EFFECTS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE IN BIOLOGY IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

This study examined the effect of cooperative learning on secondary school students’ attitude in Biology in Aguata LGA of Anambra State. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of cooperative learning on students’ attitude in Biology and the study had two specific objectives. The concept of cooperative learning, attitude gender was explained. Two research questions guided the study as well as two null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. The quasi-experimental research design was used, specifically the pre-test posttest non-randomized control group design. A sample of 118 Senior Secondary School two (SS2) Biology students from Aguata LGA was used in the study. The instrument for data collection was Biology Attitude Scale (BAS) and was validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was established using Crombach Alpha which yielded coefficient of internal consistency of 0.94. Teachers were trained as research assistants and they administered the treatment on the students using the designed lesson plans. The method of data collection was by administering the Biology Attitude Scale (BAS)as pretest and posttest. The data obtained were analyzed using mean gain for answering the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) for testing the null hypotheses. The results revealed among others that there was a significant difference between the mean attitude of students in biology in the cooperative learning group and conventional method in favour of cooperative learning. There was no significant difference in the mean attitude scores of male and female students both in the cooperative learning among other findings. The study recommended among others that biology teachers should adopt cooperative learning to involve students in the learning process actively and make them take more responsibility for their own learning.