Utilisation of co-operative instructional approaches to improve the process skills of selected Osei Kyeretwie Senior High School Biology Students

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to give suggestions to improve the process skills of selected senior high school students in Osei Kyeretwei Senior High School, Kumasi through the use of cooperative instructional approaches. The study was an action research that used fifty, third year elective science students out of the total of two thousand students in the school based on purposive sampling procedure. The sampled students were further divided into ten groups with five members each through simple random sampling technique. A series of practical activities were conducted to find out the students level of understanding of the process skills before cooperative instructional approaches were used as an intervention. The results revealed that there was an improvement in the performance of the students as well as their content knowledge in science process skills after the intervention. This proves that cooperative learning is an effective instructional strategy for improving students‟ performance in process skills. It is therefore appropriate that science teachers prepare their science instructions such that equal opportunities are given to all students under their care. As a result there is a need for teacher educational institutions to reinforce cooperative instructional approaches in the science teaching and learning in their science lessons.