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 Global Journal of Education and Allied  

Research (GJEAR) 
Volume.15, Number 3; March-2024; 

ISSN: 2837-3707 | Impact Factor: 7.80 

https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear  

Published By: Zendo Academic Publishing 

 

 

pg. 43 

TEAMWORK TRIUMPHS: FOSTERING STUDENT DEVELOPMENT 

THROUGH COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN UNIVERSITY PHYSICAL 

EDUCATION 

 

 
Wei Zhang Yang 
Zhejiang Vocational College of Special Educatio, Hangzhou, 310023, Zhejiang, China 

 

Article Info  Abstract 

Keywords: cooperative 

learning, physical education, 

college, pedagogical approach, 

student development 

 

DOI 

10.5281/zenodo.11121109 

 Cooperative learning is a pedagogical approach widely applied in 

various educational contexts, with particular relevance in the domain 

of physical education. This approach's practical value in physical 

education has gained significant recognition. College and university-

level physical education instruction aims to enhance students' physical 

fitness, stimulate their intrinsic motivation for participating in physical 

activities, and thereby promote their holistic development and well-

being. However, several challenges persist in the effective application 

of cooperative learning within the realm of college physical education 

instruction. Enhancing the quality of physical education teaching and 

refining the utilization of cooperative learning pedagogy has emerged 

as a pivotal concern for physical education educators in higher 

education. 
 

 

 

1. Introduction  
The educational model of cooperative learning has been widely used, especially in physical education teaching, 

the practical value of cooperative learning as an educational model has been highlighted. Physical education 

teaching in colleges and universities should improve the physical quality of students, guide students to develop a 

sense of initiative to participate in sports activities, and then promote students' healthy growth and all-round 

development. However, there are certain problems in the application of cooperative learning in college physical 

education teaching, how to improve the quality of college physical education teaching, improve the application 

of cooperative learning education mode, has become a key topic that college physical education teachers need to 

solve.  

2. Problems in the application of cooperative learning in the teaching of physical education in colleges 

and universities  

2.1. Students are not highly motivated  

Physical education teaching courses in colleges and universities are often based on elective courses, due to the 

limitation of the number of physical education courses, some students are not able to take their favourite physical 

education courses. In this context, the enthusiasm and initiative of students to participate in sports teaching 

activities are greatly reduced. At the same time, students in college physical education classes come from different 

classes and different majors. When carrying out sports cooperative learning, due to the unfamiliarity between 

students, resulting in the process of cooperation will often be reluctant to share communication or interpersonal 

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Global Research Journal of Management and Social Sciences (GRJMSS) Vol. 15 (3) 

 

pg. 44 

conflicts and other issues, students and students and students and teachers have not established a close relationship 

of mutual help, which in turn affects the enthusiasm of students to participate in cooperative learning.  

2.2. Students have a weak sense of co-operation  

Due to the high autonomy of students in the college sports classroom, when teachers adopt cooperative learning, 

students tend to combine with their good friends or prefer to cooperate with students with higher levels of sports. 

This leads to a large difference in the level of sports skills between groups, so that students can not get the expected 

results of sports teaching after participating in sports training. The main reason for this phenomenon is that 

students are more self-conscious and lack the awareness of sharing and cooperative learning. Therefore, when 

teachers apply the teaching mode of co-operative learning in the sports classroom, they should follow the grouping 

principle of heterogeneity within groups and homogeneity among groups to ensure that the level of the groups is 

comparable to each other. Through the implementation of varied sports activities, students can form closer bonds 

and develop a sense of mutual support and collaboration, consequently enhancing the quality of cooperative 

learning [1].  

2.3. Teachers' teaching role has not changed  

The application of cooperative learning in college physical education requires that students be the centre of the 

physical education classroom and that students' subjective initiative be brought into play. This requires teachers 

to change their teaching concepts and roles in college sports teaching. However, at present, most college physical 

education teachers do not really recognise the role of teachers in the cooperative learning teaching mode, and still 

use the traditional teaching methods to make students passive in physical education learning. Therefore, teachers 

should change their teaching roles in the cooperative learning mode in a timely manner, and assume the roles of 

organisers, instructors and evaluators of physical education teaching activities, so that students can become the 

protagonists of the physical education classroom.  

