Effects of Cooperative Learning and Affiliation during an ITV Lesson.

This study examines the effect of cooperative versus individual learning strategies and the need for affiliation on achievement, attitude, and student interactions when receiving instructional television lessons. Subjects (n=126) were undergraduate education majors enrolled in a required course in educational psychology. Subjects classified as high or low affiliation used either a cooperative or individual learning strategy while receiving instruction from a television lesson. Study participants completed a need for affiliation scale, viewed an instructional television program on objectives-based assessment, answered questions for practice and read feedback sections in a workbook, and took a posttest following the program. The television lesson was designed following a competency-based approach and included objectives, information, examples, practice, feedback, and review. Results include: (1) there was no significant difference between subjects who used cooperative and individual learning strategies when overall achievement and application were tested; (2) subjects who worked alone performed significantly better on the knowledge portion of the posttest than those who worked cooperatively; (3) the need for affiliation was related to attitude toward future learning activities; and (4) the need for affiliation was related to student interaction behaviors. Study results indicate that cooperative learning does not always increase learning from instructional television that has been systematically designed. (Contains 24 references.) (SWC)