The effect of Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD) cooperative learning on Senior High School students’ performance in the mole concept

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.