3. The path to improve the quality of co-operative learning in sports teaching in colleges and universities  

3.1. Clear sports co-operative learning objectives  

In the application of cooperative teaching mode in college sports teaching, teachers should clarify the learning 

objectives of cooperative learning, to carry out cooperative learning content and cooperative teaching links to 

guide the direction. At the same time, by clarifying the educational objectives of co-operative learning, students 

can also be guided to take the initiative to solve the problems encountered in sports learning, so as to alleviate the 

fear of students in colleges and universities to participate in sports teaching activities. In the application of 

cooperative learning teaching mode in college sports teaching, from the students to participate in sports teaching 

self-confidence and self-esteem, to develop a level of teaching objectives. Therefore, college physical education 

teachers should have a detailed understanding of students' physical fitness and sports level before formulating the 

teaching objectives of co-operative learning, not only to give full play to the personal value of college students, 

but also to enable students to make progress in the process of co-operation.  

For example, when teaching three-step layup in basketball class, teachers should make clear the teaching 

objectives of this lesson. Firstly, students should understand the basic points of three-step layup and master the 

basic skills of three-step layup through this lesson. Secondly, in order to make students understand that basketball 

is a group sport, teachers should guide students to practice the basic skills of three-step layup through cooperative 

learning, and form a sense of co-operation, competition, solidarity and collective honour in the process of applying 

the skills. After clarifying the teaching objectives of co-operative learning, teachers should group the students 

into groups according to their actual learning situation and ability in this lesson, and evenly distribute the students 

with higher, medium and lower levels of three-step layup skills to avoid the phenomenon of large differences in 

the level between groups, enhance the fairness of co-operative learning in basketball, and contribute to the 

cultivation of the spirit of basketball among the students. At the same time, it can also make students in the process 

of group to group confrontation, stimulate the fun of competition, enhance the students' competitive level and 

competitive awareness. Before the formal start of basketball three-step layup teaching, teachers should make 

students understand that this class is to carry out co-operative competitive confrontation activities to stimulate 

students' interest in learning and the spirit of victory, under the role of the spirit of victory, students tend to carry 

out more serious learning, improve students' motivation to learn, but also to ensure the quality of teaching [2].  



Global Research Journal of Management and Social Sciences (GRJMSS) Vol. 15 (3) 

 

pg. 45 

3.2. Selection of co-operative learning mode  

To improve the effectiveness of physical education teaching in colleges and universities, it is crucial to select an 

appropriate cooperative learning mode based on the physical education teaching content and objectives. Modes 

such as peer cooperation, group cooperation, and full cooperation can be considered. Furthermore, optimizing the 

organizational design of cooperative physical education learning should be prioritized.  

First, peer cooperation mode. Peer cooperation mode is a commonly used form of cooperative learning 

organisation in college sports teaching, and compared with other cooperative learning modes, peer cooperation 

mode is easier and freer to organise. Peer co-operation mode is mostly composed of good friends, due to the high 

degree of tacit understanding between good friends, so the application of peer co-operation mode in college sports 

teaching can enhance the teaching effect. For example, in the college sports broadcast gymnastics teaching, the 

teacher in teaching abdominal and back movement, by the students of the teacher taught the movement to learn 

and imitate. After the completion of the study by the students to choose their own learning partners to carry out 

peer co-operation, learning in the process of peer co-operative learning, students correct each other's mistakes, 

and finally show the results of learning together. As the peer cooperative learning mode with the tacit 

understanding and intimate relationship between friends, not only can students enhance the interest of sports 

learning, but also can encourage each other, supervise each other, improve the effect of sports learning, but also 

can make the students in the process of peer cooperative learning to develop the good quality of learning from 

each other.  

Second, group cooperation mode. Group co-operation mode is often used in the form of high school sports 

teaching in large classes, how to improve the quality of group co-operative learning, the teacher should be 

scientific grouping of group members. In order to carry out scientific and effective sports learning grouping, 

teachers should choose the appropriate grouping scheme according to the actual sports teaching content. One is 

to stabilise the grouping pattern. For example, in physical training, teachers can group students according to their 

gender, physical fitness level and previous physical fitness test scores. For example, boys with higher physical 

fitness levels are divided into a group, and those with poorer physical fitness levels are divided into a group, and 

such grouping patterns are used as the learning unit of physical education in this semester. This grouping mode 

makes the physical fitness level of the students in the group, there is not a big difference, but their interest in 

sports learning and sports skills but there is a certain difference, through such a group grouping mode can be 

realised according to the ability to teach. The second is the stage grouping mode. Stage grouping mode refers to 

the stage of group maintenance, teachers can complete a teaching unit after the dissolution or reorganisation of 

the group. Stage grouping mode is more suitable for more targeted sports teaching content, so teachers can be 

based on sports teaching content and sports teaching objectives for students to stage grouping. For example, when 

teaching swimming in colleges and universities, teachers can test students' swimming level and swimming ability, 

and divide them into groups that can swim and groups that are beginners. After the completion of the group 

division, the two groups to implement different teaching strategies and teaching methods, the implementation of 

differentiated teaching and stratified teaching, not only can promote the growth and development of students, but 

also can improve the teaching effect of swimming [3].  

