EFFECTS OF JIGSAW IV COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION, RETENTION AND PERFORMANCE IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY IN ZARIA, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

1.1Introduction

The relevance of science to national goals, aspirations and economy dictates to a large extent, the huge commitment and support which nations make and give to science and technology advancement. This may be the reason why Achor (2006) and Ada (2008) opined that as a result of the speed at which the world is changing technologically, the need and usefulness of teaching and learning of science therefore cannot be over looked. The classification of any nation into developed, developing and underdeveloped could be measured accurately by the number of chemists, physicists, engineers, pharmacists, doctors, agriculture and science educators the nation could produce (Agogo, 2009, Maduawesi, Aboho & Okwuedei, 2010).

In Nigeria, the three major sciences, Biology, Chemistry and Physics are taught at the senior secondary school level. These major science subjects equip the young secondary school graduates with skills, attitudes, knowledge as pre-requisites abilities to function effectively in their future carriers at the tertiary level. According to the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2013) Chemistry Education should be emphasized at the secondary school in terms of its teaching and learning. This is because; chemistry as an academic discipline plays a very significant role in unifying other science subjects. Chemistry as an aspect of science studies the composition, properties and uses of matter (Ababio, 2007). Okeke and Ezekannagba (2000) also defined chemistry as a branch of science that deals with composition and changes of matter. Chemistry could therefore be seen as the science

and composition of matter and the changes in which matter undergoes. It probes into the changes that matter undergoes under different conditions.

Chemistry is everywhere; Chemistry is life; because it investigates the world around us and has contributed greatly towards providing us with basic needs of life such as food, clothing materials, housing materials, drugs, transportation, fertilizers, insecticides, and so on (Oloyede, 2010; Opara & Waswa, 2013; Ababio, 2007). Despite the key role of Chemistry as the central science that forms the basic foundation to many disciplines and in improving the quality of life, the performance of Nigeria secondary school students in the subject has for many years remained a matter of a serious concern (Jegede, 2010; Oloyede, 2010).

In addition, a study revealed that there is consistent decline in the performance of students in public examinations conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) in sciences across the country over the years (Samba & Eriba, 2012). WAEC also confirmed this decline in performance in Chemistry by WAEC Chief Examiner‟s Reports (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017). This poor performance of students in Chemistry is due to some multifaceted factors. According to Usman (2010) and Abdullahi (2015), the factors that negatively affect Chemistry performance include students‟ lack of interest, poor study habit and teacher-related factors, like teachers‟ poor preparation, inadequately qualified Chemistry teachers and application of poor teaching methods. This situation has spurred research in Science Education and Educational Psychology to investigate the ways in which science students would learn science through meaningful interaction in a rich classroom environment.

Several teaching strategies have been advocated for use in science and mathematics classrooms, ranging from teacher-centered approach to more students-centered ones (Zakari & Iksan, 2007). One of such methods according to Oloruko-oba, (2001) is Cooperative Learning Strategy. Maden, (2011) defined cooperative learning strategy as a form of instructional method, which requires students to work collaboratively in small groups by helping each other to learn a given task. Alternatively, cooperative learning is further defined as a type of student-centered teaching where a group of students work together to achieve a common goal (Gumel, 2015). Cooperative learning is a process in which students create, analyze and apply concepts. Here, students learn lifelong concepts that will be useful both inside and outside the school. They work as a team, combining their knowledge and social skills. Students are often placed in both homogeneous and heterogeneous groups and asked to accomplish a common goal. Each team member is assigned part of the content to be learnt and is not only responsible for their learning, but the other group members‟ learning as well. Students work until each group member successfully understands all concepts and then the assignment is completed (Timayi, Bolaji & Kajuru,2015)

The idea of cooperative learning according to Oloruko-oba (2001) is based on the premise that an individual can only achieve his/her goals, if the other members of the group with whom he/she work together with, can equally attain their goals. Johnson and Johnson (2009) also reported that cooperative learning results in a greater effort for improving the academic performance of students, more positive interpersonal relationships and greater psychological health than competitive or individual learning effort. The use of cooperative learning strategy as a paradigm shift from the traditional or chalk and talk to collaborative interaction, student-centered mode of learning and teaching. In other words cooperative learning strategy represents a change from individual learning to social learning (Zakariah & Iksan, 2007). In regard to the foregoing, several model of cooperative learning strategies had been advocated, one of which is Jig-saw Cooperative Learning Model.

