EFFECTIVENESS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGY ON BASIC SCIENCE STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN OBIO-AKPOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study determines the impacts of cooperative learning strategy on students’ academic achievement in Basic Science in Rivers State's Obio-Akpor LGA. A total of 104 students in Japanese grade 3 basic science classes participated in the study. Fifty-five students were assigned to the lecture group and taught the process of photosynthesis to them, while the remaining 49 students were split between the experimental and control groups for the purpose of this study. The study used a quasi-experimental design.  Data was gathered using the Basic Science Achievement Test (BSAT). There were 50 multiple-choice questions totaling 50 points. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Test- retest approach. The mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the students' performance. At a.05 level of significance, we employed ANCOVA to test the hypotheses. The results of the research show that cooperative learning encourages greater student engagement. This quality significantly affects the acquisition of knowledge in the field of Basic Science (F (1, 104)=323.10, p<.05). The study recommended allowing science teachers to use cooperative learning techniques to get more students involved in the lab.