Abstract
Cooperative learning strategies have the tendency to enhance the academic strength of learners. In this paper, the independent variable, type of cooperative strategy, included three levels: Jig-Saw, Think-Pair-Share, and Brainstorming. The dependent variable was the students’ individual mathematics achievement scores and the covariate was the students’ group score when the cooperative strategy was used. A preliminary analysis that sought to assess the homogeneity-of-regression assumption indicated that the relationship between the covariate and the dependent variable did not differ significantly as a function of the independent variable, F (2, 81) =.045, p =.956. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the three covariates to one score factor for ANCOVA procedure. A significant relationship was found between academic achievement score with respect to a cooperative strategy used and the individual academic achievement scores, F (2, 83) = 249.030, p <. 05. About 86% of the total variance in individual mathematics achievement score was accounted for by the three levels of cooperative strategy controlling for the students’ academic group scores. Jigsaw cooperative strategy (Mean: 3.4, SE: 0.068, p < 0.01) had the most impact on individual achievement in mathematics with students obtaining an average grade of B+. The findings also showed from the PCA that the mathematics achievement scores of the group treated with Jig-Saw cooperative strategy explained most (about 39%) of the total variance, followed by Think-Pair-share with the least being Brainstorming. Explained in another way, when students use Jig-saw learning strategy in Mathematics, their individual academic potentials are enhanced well than when Think-Pair-Share or Brainstorming is used. It is therefore recommended for Jig-saw strategy to be the preferred strategy for learning when mathematics teachers seek to improve deep learning and problem solving among students.
Highlights
Cooperative learning allows students to develop their critical thinking, analytical and communication skills among other skills which tend to promote active learning [1]
Little attention seems to have been paid to the role cooperative and collaborative learning strategies play in Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies 2021; 6(1): 28-32 learning of Mathematics Adams [11], used Jigsaw cooperative learning strategy to improve upon the academic achievement of Basic six pupils of Holy Child Practice Primary School in Ghana
Two hundred and fifty-two (252) randomly selected students were randomly assigned to 3 groups (84 students per group) which were treated with Jig-Saw, Think-pair-share, and Brainstorming Cooperative strategies after posing a problem
Summary
Cooperative learning allows students to develop their critical thinking, analytical and communication skills among other skills which tend to promote active learning [1]. Mathematics teachers in their quest to improve learner performance and achievements in the field of mathematics have conducted a number of works in recent years that identified instructional strategies which tend to improve students’ academic achievement in Mathematics [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Cooperative learning strategies have been proven to improve both group and individual academic achievement of students in Mathematics. The results indicated that while cooperative learning was beneficial when learning under problem solving conditions
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