Cooperative learning and performance in Biology of non-Science major students

Abstract

This study tried to show the positive effect of cooperative learning on the performance in Biology of the eighty education students over the eight weeks of instruction at Capiz State University, Main Campus. A pre-test-post-test control group design was used with the intact groups of two sections who are Filipino major. Forty students in each section served as the subjects of the study. One section was exposed to the teaching of Biology integrating learning together strategy while the other section was not exposed to such strategy instead of lecture-based teaching was employed. Data were gathered through the use of a validated 50-item performance test. In the pre-test, both the experimental and the control groups had “satisfactory” performance in biology. In the post-test both the experimental and the control groups had “very satisfactory” performance, with the experimental one getting a higher mean score as compared to the control group. For the test of difference in the pretest performance of both groups, there was a significant difference in favour of the control group and for the post-test performance, a significant difference was found out in favour of the experimental group, hence, cooperative learning had contributed much to the improved performance of the experimental group.