Assessment of business students’ preference for cooperative learning: A survey study at the University of Cape Coast

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