Effect of Cooperative Learning Strategies on Students’ Critical Thinking Skills; Interpretation and Analysis at Higher Secondary Level

Abstract

The study was conducted to find out the effect of cooperative learning strategies on students’ skill of interpretation and analysis at the higher secondary level. The research was quantitative. A pre-test post-test control group design was adopted for the study. One female public sector higher secondary school of district Sargodha was the population of the study. 60 students of grade XI were selected as a sample by using a simple random sampling technique. Two groups were formed: experimental and control comprising thirty students each. The experimental group was taught by applying cooperative learning strategies; jigsaw and scripted cooperation, while the conventional method was used to teach the control group. The period of intervention was sixteen weeks and English book I for grade XI was selected as content for intervention. A self-made test was used to assess the skills of interpretation and analysis as pretest and posttest. Data of pretest and posttest were analyzed by applying paired sample t-test. Analysis of the data showed a significant difference between pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group. On the other hand, there was no significant improvement seen in the control group. Teachers were recommended to use cooperative learning strategies to develop the critical thinking skills of the students.