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The Effects on Students' Cognitive Achievement When Using the Cooperative Learning Method in Earth Science Classrooms
Author(s) -
Chang ChunYen,
Mao SongLing
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
school science and mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.135
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1949-8594
pISSN - 0036-6803
DOI - 10.1111/j.1949-8594.1999.tb17497.x
Subject(s) - mathematics education , comprehension , cognition , achievement test , psychology , significant difference , cooperative learning , test (biology) , control (management) , science education , teaching method , mathematics , computer science , biology , standardized test , statistics , ecology , neuroscience , programming language , artificial intelligence
This study investigated the effects of cooperative learning instruction versus traditional teaching methods on students' earth science achievement in secondary schools. A total of 770 ninth‐grade students enrolled in 20 sections of a required earth science course participated in this nonequivalent control group quasi‐experiment. The control groups ( n = 10) received a traditional approach, while the experimental groups ( n = 10) used cooperative strategies. Study results include (a) no significant differences were found between the experimental groups and the control groups when overall achievement ( F = 0.13, p > .05), knowledge‐level ( F = 0.12, p > .05), and comprehension‐level ( F = 0.34, p > .05) test items were considered; and (b) students who worked cooperatively performed significantly better than students who worked alone on the application‐level test items ( F = 4.63, p < .05). These findings suggest that cooperative‐learning strategies favor students' earth science performance at higher but not lower levels of cognitive domains in the secondary schools.