The Effects of Cooperative Learning on Pupils' Academic Performance in Mathematics among Grade-V Pupils: Basis For Training Program

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Education is not a preparation for life: education is life itself. (John Dewey). Cooperative learning creates equal opportunities for students to engage in different scholastic activities with the help of their group members. It is very timely to really uplift strengthen pupil's academic performance in Mathematics by learning cooperatively with each other. The focus of concern was to determine whether cooperative learning has effects on the academic performance of the pupils in Mathematics.

METHODS

The study was of a pre and post quasi-experimental design with intact groups using of quantitative methods of data collection. Experimental design involved how the researcher probes into the cause of an effect by exposing one or more experimental group to the intervention. Counterbalance design is an example design in which groups receive all treatments. Each group received the treatments in a different order, and all groups were post-tested after each treatment. Mean, standard deviation and T-Test were used by the researcher.

RESULTS

The respondents in this study were limited to 100 pupils of grade 5 enrolled in Pansin Elementary School for the school year 2016-2017. Comparison of pre-test scores of both the experimental and the control group, reflected that there was no significant difference between the two groups. This indicates that the two groups were almost equal mathematical base at the beginning of the experiment. The obtained T-value (for dependent or correlated means) of both sources of variation (treatment and interaction) was significant at 0.01 levels.

DISCUSSIONS

The results of this study, confirmed that there was big impact of cooperative learning in the learning abilities of the students. Moreover, teachers should also be exposed in different teaching-learning styles involving cooperative learning approaches. Also, in developing more scaffolding while learning Mathematics. As mentioned by Posamentier et al., 2006, "The teaching of Mathematics is not about dispensing rules, definitions and procedures for students to memorize, but engaging students as active participants through discussion and collaboration among students." The academic achievement of the control group and experimental group was examined through a teacher-made post-test. In addition, in-service training courses definitely the main key to rehabilitate mathematics teachers in the area of cooperative learning approaches.