The Contribution of Using Cooperative Learning Methods on Students’ Achievement and Retention in Secondary Schools during Chemistry Lesson

Abstract

This investigation was made necessary as a result of the inconsistently poor achievement that secondary school students have repeatedly achieved on chemistry exams in Nekemte Administration Town throughout the years. These poor results can be credited with the reality that the majority of secondary school teachers use ineffective teaching strategies that do not encourage students’ active learning through involvement. Therefore, this investigation examined the contribution of cooperative learning on high school students’ chemistry achievement and retention. Quasi-experimental research with a pretest–posttest nonequivalent control group design was adopted. One hundred twenty-eight students were involved, drawn from two intact classes in two different schools. A reliability value of 0.89 for the chemistry achievement test was employed. The findings of this investigation demonstrated a significant difference between students instructed through cooperative learning and students instructed using lecture-based teaching in terms of their chemistry achievement and retention (t (126) = 5.544, p<0.001) and (t (126) = 4.167, p<0.001), respectively. Pretest, posttest, and retention test results of the treatment group showed a significant difference that favors the posttest (r = 0.91, p<0.001) and retention test (r = 0.81, p<0.001). Gender differences did not exist in chemistry achievement (t (62) = −1.243, p<0.001) and retention (t (62) = −1.036, p<0.001).