Cooperative learning and social acceptance of children with mild intellectual disability.
Cooperative learning baked into class time lifts typical peers’ acceptance of classmates with mild intellectual disability.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran a randomized trial in regular elementary classes. Some classes added cooperative learning lessons. Others kept their usual routine.
Kids with mild intellectual disability were in every class. After six weeks the researchers asked all students: ‘Who would you like to work with?’ They repeated the question five weeks later.
What they found
Classes that used cooperative learning picked classmates with ID more often. The control classes did not change.
The boost in acceptance showed up right after the program and stayed five weeks later.
How this fits with other research
Katz et al. (2020) extends this idea. They gave every student a mental-health curriculum and saw big gains in social support for kids with developmental disabilities. Same inclusive setting, wider age range, larger payoff.
Ahrens et al. (2011) looks like a contradiction at first. Chinese middle-schoolers doubt the school skills of peers with ID and avoid academic contact. The difference is method: the 2011 study only asked opinions, while Alvarez et al. (1998) actually changed classroom roles through shared tasks. When kids work together, competence becomes visible and acceptance rises.
Laugeson et al. (2014) asked 8- to 11-year-olds why they exclude. Kids said: ‘They’re different.’ Cooperative learning shrinks that gap by giving everyone the same job and the same win.
Why it matters
You can raise peer acceptance without pulling students out. Build short cooperative lessons into the subjects you already teach. Assign mixed groups a clear goal, reward the team only if every member contributes, and watch typical classmates revise their views in as little as six weeks.
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Pick one group activity this week, make the product depend on every member’s input, and praise the team when the student with ID contributes.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The effects of the participation of non-disabled children in a cooperative learning programme on their social acceptance of classmates with mild intellectual disability was examined. A sample of 24 children with mild intellectual disability in the 9-11-year-old age-range was identified from educational psychologists' case records. All of the children were receiving mainstreaming special education programmes at the time of the study. Twelve of the children had previously attended special education classes, while the remainder had always attended regular classes. Half of the children's regular classes were randomly assigned to either receive an experimental cooperative learning programme or to serve as control classrooms. The non-disabled children in the experimental classes showed significant increases in their social acceptance (sociometric ratings) of the children with mild intellectual disability, both immediately following the programme and 5 weeks later, but no such increases were evident in the children in the control classrooms. This pattern held for both the former special class pupils and the children with mild intellectual disability who had never attended special classes. The results confirm the usefulness of cooperative learning strategies for enhancing the social acceptance of children with mild intellectual disability in mainstreaming special educational programmes, regardless of the nature of their previous special educational provisions.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 1998 · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2788.1998.00098.x