Building the Culture of Cooperation among UAE University Female Students

Abstract

Throughout the years, research and experience have captured various contexts in which cooperative learning has been implemented and reflected. In the boundaries of a classroom as a learning community, cooperative learning has positively influenced the learning and teaching of multifarious learners and teachers. Hence, the study aims to explore and give account on an authentic experience in UAE University in Al Ain, UAE. The implementation of systematic cooperative strategies has significantly and constructively left its touches of social interaction, cultural responsiveness, and improved learning. Therefore, the researcher narrates the numerous ways through which she has witnessed a positive alteration in the learners’ attitude and learning through the consistent application of cooperative learning. The study findings are making good friends, classmates’ willingness to assist their group members in finishing their work, offering helpful suggestions and ideas, sharing ideas and saving time, constructive interaction among students, are advantages of the cooperative learning strategies.  However, other challenges were faced by the students during the process of cooperative learning strategies such as lack of communication among the students. More specifically, some students prefer to control the speech among the group members. Other challenges are that some students’ dependency and careless of their responsibilities among their group members influenced negatively on their task achievement. The researcher anticipates and hopes that the findings will facilitate further research on cooperative learning and differentiated instruction in the UAE.