After the Second World War, the scholars in America did numerous researches on the field of cooperative learning。 Since then substantial progresses had been made。 So far, cooperative learning has usually been acknowledged as one of the most common teaching methods and strategies around the world。 And even it is regarded as an ideal teaching mode which could be used to remedy the drawbacks of traditional class-based teaching system。

2。1。2 Studies on cooperative learning abroad

Ⅰ。 Development of cooperative learning theory

 In 1970s, the researches on cooperative learning flourish around the world。 David W。 Johnson and Roger T。 Johnson are the pioneers in this field。 They established the cooperative learning center to train teachers and observe their behaviors in the class。 And the Social Interdependence Theory (1974) they put forward becomes one of the main theoretical basis in cooperative learning。 The famous educational psychologist, R。E。 Slavin, is also the representative in the cooperative learning study。 In his Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (1978), he proposes to pide students into different study groups according to their ability, and the evaluation system is based on the inpidual progress and the whole group’s product。 In this way, the classroom management efficiency has been improved and student’s motivation has been inspired (Zheng &Sheng, 2010)。 S。 Kagan attaches more attention on the empirical study。 At the beginning of the study, he tries cooperative learning in his own teaching process, and then he generalizes it in those nursery schools, elementary schools and middle schools。 In his practice, he concludes the Structural Approach, which is the basic theory of cooperative learning, and also, he develops tens of kinds of teaching methods which could be combined with the Structural Approach (Mou &Sheng, 2015)。

In 1993, a national survey in America (Puma, et al。, 1993) found that 79% of elementary teachers and 62% of middle school teachers reported making some sustained use of cooperative learning。 And undoubtedly, nowadays, there are a growing number of educators and teachers who hold a positive view of cooperative learning。 However, there is still a great deal of confusion and disagreement about why cooperative learning methods affect achievement and, even more importantly, under what conditions cooperative learning has these positive effects (Slavin, 1996)。

Ⅱ。 Elements of cooperative learning  文献综述

As a systematic and structured teaching strategy, cooperative learning does have some similarities with traditional teaching methods, for example, working in groups, but some of the basic elements in cooperative learning endow it with particularity。 Professor Slavin once concluded the element of cooperative learning into three points, group goal, inpidual accountability and equal opportunity for success。 Group goal builds up the cohesion in a group so that the whole group would work hard together。 Inpidual accountability inspires every group member to learn in their best, and it also guarantees group performances。 For equal opportunity for success, it shows students fairness to be successful, thus students are encouraged to seize the opportunity (Eggen & Kauchak, 1996)。 

Elizabeth (1996) puts forward another theory that there are four elements which lead to a successful cooperative learning。 They are group formation and management, task design, social component, and exploratory talk。 However, the most generally acknowledge theory is proposed by the Johnson Brothers。 Positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, inpidual accountability, interpersonal and small group skills and group processing are the five elements emphasized in cooperative learning (Johnson & Johnson, 2001)。 Positive interdependence, including positive goal interdependence, positive rewards interdependence, positive role interdependence, as well as positive material interdependence, is the most important element among the five for only interdependence contributes to the relationship of cooperating。 In a cooperative learning situation, students with positive interdependence would feel a strong sense of responsibility not only towards themselves but all the group members in the group。 Based on positive interdependence, definitely, there appears a promotive interaction between students。 The element interpersonal and small group skills is a new perspective in this theory。 During the process of cooperative learning, students are supposed to carry on two kinds of activities at the same time, one is the professional knowledge learning and the other is group communication。 Though group skill is not the mean issue to be dealt in cooperative learning, it is worthwhile to be commanded, which is beneficial to students’ development (Liu & Gao, 2011)。