Teacher Beliefs in Introducing Cooperative Learning approaches in Classroom Practice at a High School in Japan

Cooperative Learning (CL) is possibly one of the central approaches that utilize pair or group activities to bring pragmatic situations to language classrooms. However, it is not systematically taught in teacher training courses. Many working teachers have to learn through a trial and error process in their daily classroom practice. This case study is a qualitative research account of the changes in the beliefs of a high school teacher who implemented CL three years before, comparing his beliefs and practices, and analyzing how they changed. Seven video-recorded lessons were observed and four interviews were conducted. It was discovered from the interviews that the key to change was his active participation in teachers\u27 peer groups. The result was that he unintentionally and unconsciously changed not only his role, but he also further elicited students\u27 active engagement, converted his classroom into a space of festivity, and also provided students with an increased sense of self-actualization