The effect of cooperative instructional approaches on selected Diaso Senior High School students’ understanding of redox reactions

Abstract

The researcher employed cooperative instructional approaches as alternative teaching approaches involving selected Diaso Senior High chemistry students to determine whether the students would gain understanding of redox reaction content better than their counterparts who did not receive this teaching method. The study was conducted using the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 academic third year students with the 2013/2014 academic year students receiving the traditional lecture method and the 2014/2015 year students receiving the cooperative instructional approach method. The sample size was 64 of which 29 were in the control group and 35 students in the experimental group. The control group was made up of 4 girls and 25 boys and the experimental group was made up of 7 girls and 28 boys. The mean age for both groups was 18.1 years with standard deviation of 1.22. The research design was of the quasi experimental in which mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyse data. Test, interviews and questionnaires were the instruments used to gather data. Percentages of students of experimental group who responded correctly to the test items were compared to percentages of students of control groups who responded correctly to test items. The post-test mean scores of the experimental and control groups were compared to see if there was any difference in their mean scores. It was found that the mean post-test score of the experimental group was higher than the mean post-test score of the control group. The experimental group students‘ learning attitudes towards cooperative instructional approaches were also investigated using a questionnaire. Based on the analysis of the questionnaires, it was found that the experimental group students developed positive attitudes towards cooperative instructional approaches. Based on the findings of this research, it was recommended that the Ghana education service organize workshops to introduce SHS science teachers to cooperative instructional approaches. Additionally, it was suggested that studies be conducted on various aspects of the problem investigation in this study.