The assessment of female students’ perceptions, practices and challenges in cooperative learning: the case of natural science stream of Mettu College of Teacher Education

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to assess perceptions, practices and challenges of female students in cooperative learning (one- in- five) at Mettu College of Teacher Education. To achieve this objective, descriptive case study research method was employed. The subjects of the study were 80 (22 low achievers,34 medium achievers, and 16 high achievers of third year regular female students,6 science and mathematics teachers, 1 vice dean and 1 gender office coordinator).  Stratified  sampling  followed by  Simple  random  sampling  (lottery method) technique was employed to select the sample female students, purposive sampling technique was used to select the college and availability sampling method was employed for teachers, college vice dean and gender office coordinator. To gather the necessary data, questionnaire, focused grouped discussion, interview and document analysis were used. The gathered information was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. The result of the study revealed that there were statistically no significant difference among high, medium and low achievers of female students’ perceptions to cooperative learning and they have  strongly  believed  (M=4.3)  the academic  and  social  emotional  benefits  of cooperative learning (CL) in their teaching learning process. The study also showed that there was statistically significant difference among them in practicing the essential elements that are necessary to construct their effective cooperative learning experiences, with only few top female students, who were competent among the heterogeneous group members had above the expected practices. Whereas, all low achievers and majority of medium achievers of female students were practicing below the ordinary practice to accomplish a common goal and they were highly dominated by active male /female students of the group members. Their challenges  in  CL  were  extremely  related to  themselves  and  their  male student  group members, subject teachers and the college as well.

Keywords: Cooperative learning, Perception, Practice Elements, Challenges