Inclusive education and migrant pupils: interpersonal effects of cooperative goal structures

Abstract

The article discusses the interpersonal effects of cooperative goal structures in classrooms with a large number of immigration background students. A goal structure could be one of the relational patterns that supports the migrant pupils and their classmates to accomplish school-related goals. A cooperative goal structure emphasizes positive interdependence between classmates. The main purpose of the research-invention is to remove the interpersonal barriers and promote better peer relationships between migrant and non-migrant pupils. We measured the cooperative goal structures’ effects through two variables: a) collaborative interaction; b) relational structure. For the collaborative interaction, we observed a positive result. Upon the collaboration offered by migrant students, the analysis yielded a statistically significant effect: Wilks Lambda = .80, F (2, 68) = 4.43, p <.001. With regard to the received collaboration, the outcome was: Wilks Lambda = .73, F (2, 64) = 11.37, p <.0005. As to the second variable, the study showed the improvement of the mutual relationship between migrant and non-migrant students and the overall increase of social density index in the classrooms. The paper proposes a new direction of development: integrating different levels of schoolbooks linguistic complexity within cooperative goal structures . Two methods can facilitate the control of linguistic complexity: the computing of linguistic indexes and text-layering . Both methods can help educators to scaffold reading difficulty levels for diverse students.