Raising Mathematical Achievement and Retention Through Co-Operative Learning Strategies (Stad and Tai)

Abstract

The aim of co-operative learning for learners is to maximize their own and each other’s learning, with members striving for joint benefit. Co-operative learning due to its influential aspects is the most prevalent teaching-learning technique in the modern world. Therefore as a prelude, the investigators aimed at studying the effect of co-operative learning strategies i.e. Team Assisted Individualisation (TAI) and Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) on the Mathematics achievement and retention among ninth graders at two levels of intelligence. This is an experimental study with 3x2 factorial design. Students of ninth standard of the schools affiliated to Haryana Board in Rohtak city situated in Haryana State of India constituted the population of the study.  144 students of ninth standard with high and low intelligence selected through multi-stage random sampling technique were taken as a sample for the study out of which 52 students taught through TAI formed Experimental group-1 (E₁ ); 46 students taught through STAD formed Experimental Group-2(E₂) and 46 students taught through conventional method of teaching formed control  group(C ). Sample of the students were also equated on the basis of socio-economic status and achievement in the subject concerned. The investigators applied General Intelligence Test (GIT) by S. M. Mohsin and Socio-Economic Status Scale Questionnaire (SESSQ) by S.D. Kapoor to measure the intelligence and the socio-economic level of students respectively. Achievement test in Mathematics developed and standardized by the investigators was used to assess the achievement of the subjects. Lesson plans, Worksheets, Check-outs and Formative tests were developed for both the strategies TAI and STAD separately to carry out the teaching and learning process in all the three groups for ten weeks only. At the end of the experiment, achievement test in Mathematics was given to the subjects. After a gap of twenty days, achievement test was again administered on the same students of all the three groups to assess the retention of learned material. Data were analyzed by using ANOVA and t-test to determine the performance by comparing the mean scores of all the groups. Data analysis revealed that experimental group-1 and experimental group-2 outscored significantly the control group on post-test showing the obvious supremacy of co-operative learning over conventional method of teaching. However, it was also revealed that students taught through TAI showed significant improvement in their achievement as well as retention in Mathematics than the students taught through STAD. Further, high and low intelligent students taught through co-operative learning strategies TAI and STAD performed and retained better than their counterparts taught through conventional method of teaching. Hence, the ultimate result of the study indicated that co-operative learning was more effective instructional paradigm for mathematics as compared to conventional method of teaching. Furthermore, co-operative learning appeared favourable for both high intelligent and low intelligent students but low intelligent students benefitted more when they taught through co-operative learning strategies. It was concluded that co-operative learning is an effective approach which need to be incorporated in teaching Mathematics.