Abstract:
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the practices and challenges of Cooperative
learning (CL) implementation in classroom instruction of three selected Eastern Ethiopian
Public Universities. To achieve this purpose a descriptive survey design was employed. The
Universities were selected purposively. The subjects of the study, final year regular
undergraduate students (809), instructors (255), college deans (4), department heads (7) and
CL coordinators (5) of each College, were selected by using purposive and simple random
sampling techniques. Overall, a total of 1080 respondents participated successfully. The study
was carried out by employing questionnaires (open-ended and closed-ended), interviews and
observations addressing issues related to practices and challenges of CL implementation. In
this case, participants’ attitude, practices and challenges that hinder the effective
implementation of CL in classroom interaction were the major study areas emphasized. These
variables were analyzed quantitatively with frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation,
one-way ANOVA and Post-hock analysis. Qualitative data were analyzed by narration and
direct citation of the respondents’ ideas. The results of the study revealed that the
implementation of CL was not up to the expected level. Even though most of the participants
have a favorable attitude towards CL, extent of CL practices was found to be low in their
classrooms, and there is no linearity to practices of CL among Universities. The major
challenges which were identified in this study were: positive interdependence was not
considered, responsibilities were not shared tasks equally among students, heterogeneous
ability grouping was not considered, and lack of group opportunities to discuss & evaluate
how they work. Even though the level of CL implementation at the Universities was at grassroot
level, the future of cooperative education is very bright. Therefore, it is better to use CL
as one of scientific method of instructional process, it will be efficient if student-centered
approaches could be added, create awareness on implementers towards CL as well,
implementers should get training on how & why to implement CL, organize experience
sharing from HEIs that have best practices, & improve the classroom setting arrangement.
