Collaborative learning mediators: The role of interpersonal behavior styles

Abstract

Most of the researches into cooperative learning have been centered, on the one hand on the comparison between cooperative, competitive and individual situations, and on the other hand on the applications of the cooperative learning on academic and social variables. In the 1990s, the first researches appeared which main objective was to solve questions concerning the efficiency of cooperative learning and the related factors. This piece of work is set in this last idea and it tries to offer a little contribution to this emerging research. However, within this group of researches we miss some which prove the influence of interpersonal variables on
cooperative learning results. We consider the participants characters to be noteworthy: extrovert, introverted, independent, with no initiative, shy,... We think that these
interpersonal aspects may predict the success or the failure of some cooperative learning situations, as well as they will help us in the understanding of some individual behaviours and interactions within the group. With our research we intend to find connections between these interpersonal variables and the roles played within the group, verbal behaviours shown throughout the interaction, the performance and the individual perception of the group maturity.