Abstract:
This research was designed to investigate the effect of Student Teams Achievement
Divisions (STAD) cooperative learning on students’ performance in the mole concept
among selected senior high schools. The objectives of the study were to determine: the
ideas students have on the mole concept, students’ performance in the mole concept
when taught with STAD cooperative learning, the difference in performance between
the male and female students taught with STAD and the perceptions of the students of
the use of STAD in the chemistry lessons. The quasi-experimental design was adopted
for the study. A simple random sampling and purposive sampling were used to select
two senior high schools for the study. A total of 65 students participated in the
study.Thirty (30) for the control group who were taught the mole concept with the
traditional instructional approach and thirty five (35) for the experimental group who
were taught the same concept with the (STAD) cooperative learning approach. The
instrument that were used to collect data were pre-test, post-test, questionnaires and
interview. The test items were piloted in other schools with similar characteristics as
the research group and the reliability quoefficients were found to be suitable for the
study. The data collected were mainly analysed using central tendencies, frequency
distribution table and t-test. Hypotheses were accepted or rejected at significant level
of 0.05. The results of the study revealed that STAD cooperative learning had
significant impact and enhanced the academic achievement and performance of
students in the mole concept. The results also showed that both the male and female
students performed equally in the mole concept when taught with the STAD
instructional approach.This means that STAD impacted male and female equally in
their study of the mole. It was again revealed by the results of the study that students
have high positive perception of STAD cooperative instructional approach and prefer
it to the traditional instructional approach. The results of this study would be beneficial
to integrated science and chemistry teachers, curriculum planners and developers as
well as policy makers in improving the teaching and learning process and achievement
in the mole concept.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Science Education, Faculty of Science
Education, submitted to the School of
Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Science Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba
NOVEMBER, 2023
