Effectiveness of teaching methods in higher education within an education sustainable development context: a comparison study

Abstract

Traditional education alone is no longer adequate to prepare students for the challenges of a globalized and diverse society within the context of sustainable development. The European Higher Education Area places a strong emphasis on educational methodologies to achieve its goal of fostering the holistic development of university students as competent professionals and responsible citizens and cooperative learning appears to be a more effective methodological approach to address this evolving reality. This study explores whether a collaborative learning approach promotes meaningful learning and skill development among university students. We compared two groups using different learning strategies: traditional and cooperative. The statistical analysis was conducted in two phases. First, a survey was distributed to students in both groups. A t-test was then applied to examine the differences between the two groups. The findings indicate that the cooperative group outperformed the traditional group in terms of motivation, personal skills, and self-assessment confirming that cooperative learning is more effective in developing the skills necessary for a sustainable society.