Investigating the Influence ofWeb 2.0 Tools on the Group Cohesion of Pre-service Teachers

Abstract

The study investigated the Influence of Web 2.0 Tools on the Group Cohesion of Pre-service teachers in cooperative learning classroom. It adopted the two-group post-test only quasi experimental design. Task and social cohesion were the two dimensions of Group Cohesion that were studied. The sample was seventy (70) fourth year students from the Department of Educational Management, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The sample size was seventy (70) fourth year students from one teaching option (Economics) in the Department of Educational Management who offered the course Computer in Education during the 2013/2014 session. It was an intact class. The technique used for selecting this sample was purposive sampling. The instrument for data collection was Group Cohesion Questionnaire designed by Carless and De Paola (2000). The internal consistency of the Group Cohesion Questionnaire was determined by the authors. Using a sample of students outside the study sample, the researcher used the split-half method to determine the reliability of the instrument. Cronbachs coefficient alpha was reported at .680. Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while hypotheses were analysed using Z-test. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the task and social cohesion of students who used web 2.0 technologies and those who did not. Though, the major findings showed that web 2.0 technologies did not significantly affect students task and social cohesion, incidental findings showed that students communication and information literacy skills were improved as they worked online. Thus, the researchers recommended that Web 2.0 technologies should be adopted in higher institutions.