Enhanced Role Taking Through Cooperative Interdependence: A Field Study

BRIDGEMAN, DIANE L. Enhanced Role Taking through Cooperative Interdependence: A Field Study. CHILD DEVELOPMEFr, 1981, 52, 1231-1238. This study examined the effects of cooperation on role taking and moral reasoning in 120 fifth-grade students. Classrooms using cooperative peer-initiated group learning were compared with other innovative and more traditional teacher-centered methods. Role taking was assessed by using Chandler's cartoon series. Moral reasoning was determined through the use of Kohlberg's moral dilemmas. Role taking was found to be enhanced by cooperative interdependence. Thus intervention-based support was found for Piaget's assumption that cooperative peer exchange promotes perspective taking; it did not, however, affect moral reasoning level.