Thirdly, full cooperation mode. Full cooperation mode refers to the teachers and students in high school sports 

teaching to build a cooperative relationship, when students learn sports knowledge or sports skills, through the 

teacher's guidance and help, to improve the students' comprehensive ability, this kind of co-operative learning 

mode is mainly used in the more difficult sports teaching.  

3.3. Determine the form of cooperative learning  

In high school sports teaching, group cooperative learning, group cooperative competition, group cooperative 

realisation is to carry out a variety of forms of cooperative learning teaching mode, teachers can choose the 

appropriate form of learning based on the content of teaching and students' sports level.  

First, group cooperative learning. Group co-operative learning requires students to improve the technical level of 

sports in the form of a group, in the application of group co-operative learning form, the teacher should be based 

on the content of each group, the practice of different content, to develop different learning rules, and by the group 

responsible for the implementation of the learning rules and unified training. In the process of group co-operative 

learning, the group responsible person can supervise the students' sports training, and correct and change the 

students' problems in time.[4]  



Global Research Journal of Management and Social Sciences (GRJMSS) Vol. 15 (3) 

 

pg. 46 

Second, group cooperation competition. Competition teaching mode is the key link in the college sports teaching 

to effectively improve students' sports skills and test students' sports level, by carrying out group cooperation 

competition, organising students to carry out sports confrontation in small groups. Teachers should carry out 

specific planning for the content of group co-operation competitions, and the person in charge of the group 

uniformly leads the students to carry out intra-group competitions or inter-group competitions. After the group 

completes the intra-group competition, the excellent group representatives are selected to carry out inter-group 

competition with other groups, and the teacher and other students evaluate the process and results of the 

competition and select the best athletes. In this process, the teacher should carefully observe each student's sports 

skills application points, and timely technical guidance.  

Thirdly, the form of group co-operation practice. The application of sports skills, the practice of sports skills and 

sports drills are all sports practice activities. Through the group cooperation practice, students are grouped and 

issued with learning tasks, and students practice the learning tasks in groups and summarise the problems arising 

in the process of practice, which can be solved by the group cooperation or consulting the teacher. In the process 

of group co-operation and practice, it can stimulate the students' innovative consciousness and co-operation spirit, 

and improve their sense of responsibility. After completing the learning task, the group will carry out the exercise 

and the teacher will evaluate it, so as to promote the improvement of students' comprehensive quality.[5]  

3.4. Improve the evaluation content of cooperative learning  

Cooperative learning in college sports teaching should take students as the centre of sports teaching classroom, 

at the same time, the teaching evaluation of cooperative learning also affects the quality of students' cooperative 

learning and sports teaching effect. Therefore, by improving the evaluation content of cooperative learning to 

promote the complementarity of strengths between students and the  

value of play, can effectively stimulate students' interest in learning and ability to improve. [6]  

First, teachers should comprehensively grasp the progress of group cooperative learning. For example, through 

frequent movement and careful observation, teachers in the sports classroom are able to understand the learning 

process of each group and identify any issues. They can then provide timely feedback and correction to enhance 

students' cooperative thinking. During the evaluation process, teachers rely on their observations of the group 

cooperative learning to assess the progress. To encourage self-improvement, teachers combine criticism and 

praise to guide students in recognizing their weaknesses and leveraging their strengths. These practices aim to 

boost students' self-confidence and increase their participation in sports teaching. [7]  

Secondly, with the help of multiple evaluation system, students are evaluated comprehensively, changing the 

traditional evaluation method which is mainly based on learning achievements, and making awards such as the 

best co-operation award and sportsmanship award as one of the contents of teaching evaluation, which can 

stimulate students to participate in physical education teaching and learning activities, and at the same time can 

also affirm students' learning achievements.  

4. Conclusion  
In the context of the continuous promotion of educational reform, college physical education teachers should pay 

attention to the application and exploration of cooperative learning as an educational model, start from a new 

perspective, give full play to the value of cooperative learning teaching methods, make clear the educational 

objectives of cooperative learning in physical education teaching, and choose the appropriate cooperative learning 

mode and cooperative learning form according to the actual situation of students and the content of physical 

education teaching, so that students can improve their ability to learn independently and cooperative awareness 

in physical education teaching. Independent learning ability and cooperative consciousness, at the same time, 

teachers should pay attention to the evaluation of cooperative learning, so as to enhance students' learning 

enthusiasm and learning ability, to ensure the effect of physical education teaching.  

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Zhang Rong. Research on the application of co-operative activity learning in college sports teaching[J]. 

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