide range of ideas.
The overall results above confirm Campbell’s findings (2006) which stated that
participants value the significance of positive feeling on CLS, where they can interact
with students from other backgrounds and personalities, improve their English
language skills, enhance their achievement, develop communication skills, and secure
possible opportunities to make friends.
B. Students’ opinions about cooperative learning strategy
In the following discussion, the result of students’ opinion on cooperative learning
strategy will be explained.
FIGURE 6
Students’ view about CLS and social relationship

Q6
Series1

43%

45%
12%
0%

Strongly
Agree

Agree

Disagree

24

Strongly
Disagree

Figure 6 summarizes the finding based on the sixth statement in the
questionnaire, “I think working in groups helps me to get closer with my classmates”,
Figure 6 showed that 88% of the participants agreed with the statement. It means that
most of the participants could enhance their social relationship during group works.
Interestingly, there were 12% of the participants who disapproved the statement. It
showed that there were still few participants who might not get closer to their
classmates during the group works.
During group works, there will be discussion among the members of the
groups. This will be the opportunity for the students to meet and make new friends.
There will be two possibilities in which students can strengthen their friendship or
build new friendships. Wentzel, McNamara-Barry, & Caldwell (2004) as cited in
Kouros & Abrami (2006) asserted that student friendships promote prosocial
behaviour “because prosocial behaviour is inherently social and interactive, a friends’
behaviour will provide straightforward cues concerning what is appropriate and
desirable, as well as

provide a positive experience for the recipient” (p. 201).

Consequently, when assigned to work in groups, students would tend to ask to work
in a group where their friends are. It might indicate that students still need support
from their friends during the group works. They seemed to believe that friends or
classmates would play important roles in doing the group works.

25

Figure 7 shows the results of the participants’ responses to the seventh
statement, “I think I would get better grades by working in groups compared to
working individually”, Figure 7 explains that the majority of the participants agreed
with the statement. There are 80% of the participants who thought that working in
groups helped them to get better achievements. Interestingly, there are still 20% of the
participants who disapproved the statement. A few participants think that they might
not get higher grades or better achievement by working in groups.
During group works, there might be opportunities for the students to work
together, help and complete each other. The majority of the participants in this study
showed that they tended to view group works positively by thinking that better grades
will be achieved through working in groups. The result is opposed to Campbell’s
finding (2006) that most students viewed groups negatively as they thought they
would not get fair grades due to the existence of the hitchhikers.
FIGURE 7
Students’ opinions regarding group works and better grades

Q7
Series1

41%

39%

17%
3%

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

26

Strongly
Disagree

FIGURE 8
Students’ opinions in regard to group works & individual tasks

Q8
Series1
48%
42%

9%

1%
Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly
Disagree

Figure 8 shows the results of the participants’ responses to the eighth
statement, “I think group works are easier to be accomplished than individual works”,
Figure 8 showed that 90% of the participants confirmed the statement. While only
10% of the participants disapproved the idea.
In group work assignments, there will be opportunities for the students to help
each other during the discussion among the members. Helping behaviour seems to
appear in the group since they have the same common goal to be accomplished. Here,
students have positive interdependence as they are responsible for the success of the
group. Students will contribute their effort by dividing the task among the members to
cooperate one another to accomplish the task successfully (Dat-Tran, 2013). Based on
the result in Figure 8, students think that the group works are easier to be
27

accomplished, this is because students in group

will divide the members’

responsibilities as the readers, summarizer, examiners, note-takers, and encouragers
((Knight & Bohlmeyer, 1990 as cited in Dat-Tran, 2013).
Therefore, accomplishing tasks together during group works also persuade
members of the group to do peer tutoring. Here, students who are noticed as “brilliant
students” or have better understanding and higher capability might help the students
who are less capable to accomplish the task in order to achieve the goal of the group.
This result confirms Gillies & Ashman (2003) who asserted that peer tutoring can
enhance learners’ achievements and their academic purposes. By doing peer tutoring
and accomplishing task together, it will help students to cooperate to each other.
There will be students’ involving in cognitive challenge to do clarification,
simplification, and exemplification with their peers in the group. Therefore the tasks
seem to be easier to accomplish when it can be done together.
FIGURE 9
Students’ opinion regarding better understanding on materials

Q9
Series1

55%

27%
17%
1%
Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

28

Strongly
Disagree

Figure 9 summarizes the finding based on the ninth statement in the
questionnaire, “I get better understanding on the materials through group works”,
Figure 9 showed that 82% of the participants confirmed the statement. Even though
the majority of the participants agreed with the statement, there were only fewer
participants who disapproved the idea. 18% of them did not think that they could get
better understanding on materials through group works.
Relating to the earlier result (Figure 8), students who were working in groups
might help members of the group to achieve the group’s goal. Students who have
higher ability might help lower-level students by doing peer tutoring. Therefore,
group works might be easier to be accomplished because the group members can get
better understanding on the materials through peer tutoring.
Furthermore, the result in Figure 9 above showed that students believe that
working in groups help them to get better understanding, because there would be
chances for students to cooperate and interact with each other and do peer tutoring.
The result also confirm