Advantages of Cooperative Learning: A Systematic Review

Nursing education is responsible for the production of competent nursing staff with the collaborative skills required by the workforce. Nursing recruitment and retention requirements have made nursing education more challenging. Consequently, alternative teaching methods are being explored in nursing education to narrow the gap between workforce requirements and training. This article contains literature review conducted to examine the advantages of cooperative learning. The purpose of this study is to survey the advantages of cooperative learning using articles outlining the advantages of cooperative learning. A literature search with focus on studies published between 2009 and 2018 was undertaken from four electronic databases. Identified articles were pruned with the help of the Prisma (2009) Flow Diagram. Forty-five articles were identified, 15 reviewed and 11 considered eligible for this study. Significant differences were found in favour of cooperative learning, between the various teaching methods in almost all the studies. Additionally, cooperative learning was noted to markedly enhance human development. The studies reviewed concluded that cooperative learning was better than traditional teaching methods like lecture as cooperative learners were noted to display higher achievements and positive social interdependence than their peers from traditional methods. These results are important for both nursing administrators/managers and faculty in planning lessons; hiring and assigning faculty respectively. The implications of this study are that nursing curricula should be designed to incorporate cooperative learning as a means to enhance learning and hiring of nursing faculty should be based on the appropriate display of cooperative learning skills.