The role of culture in cooperative learning

Cooperative Learning (CL) as one of the most fertile areas of research in education is reported to have a precarious status in terms of its classroom implementation. Culture as one of the factors responsible for the malfunctioning cooperative group work has recently been gaining more attention. However, these attentions were, by and large, interpretive and speculative, rather than empirical. This paper is an investigation into the relationships between culture and the social drivers of group work. For this purpose, perceptions of 241 and 200 Iranian learners of English as a Foreign language (EFL), arrived at through convenience sampling, respectively about their culture and experience of group work were solicited using two psychometrically valid and reliable questionnaires. The data were analyzed using forced entry multiple regression and the results not only suggest that significant complicated relations exist between culture and the social components of cooperative group work but also determine how the cultural factors affect these social components. This study also contributes to the literature on culturally responsive teaching in the sense that it highlights how inaccurate judgments on the appropriacy of group work were made by reducing culture to collectivism or individualism. In conclusion, it offers future research some guidelines and suggestions.