Using cooperative teaching and learning approach to improve students’ attitudes and achievement in biology_a case study of Tamale Business Senior High School in the Northern Region of Ghana

Abstract

The study sought to improve the attitudes and achievement of Home Economics students in Biology through cooperative teaching and learning approach. The study used action research design. A sample of 66 S H S Home Economics Students was selected from Business Senior High School for the study. Data for the study were collected using questionnaire and tests. The questionnaire sought response on Home Economics students‟ attitude towards Biology. Two tests thus; pre and post-tests were administered before and after intervention respectively to determine the academic achievement of the students in Biology. Descriptive statistics was used to organise the data from the questionnaire into means and standard deviations whiles percentages were also expressed from the responses. A paired t-test statistic was used to establish the significance of the Cooperative approach on students‟ academic achievement. Results from the questionnaire before the intervention demonstrated that Home Economics students indicated poor attitudes towards biology since a significant number of the students‟ responses revealed mean values indicating attitudes and the pre-test also revealed poor performance of the students. The post-intervention findings indicated positive attitudes and a significantly improved performance of the students. It is recommended among other things that cooperative teaching and learning should be employed in teaching Biology at SHSs to help instil positive attitudes in students by addressing the various factors responsible for poor attitudes towards the subject. Implementation of Cooperative approach should help teachers identify the weakness of students and address them to improve their academic achievement.