The Impact Of Cooperative Learning On The Development Of Need For Cognition Among First-Year College Students

This study examines the effect of first-year college student participation in cooperative learning activities on the development of need for cognition, using pre-test and post-test data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNSLAE). I used Pascarella's (1985) General Causal Model for Assessing the Effects of Differential Environments on Student Learning and Cognitive Development as the theoretical foundation for my study. I examined whether cooperative learning (students teaching each other, faculty encouraging students to work together outside of class, participation in study groups, and students working together outside of class) influenced the development of need for cognition among first-year college students while controlling for student background characteristics, institutional characteristics, academic experiences, and other college student experiences. The results of my study indicate that participation in cooperative learning activities positively influenced the development of need for cognition among first-year college students. This study adds to the literature because it is the first to demonstrate the relationship between cooperative learning and need for cognition. The results are relevant to higher education policy because the study provides evidence that cooperative learning helps students develop a propensity to engage in the thinking process, which will likely impact them throughout their lives. Cooperative learning is considered a good practice in liberal education, so the result of this study provides evidence that liberal education supports positive outcomes related to cognitive processing, which is critical to higher education.