Co-operative learning: Group processing and students' needs for self-worth and belonging

The purpose of this study was to examine students' perceptions of the extent to which group processing, a principle of co-operative learning, satisfies their needs for self-worth and belonging. Eight mature age pre -university students completed a scaled questionnaire; five of them also took part in a focus group interview, in the week following a 12 week long preliminary study into the efficacy of group processing with regard to students' learning. The results indicated that students perceived group processing as helping them express their affective needs, and monitor their behaviours and achievements in terms of these needs. The participants perceived group processing as contributing, to some extent, to the satisfaction of their needs for self-worth and belonging. Unexpectedly and perhaps critically, students also perceived group processing as contributing to their needs for acceptance. The findings suggest that a relationship may exist between feelings of self-worth, belonging and acceptance and perceptions of the influence of group processing on these senses. Consequently, practitioners cannot afford to dismiss the possibility that the satisfaction of students' needs for acceptance may be a vital ingredient of effective learning and teaching and that further research into co-operative learning, and group processing in particular, in relation to acceptance is likely to contribute to effective learning and teaching.