EFFECTS OF ORIENTING ACTIVITIES AND PRACTICE ON ACHIEVEMENT, CONTINUING MOTIVATION, AND STUDENT BEHAVIORS IN A COOPERATIVE LEARNING-ENVIRONMENT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of orienting a ctivities and type of practice on achievement, continuing motivation, and student behaviors in a cooperative learning environment. Eighty gr aduate education majors were assigned to cooperative groups and requir ed to learn instructional design principles from three instructional t elevision lessons. Each lesson included specific orienting activities (advance organizers or objectives) and different types of practice (ve rbal information or intellectual skills). Results indicated that subje cts who worked in groups that received intellectual skills practice pe rformed better on the application portion of the posttest than those w ho received verbal information practice. Knowledge acquisition and stu dent behaviors were affected by a combination of type of practice and orienting activity. Groups that received intellectual skills practice discussed more content, gave move help to their fellow group members, and exhibited less individual behavior than groups that received verba l information practice. Groups given objectives discussed significantl y more content than groups given advance organizers.