Assessment of cooperative learning in North Shewa Ethiopia, in the case of debre birhan college of teacher education

The way teachers teach is of critical concern in any reform designed to improve quality Education. Teacher quality and teacher learning, therefore, are becoming the foci of researchers, policy makers, program designers, implementers, and evaluators. Thus, this study was undertaken with the aim of assessing the practices, challenges and opportunities of cooperative Teaching-Cooperative base groups with reference to Debre Birhan College of Teachers Education. Data were collected were collected randomly in different department's students. The sample population was selected by considering numbers of students in each department, sex and the roles of the students in cooperative base group. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to generate relevant information. Students’ attitude about cooperative base group was examined using quantitative method. The results of the study revealed that the practice of cooperative learning through base group in Debre Birhan College of Teachers Education was at its infancy stage. However, the analysis of the chi square test shows that there is a significant difference between the roles of students in the group and the attitude they have to cooperative learning. On the other hand, the study had also revealed that the members in each cooperative base group were not sharing responsibilities equally. In the focus group discussion, some of the participants said that in some cooperative base group, group leaders were doing most of the activities while the rest of the group members participated just only by contributing materials and money. Though the college has produced a guideline for cooperative base group, the result of the study showed that the actual classroom practice of cooperative learning was in different from the expected cooperative base group arrangement. Thus, the study concludes by recommending measures that should be taken for effective cooperative base group in the context of the college and to other similar higher institutions which have similar setting with our college.