PROJECT INFORMATION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Cooperative learning activities are carefully structured learning activities in which students are held accountable for their contribution, participation and learning. Students are also provided incentives to work as team in teaching others and learning from others (Slavin, 2000). Though cooperative learning model is attracting worldwide attention of researchers in education, very few studies could be found in the previous research literature relating to the subject of social studies especially in Pakistan. The researcher could trace only one study conducted by Hawkins et al (1998) who found cooperative learning to be effective for teaching Social Studies to 8th class. This gap in knowledge about usefulness or otherwise of this model of teaching needed to be bridged up by further research at different levels of education.The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of cooperative learning on social studies achievement among 8th class students. In this study, cooperative learning means to work and learn in groups and obtain the results on the basis of group performance.
With every indication shown in the background, students perform better with cooperative learning than they do with alternative forms of instruction in this study we will also explore to see on students of basic technology at ONELGA Rivers State, Nigeria.
1.2 Statement of Thesis Problem
The study of basic technology introduce in the year 2007, by the Universal Basic Education scheme, with a desire to achieve what could not be realized through introductory technology. Most of the teachers of introductory technology and other workshop staff are used to implement basic technology. According to James Amobe, (2010), students cannot learn and archive new skills on one self, knowledge share among mates and others are the basic of learning and achieving greatly mostly in technological subjects, neither will the students develop positive attitudes within his or her ability. Therefore the problem of this study, is to ascertain the effects of cooperative learning on the academic achievement of student in basic technology, which the researcher will conduct and comparatively analyze the effects of cooperative learning after a successful study on ONELGA Rivers State secondary school students in basic technology.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
In summary, this thesis is to study andanalyze the effects of cooperative learning on academic achievement of secondary students on basic technology, and to study the correlation between cooperative learning and academic achievement. Other research objectives are listed below as follows:
1. To expose the experimental group to cooperative learning for teaching of basic technology in secondary education.
2. To measure the achievement of the cooperative learning group over the othermethod of learning after teaching.
3. To find out differences in achievement of experimental and control group.
4. To analyze the difference in academic achievement of students in cooperative learning group in basic technology and control group.
5. Find out amongthe means learning, theone students appreciate more with understanding.
1.4 Significance of the Study
This thesis will present in a precise manner, the importance of cooperative learning over othersin learning.It is believed that the findings of this research work should provide detailed information on the effects of cooperative learning methods in obtaining a high student achievements and performance. It is also expected that the study will benefit teachers, basic technology students, researchers and the society in general.
The findings of the study should be useful to teachers. It is expected that the findings will expose thebasic technology teachers to the importance of teaching using cooperative learning method other various method in place. By this exposure the teachers could acknowledge the advantage cooperative learning over the conventional learning method which is teacher centered. It is possible that by this outcome the basic technology teachers would realistically adjust to the application of cooperative learning in achieving greater goals in academic. In turn, the students would have real focus for better performance and achievements in their studies.
Subsequently, it will go a long way to enhance the basic technology students' effectiveness in the society by being capable of carrying out what they have learned, thereby contributing to the building up of the society at the local, national and international levels.
The research will also be beneficial to the researcher. This is because the study will expose the researcher to so many related areas in the course of carrying out his research. This will enhance the researcher's experience, knowledge and understanding on cooperative learning in teaching.
1.5 Research Question
The research work is guided with same research question, which will be administered and distributed among the researchers area of study which are the respondents to this research thesis and these comprise students and staff of basic technology subject within the selected schools. Sample research question are:
1. What teaching and learning methods are used frequently in basic technology among the teachers of basic technology?
2. Is there any significant different in you when you study cooperatively than other methods within yourself based on the level of understand and comprehension?
3. What method of learning do you appreciate and understand more when used?
1.6 Hypothesis
The researcher formed some of the hypothesis which will be tested to support this study. The hypothesis will be tested at 0.05 level of significance using the t-test method and correlation analysis.
The research hypothesis are as follows.
Hypothesis 1: Students who are taught by learning together will have greater achievement in the basic technology than those taught through lecture-based teaching.
Hypothesis 2: There is significant correlation on cooperative learning and student academic achievement.
1.7 Limitation of the Study
Due to time constrain, this thesis should have covered a whole section of the student academic study, but was shorten to a period of eight (8) weeks of study which is for a term, also this research thesis is limited to the study of basic technology subject of the JSS students in ONELGA Rivers State of Nigeria. The study will be restricted to only schools (junior secondary school) where basic technology are taughtin ONELGA Rivers State which four schools are selected from the eight schools which were found offering the subject basic technology.
1.8 Scope of the Study
This thesis will cover four schools purposively selected for the course of this thesis from ONELGA, Rivers State, Nigeria and this study is on effect of cooperative learning on academic achievement of secondary school students in basic technology.
1.9 Definition of Terms
Cooperative learning: Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject.
Academic achievement: Academic achievement refers to a student's success in meeting short- or long-term goals in education. In the big picture, academic achievement means completing high school or earning a college degree. In a given semester, high academic achievement may mean a student is on the honor roll.
Conventional Learning: Often the focus of learning in conventional approaches is giving students a lecture or an article to read and then set standardized questions based upon the information given. The expected solutions to the questions are usually limited to the information given to students. Typically then, solutions are pre-determined by the teacher and are linked to narrowly set context-specific learning objectives.
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