Cooperative learning strategy towards effective teaching and learning of chemical bonding

Abstract

This study investigated the use of cooperative learning strategy towards effective teaching and learning of chemical bonding. The action research approach and case study research design were used. The accessible population was 72 students was the sample 26 students comprising all form two science students at Boso Senior high technical school. A pre-test was administered to all the students followed by interviews to know their prior conceptions, misconceptions, and causes of their misconceptions on chemical bonding. After that, the cooperative learning strategy was used as an intervention to solve the problems the students had on the topic followed by administration of post-test to all the students. Paired sample t-test was used to analyze the pre-test and the post-test to find out whether there was a significant difference in students’ academic performance. From the paired sample t-test it was found that the t-statistics (14.748) was greater than the t-critical (2.060) which means there was a statistically significant difference in students’ academic performance. This shows that students performed better in the post-test as compared to the pre-test and the cooperative learning strategy had a greater effect on the students. After that, the results from the post-test were grouped into males and females and an unpaired sample t-test was used to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference between the performance of males and females when the intervention was employed. From the unpaired sample t-test, t-statistics (1.207) was less than t-critical (2.064), which means there was no statistically significant difference. It is therefore recommended that teachers should use a cooperative learning strategy to effectively teach chemical bonding, which will help eliminate misconceptions, improve the understanding of students and establish gender