David W. Johnson (born 1940 in Muncie, Indiana) is a social psychologist whose research has focused on four overlapping areas: cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts; constructive controversy; conflict resolution and peer mediation and experiential learning to teach interpersonal and small group skills. Johnson has developed and applied psychological knowledge in effort to improve practices within educational systems. Johnson's books have been translated into 20 different languages and his work has been applied in many countries.
Early life and education He grew up in a family of seven children, living for several years on a family farm. Currently, he lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from Ball State University in 1962, received a master's degree and a doctoral degree in social psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1964 and 1966 respectively, with Morton Deutsch as his dissertation advisor.
Career Since 1966 he has worked at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Educational Psychology, becoming a full professor in 1973. His brother Roger Johnson came to the University of Minnesota in 1969 and together they founded the Cooperative Learning Center.
Social interdependence theory, cooperation, and appropriate competition
Johnson began his work on social interdependence theory and the appropriate use of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts in the mid-1960s. At that time, elementary, secondary, and university teaching was dominated by competitive and individualistic learning.Johnson, D.W & Johnson R.T. (2008) Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning: The Teacher's Role. In Gillies, R.B., Ashman A.F. & Terwel J. (Eds.) The Teacher's Role in Implementing Cooperative Learning in the Classroom(pp.9–37)New York, US:Springer Social Darwinism, with its premise that students must be taught to survive in a "dog-eat-dog" world dominated educational thought, although it was being challenged by individualistic learning largely based on B. F. Skinner's work on programmed learning and behavioral modification. In the 60's and 70's, while cooperative learning was generally ignored by educators, Johnson challenged the prevailing competitive and individualistic practices by presenting the theory and research on cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning, creating operational procedures for cooperative learning and appropriate competition, and implementing cooperative learning in schools and universities.
Research review Johnson's first published review of the research on cooperation and competition appeared in 1970 in his book, The Social Psychology of Education.Johnson, David W. (1970)The Social Psychology of Education. Oxford, England: Holt, Rinehart & Winston This was followed by a more comprehensive review, with his brother Roger, published in the Review of Educational Research in 1974Johnson, D.w. & Johnson R.T. (1974)Instructional goal structure: Cooperative, competitive, or individualistic.Review of Educational Research.44(2),213-240 and the editing of a special issue of the Journal of Research and Development in Education in 1978.Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. T.(1978) Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning.Journal of Research & Development in Education. Vol.12(1), pp. 3–15 In 1981 and 1983 he pioneered the use of meta-analysis in publishing reviews of the impact of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic on achievement/productivityJohnson, D. W., Maruyama, G., Johnson, R., Nelson, D. & Skon, L. (1981) Effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goal structures on achievement: A meta-analysis Psychological Bulletin. Vol.89(1), pp. 47–62. and on interpersonal attraction.Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. & Maruyama, G (1983) Interdependence and interpersonal attraction among heterogeneous and homogeneous individuals: A theoretical formulation and a meta-analysis of the research. Review of Educational Research. Vol.53(1), pp. 5–54. In 1989 he and his brother published a book, Cooperation and Competition: Theory and Research,Johnson, D.W. & Johnson, R. T.(1989) Cooperation and competition: Theory and research.Edina, MN, US: Interaction Book Company. which contained a series of meta-analyses (currently being revised with updates)on many of the dependent variables relevant to Social Interdependence Theory.
Extension of theory Social interdependence theory was originally formulated by Morton Deutsch in 1949. While Deutsch created the basic structure of theory, many of its implications were left unexplored and several of its assumptions were unchallenged. In his research, Johnson explicated the conditions underlying effective cooperation and constructive competition. In the 1989 meta-analysis book, the breath of social interdependence theory was extended to a wider range of outcomes and the internal dynamics of effective cooperation were more clearly delineated. More recently, in 2003, Johnson published a review of Social Interdependence Theory in the American Psychologist,Johnson, D.W. (2003) Social Interdependence: Interrelationships Among Theory, Research, and Practice. American Psychologist. Vol 58(11), Nov 2003, 934-945. and in 2005 he and his brother published an update of the theory in Psychological MonographsJohnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. (2005) New Developments in Social Interdependence Theory.Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs. Vol.131(4), pp. 285–358.
