The Influence of Social Achievement Goals on Interaction in Cooperative Learning

Abstract

  The present study examined the influence of social achievement goals on interactional behavior in cooperative learning. By using the Interaction Behavior Scale, which classifies interactional behavior into two categories, functional interactional behavior and affective interactional behavior, and the Social Achievement Goal Scale, which consists of three goals: social development goal, social demonstration-approach goal and social demonstration-avoidance goal, 880 junior high school students were surveyed and analyzed using structural equation modelling.

  The results showed that the social development goal had a positive effect on both interactional behaviors, the social demonstration-avoidance goal had a negative effect on both interactional behaviors, and the social demonstration-approach goal had a positive effect only on functional interactional behaviors. These results suggest that social development goal plays an important role in establishing effective interaction in cooperative learning. In addition, it was suggested that task-related interactional behaviors may be strategically performed to acquire their own position in the social demonstration-approach goal, whose influence has been ambiguous so far.