Effect Of Cooperative Learning Strategy On Chemistry Achievement Of Senior Secondary Students In Onueke Education Zone, Ebonyi State

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the impact of cooperative learning strategy on students' chemistry achievement and retention in senior secondary schools within the Onueke Education Zone of Ebonyi State. To address this objective, three research questions and hypotheses were formulated. A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control group design was adopted, involving two groups of students. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select a representative sample of 228 SSII chemistry students from six coeducational government-owned senior secondary schools. Initially, the target population of SSII students across 68 schools was stratified. Subsequently, six public secondary schools were simple randomly drawn from these strata. Finally, 3 schools from these six schools were randomly drawn and used as experimental group while the remaining 3 schools used as the control group. This combined sampling approach ensured both representativeness and controlled experimentation. The experimental group was exposed to cooperative learning strategy, while the control group received traditional lecture-based instruction. Findings revealed that cooperative learning significantly enhanced students' chemistry achievements and retention compared to the traditional lecture method. A chemistry achievement and retention test with a reliability coefficient of 0.97 was used to measure students' achievement and retention before and after treatment (pre/post-treatment). The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results indicated that the cooperative learning strategy was significantly more effective in enhancing students’ achievement and retention compared to the Lecture Teaching Method. This could be attributed to the student’s active engagement due to shared responsibility, peer support, social and communication skills in CLS than in LTM leading to increased motivation, development of critical thinking skills, immediate feedback, and diverse learning styles. It was also observed that within the cooperative learning strategy group, male students had higher mean achievement and retention scores than female students. The findings have important implications for educational practice, presenting cooperative learning as an effective strategy for improving chemistry teaching and learning.