Chapter 6: Understanding the Effect of Culture on the Pursuit of Multiple Goals, Perception of Learning Conditions and the Quality of Cooperative Learning

In this chapter, we explore the relationships between vocational students’ ethno-cultural background, their goal preferences, their perceptions on the learning conditions and the quality of cooperative learning (CL) processes. We expected immigrant students to have different perceptions on the value of CL compared to their Dutch peers. We explored how students’ salient goals and their perception on the learning conditions influence their engagement in CL and their perception of the quality of the CL learning setting. Ethno-cultural background had no additional direct effect on students’ perception of the quality of CL. However, ethnicity-related variables that are susceptible to educational intervention could be identified. Firstly, students’ perception of their own verbal communication skills influenced students’ perception of the quality of CL. Secondly, we found that social goals play an important role in student engagement in CL as well as in their perceptions of the learning conditions. Students’ appraisals of emotional and academic peer support played a prominent role in their perception of the quality of CL: Mediterranean students were dissatisfied with the availability of academic and emotional support, particularly from teachers.