Jigsaw is a cooperative learning models that was developed by Elliot Aronson and his colleagues in 1978. This is one of the learning strategies under cooperative learning in which, the content of the lesson is subdivided into different parts of information and then given to groups of students who would later explain to each other their parts and results in the whole jigsaw puzzle to be completed (Aronson 2008). In Jig-saw technique, students are divided into small groups of 5-6 known as the Jigsaw groups, and the concept to learn is broken into segments. Each student in the Jigsaw group is assigned a segment to specialize on as all students with same topic or segment form the expert groups. After the session, they reconvene in their Jig-saw groups where each expert explains his/her topic to other member of the Jig-saw group after which they take up quiz individually without help or assistance from the other group members. The scores of the individual members are summed up to form the group scores which are used to reward the best group (Achor & Wude, 2014).

In Science Education, the Jigsaw method is reported to be used in classes more often than other collaborative learning methods, especially in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and the Earth sciences. This is because the Jigsaw method is considered to enhance cooperative learning by making each student focus on a particular topic (Johnson, & Johnson, 2009). This study investigates the effect of Jigsaw IV Cooperative Learning Strategy on Students‟ Perception, Retention and Academic Performance in Zaria Educational zone Kaduna State, Nigeria.

However, students‟ perception about particular concepts is one of the mental processes or skills human beings engage in. It is a cognitive activity in learning which is seen as the process of making sense out of something (Agogo, Ogbeba & Damkor-Ikpa, 2013). Idris (2011) sees perception as a process through which man continues to interact with environment, thereby, experiencing a form of strong base of knowledge that built up an individual. Students‟ perception about a concept can be positive or negative towards the teaching of science (Shafiu, 2014). Studies have shown that when several individuals confront an object or thing in their environment, or concepts in their subject area, the input of information that impinges on their respective sense organs, (eyes, ears and so on) is the same for every individual, though they perceive differently (Shafiu, 2014).

Furthermore, studies of Samba and Eriba (2012); Agogo and Onda (2014) revealed that science students perceive Organic Chemistry to be abstract and difficult to learn, as such they perform relatively low in Organic Chemistry. Charania, Kausar, and Cassum (2001), likewise investigated students‟ perception of learning in a Jigsaw method-based class, and report that when students discussed their specific topic within their expert group; they increased in conceptual understanding, developed self- confidence, and enhanced communication skills and positive perception regarding the topic and the subject at large.

Moreso, Ortese, Yaweh and Akume (2006) posited that learners‟ perception is often affected by a number of factors, such as interest, lack of effective teaching strategy, motivation, attention, self concept as well as thinking and creativity. This is why Agogo

and Onda (2014) observed that what may appear difficult to somebody may be easy to another person because the concepts of easiness or difficulty as perceived by somebody are dynamic. Whatever is the case, concept difficulty invariably affects students‟ performance in such a subject. Therefore, when desired intervention is not given in terms of effective teaching and learning strategies, Chemistry students would continue to have negative perception that organic chemistry is a difficult and abstract concept.

In view of this, since in JigsawIV Cooperative Learning Strategy, the teacher introduced the lesson after grouping the students into a teams of 5-6 members each, the teacher gave them task to perform and re-taught of concepts considered difficult to understand or missing part of the lesson after individual assessment, allowed the students to construct their knowledge, analyzed such knowledge and applied it to a real life situation. This enhanced students‟ positive perception about Organic Chemistry concepts.

