COOPERATIVE LEARNING AS A DEMOCRATIC AWARENESS METHOD IN VALUE EDUCATION

School promotes the moral-cognitive development of the individual and creates the democratic competence of society as a whole. Cooperative learning is a technique for teaching democratic processes through direct experiences. One of the main aims of the comprehensive educational reform in Georgia is to contribute to the democratic development of the country and its future for European integration. The National Plan of Public Schools stated new concepts to moderate educational standards. In various countries cooperative learning has become a widely used instructional procedure in all subject areas. There has never been a research of the effectiveness of cooperative learning at schools in Georgia. This research explores the role of cooperative learning for awareness of democratic values such as self-esteem, responsibility and interdependence. 551 eighth grade students from 16 different classrooms participated in the research. The classrooms were selected randomly as the experimental group and the control group. In the experimental group cooperative learning was employed, while in the control group traditional lecture-based teaching. The subjects were chosen randomly, Chemistry and Georgian language. The experiment was completed within a three term period. For conducting survey there were used some instruments for each variable: Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Questionnaire and Janis-Field Feeling of Inadequacy scale; The Intellectual Achievement Responsibility (IAR) Questionnaire; Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal (RISC) Test; The Scientific Attitude (SAI) Inventory. As an experiment shows, results vary significantly between cooperative learning and traditional group. Results demonstrated that cooperative learning increased students' performance in both subjects and students scored significantly higher on all variables such as self-esteem, responsibility and interdependence, hence cooperative learning has a positive effect on value teaching.