Once they’ve Experienced it, will Pre-Service Teachers be Willing to Apply Online Collaborative Learning?

Abstract

Teachers’ motivation to collaborate depends on their beliefs about its contribution to learning and teaching. This mixed method study applied cognitive orientation (CO) theory to measure 266 pre-service teachers' willingness to engage in online collaborative learning (OCL) after experiencing it. Willingness to engage in OCL was examined via a digital CO questionnaire regarding four types of beliefs: one’s own functionality, one’s experience with OCL, the ideal collaborative functioning of the group, and OCL goals. Next, the correlation between these beliefs was determined. A correlation between at least three beliefs indicated a tendency, which we termed a theme. The themes possibly predicting posterior inclusion of OCL were confidence in functioning, perceived value of the collaborative writing process, and relevance of the task sequence to professional development. This research suggests a method for extracting themes indicating willingness to engage in OCL in order to demonstrate ways to enhance that willingness.