Retention on the other hand, refers to what is learned minus what has been forgotten (Mang & Mankilik, 2001). Bichi (2002) opined that anything which aids meaningful learning improves students‟ retention and while things that lead to interference among learned materials decrease the speed and efficiency of learning and accelerates forgetting. Retention as defined by Yero, (2011) is the ability of a learner to recall, remember and recollect a body of knowledge after passing through instruction. Idris, (2014) also observed that, retention is the ability to keep and consequently remember things or materials experienced or learned at a later time. Materials to be learned depend on the strategy used in teaching and have an effect to the quality of retention in terms of their meaningfulness, familiarity and image evoking characteristics (Abdullahi, 2015).

Low academic performance as well as retention amongst students in Sciences seems to be as a result of use of teacher‟s-centered method which leads to poor academic retention, performance and acquisition of requisite skills (Usman, 2010). The Jigsaw model is one of the modern strategies that is students‟- centered and enhanced meaningful learning through students‟ interaction in groups of 5-6 to construct their own knowledge, share ideas and complete a given task assigned to them. Studies revealed that, lesson which applied the Jigsaw model was shown to be effective both in cognitive and affective characteristics including meaningful learning, enhanced academic performance, retention; positive learning attitude, interest, self-respect, self-learning ability, confidence, task commitment, sociability, and so on (Kilic,2008; Sahin, 2010; Yusuf, 2011 & Gumel, 2015).

According to Hornby (2010), Academic performance refers to student‟s success in meeting short or long term goals in education. Sani (2007), defines academic achievement as an accomplishment or proficiency of performance in a given skill or body of knowledge. Adediwura and Tayo (2007), viewed academic performance as the knowledge attained or skills developed in school subject designed by test and examination scores or marks assigned by the subject teachers. It can be considered as a demonstrating ability of students to comprehend, analyze, apply, synthesize and evaluate Organic Chemistry information. Usman (2010) note that, poor achievement recorded in sciences could be attributed to the teaching method which does not allow students to demonstrate their abilities. According to Zakaria, Solfitri, Daud and Abidin (2013) students in a jigsaw cooperative learning activity, gained cognitive and affective development in science after their discussion, explanation they gave to one another at both expert and home groups. However, teacher-centered method (lecture method) was used in this study to teach the control group in order to compare the performance of students with those exposed to JigsawIV Cooperative Learning Strategy.

Therefore, Lecture method of instruction is teacher-centered, characterized by the teacher talking to the class most of the time, while the students listen, take down notes and occasionally ask questions (Lakpini, 2006). It is the teaching technique in which a person usually, the teacher, presents a spoken discourse on a particular subject. The teacher does much of the activity in form of talking and writing while the students listen (Kelly, 2009). The effectiveness of this method is that, it requires clear and good command of language and good ability to write. It also saves time and energy, not expensive, saves teacher a lot of challenges in class and it allows handling of large class and easy coverage of syllabus (Gumel, 2015). Though in this method, different ability groups are not properly taken care of in class, it is boring to the students, encourages rote learning among others. As such, the researcher adopted Jig-saw(IV) Cooperative Learning Strategy in teaching and Learning of Organic Chemistry Concepts, in Zaria Education Zone Nigeria to determine its effects on students‟ Performance.

Globally, there have been debates on students‟ performances in Science and Mathematics with respect to gender, which has continued to be of interest and inconclusive (Stoet, & Geary, 2013). Gender has been identified as one of the factors influencing students‟ performance in sciences at senior secondary school level. Olson (2002) reported that, female students performed better than males students when taught Mathematics and sciences using cooperative learning. Sadker in Lakpini (2006) revealed that male students received more criticism from their teachers than their female counterparts as such that

 

affects their performance in sciences (chemistry). Contrarily, Khairulanuar, Nazre, Sairabanu and Norasikin (2010) found gender differences in favour of male students. Becker in Lakpini (2006) opined teachers spoke more frequently to boys, asked the boys more questions, praised boys for quality work and girls for neatness. Even though, Ajaja and Eravwoke (2010) and Timayi et al (2015), reported that gender had no effect on academic achievement of students in cooperative learning. These contradictory findings have caused for inclusion of gender as one of the moderating variable for this study. This study investigated the effects of Jig-saw(IV) Cooperative Learning Strategy on students‟ gender among students taught Organic Chemistry at Senior Secondary Schools in Zaria Educational zone.