EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING AND TEAM COHESION: «SENIOR SUPPORT» IN THE COOPERATIVE LEARNING TEAM OF SECUNDARY EDUCATION

Abstract

Emotional well-being of students is one of the pedagogical principles of the basic education curriculum. Furthermore, from an inclusive education perspective, heterogeneous grouping of students fosters social cohesion and collaborative work. This study aims to analyse an educational practice linked to the cooperative learning methodology of the Cooperate to Learn/Learn to Cooperate Programme (CA/AC) developed and validated by the Diversity Care Research Group (GRAD) at the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC). We consider this practice, «Senior Support» as a dynamic within domain A (Group cohesion) carried out in domain C (Teamwork as content). It is implemented in a group of 3rd year students in secondary education with the support of the Association of Seniors of Catalonia for Talent Entrepreneurship Guidance (ASENCAT).

This is a descriptive qualitative study that analyses the content of a custom questionnaire for students, as well as the reports produced by the teacher and the mentor. The results indicate, on one hand, that during the implementation of the entrepreneurship project in cooperative learning teams, adolescents perceive a higher frequency of positive emotions than negative ones, and they relate positive emotions to motivation and learning outcomes. On the other hand, the study suggests that during the assessment of the Session Journals that each team completes to learn how to work in teams (Domain C), the frequency of «Senior Support» should be increased.