Abstract:
This study assessed business students’ preference for cooperative learning
in the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. The study was a quantitative research
which adopted the descriptive cross-sectional survey. In all, 400 Level 300
business students were selected using the multi-stage sampling technique. These
students were Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) and Bachelor of Management
Studies (BMS) students. Data was collected on a 5-point likert scale questionnaire
ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Both descriptive (mean
and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-test) were used to
analyse the data that were obtained. The study found out that business students
had positive attitudes towards cooperative learning. Their perceived benefits of
cooperative learning were: enjoyment of more socialization; enhancement of good
working relationship; improvement in academic performance; ability to think
critically; obtain more information. Despite these benefits, students encountered a
number of problems in cooperative learning such as group members dominating
the group; members not ‘pulling their weight’; relatively little work done due to
group arguments. The results from the independent t-test revealed that there is no
statistically significant difference between the attitudes of male and female
business students towards cooperative learning. Finally, it was revealed that there
is no statistically significant difference between the attitudes of B.Com and BMS
students towards cooperative learning. Entrenchment of cooperative learning
strategy into the teaching of university courses was recommended to the academic
departments within the University of Cape Coast