Program of research Over the past 40 years, in collaboration with his brother and colleagues, Johnson has published over 100 research studies on the impact of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts on a wide variety of outcomes, including achievement and productivity,Bertucci, A., Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T. & Conte, S. (2012) Influence of group processing on achievement and perception of social and academic support in elementary inexperienced cooperative learning groups. The Journal of Educational Research. Vol.105(5), pp. 329–335. higher-level reasoning,Gabbert, B., Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. T. (1986) Cooperative learning, group-to-individual transfer, process gain, and the acquisition of cognitive reasoning strategies. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied. Vol.120(3), pp. 265–278. motivation,Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. T. (1986) Mainstreaming and cooperative learning strategies. Exceptional Children. Vol.52(6), pp. 553–561. perspective-taking,Johnson, D. W. (1975) Cooperativeness and social perspective taking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol.31(2), pp. 241–244. social development,Johnson, R. T. & Johnson, D. W. (1983) Effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning experiences on social development. Exceptional Children. Vol.49(4), pp. 323–329. social skills,Mesch, D., Lew, M., Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. (1986) Isolated teenagers, cooperative learning, and the training of social skills. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied. Vol.120(4), pp. 323–334. interpersonal attraction (among relatively homogeneous individuals, individuals from different ethnic and cultural groups, and handicapped and nonhandicapped individualsJohnson, R. T., Johnson & D. W.(1982) Effects of cooperative and competitive learning experiences on interpersonal attraction between handicapped and nonhandicapped students.The Journal of Social Psychology. Vol.116(2), pp. 211–219.), social support,Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1983). Social interdependence and perceived academic and personal support in the classroom. Journal of Social Psychology, 120, 77–82. self-esteem,Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T. & Taylor, B. (1993) Impact of cooperative and individualistic learning on high-ability students' achievement, self-esteem, and social acceptance. The Journal of Social Psychology. Vol.133(6), pp. 839–844 and psychological health.James, N. L. & Johnson, D. W. (1983) The relationship between attitudes toward social interdependence and psychological health within three criminal populations. The Journal of Social Psychology. Vol.121(1), pp. 131–143. He conducted a program of research to identify the factors that mediate the impact of cooperation, such as positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, social skills, and group processing. In addition, he has conducted a series of studies identifying the conditions under which competition results in constructive outcomes.Tjosvold, D., Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R.T. & Sun, H. (2006) Competitive motives and strategies: Understanding constructive competition. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice. Vol.10(2), pp. 87–99.
Implementation In the mid-1960s Johnson began training educators in the use of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning. While the theory existed and was validated, the procedures for structuring cooperation were largely unspecified. Johnson developed such procedures for teachers, specifying three types of cooperative learning: formal cooperative learning (students work together to achieve a joint learning goal for a major part of one class period to several weeks), informal cooperative learning (students work to achieve a joint learning goal in temporary, ad-hoc groups that last for a few minutes), and cooperative base groups (students work together to achieve joint goals in a long-term group lasting from a semester to several years).
Additionally, he has developed procedures for administrators leading "cooperative schools": collegial teaching teams, school-based decision-making and cooperative faculty meetings. These procedures appeared in his books, Learning Together and Alone: Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic Learning (first published in 1975 and now in its fifth edition),Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1999). Learning together and alone: Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon) Cooperation in the Classroom (first published in 1984 and now in its eighth edition),Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Holubec, E. (2008) Cooperation in the classroom (8th ed.). Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company and Leading the Cooperative School (first published in 1989 and now in its second edition).Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. T. (1994)Leading the Cooperative School Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company Overall, he has written 33 other books for teachers, professors, and administrators on how to use cooperative learning. These books include those written for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and for ASHE-ERIC. Johnson's books and training materials have provided guidance for using cooperation to educators all over the world.
Finally, to ensure that the operational procedures were actually used, David and Roger Johnson founded the Cooperative Learning Center at the University of Minnesota in the early 1970s and established a network of school districts that conducted multi-year efforts to implement cooperative learning and the cooperative school. Additionally, a network of staff development leaders (employed by school districts) have committed themselves to the long-term implementation of cooperative learning.
Nowadays, cooperative learning is a valued instructional procedure at all levels of education.Sharan, Y. (2010)Cooperative Learning for Academic and Social Gains: valued pedagogy, problematic practice.European Journal of Education, Vol. 45, No. 2, Part I Cooperative Learning Centers have been established in many countries around the world, as the Hong Kong Cooperative Learning Center, which had Johnson conduct a seven-year project to train faculty from all seven Hong Kong universities and many mainland universities in the use of cooperative learning. Cooperative Learning Centers can be found in Shanghai, Japan, Cyprus, Norway, Italy, and at multiple places in the United States and Canada.
Constructive controversy