EFFECT OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGY ON STUDENT’S ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN BIOLOGY, IKA SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, DELTA STATE

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of cooperative learning method on student’s achievement in Biology. Three research questions were raised to guide the study and the three were hypotheses. Quasi experimental research design was employed using pre-test/post-test non-equivalent control group design. This study was done in Ika South Local Government of Delta State. Two public mixed senior secondary schools were selected for the study via purpose sampling. Two intact classes were used,one for the experimental and the other for control group.The duration for this study was five weeks. The first week was used for pre-test, Students were taught one biology topic (cell and its environment) for three weeks and cooperative learning method was used in experimental group, while the traditional method group was used in the control group, after which both groups were postedThe instrument for data collection was Biology achievement test (BAT) pre-test was administered before treatment and post-test after treatment using BAT. t –test was employed to test for the hypotheses at 0.05 with the test scores. Biology achievement test was used to measure students achievement it attained a reliability coefficient of 0.78 (N = 20) using test-retest method. Data was analyzed using mean, standard deviation, t-test and  Analysis of Co-variance (ANCOVA)and hypotheses were rejected cooperative learning method perform better than those taught with the traditional method.

The result gotten also, shows there was significant difference between achievers in cooperative learning group having higher mean gain than those in the traditional group.  Gender had no effect on the study Based on the findings, it was concluded that cooperative learning method is a very vital method in the teaching of Biology concept and such teachers should be encourage to use it.