خلاصة:
There is controversy on the conditions under which cooperative learning methods can improve academic achievement. Group-specific motivational aspects might contribute to the effectiveness of cooperative learning among which classroom goal structures were focused on. More specifically, the study aimed at investigating the efficiency of cooperative writing technique through performance versus mastery-oriented classroom goal structures in improving academic writing of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To this end, 83 intermediate EFL learners took part in this quasi-experimental pretest, post-test study. The participants were required to write a 5-paragraph essay for pretest and post-test. The collected data was analyzed based on an analytic writing rubric (Hedgcock & Leftkowitz, 1992). The results of one-way ANOVA tests indicated that the experimental group which practiced cooperative writing through performance goal orientation outperformed the individual and mastery-oriented classes. It was concluded that performance goal orientation, between-groups competition, and extrinsic motivation, can help EFL teachers in setting a more effective classroom structure for cooperative writing practices to improve the writing proficiency of L2 learners.
ملخص الجهاز:
More specifically, the study aimed at investigating the efficiency of cooperative writing technique through performance versus mastery-oriented classroom goal structures in improving academic writing of Iranian intermediate EFL learners.
It was concluded that performance goal orientation, between-groups competition, and extrinsic motivation, can help EFL teachers in setting a more effective classroom structure for cooperative writing practices to improve the writing proficiency of L2 learners.
There are various viewpoints on the achievement effects of cooperative learning including motivational, social cohesion, interdependence, and achievement goal theories (Slavin, 2014), among which group-specific motivational perspective (Dornyei, 1997) as well as achievement goal-orientation (Anderman & Wolters, 2005, Pintrich, 2000) build up the theoretical background of this study.
More specifically, this study intends to investigate the efficacy of cooperative writing technique through performance-oriented and mastery-oriented classroom goal structures to improve academic writing proficiency of adult EFL learners at tertiary education.
Early research on achievement goals focused on two contrasting forms of motivation that have been labeled learning versus performance (Dweck & Elliot, 1983), task-involved versus ego-involved (Nicholls, 1984), mastery versus ability focused (Ames, 1992a; Ames & Archer, 1988), and task-focused versus ability-focused (Maehr & Midgley, 1991).
For example, eliciting a mastery goals orientation in experiments was found to be related to positive coping, persistence, and positive emotions (Elliott & Dweck, 1988), self-regulated learning (Graham & Golan, 1991), transfer of problem-solving strategies and achievement on task (Bereby-Meyer & Kaplan, 2005).