The effect of cooperative learning on students' social skills in the experimental science course

Abstract

Present study is about the effects of cooperative learning on development of guidance school first grade students' social skills in the experimental science course in Hashtrood. The study method is quasi-experimental with pre- and posttests. The universe includes she- and he-students of first grade of guidance schools in Hashtrood of them one hundred ones (Four classes) were selected by random cluster sampling method ; 49 ones of them (One she- and one he-students class) were selected randomly as the test group to apply the independent variable (Cooperative learning) namely 25 he-students and 24 she-students . Also 51 ones (One she- and one he-students class) were selected as the control group for traditional learning including 23 he- and one 28 she-students . The measurement device included 40 questions to test the development of the students' social skills. The subjects attended in pre- and posttests about the social skills six weeks after performing the tentative variable and their social skills were measured. T-test and dependent T were used to analyze the data the study data indicated that the social skills of the test group who had learned by cooperative method were more than the control group who had learned by traditional method and the differences of their means were significant. In addition, the he-students had high social students than the she- ones in the cooperative attitude.

Keywords: Cooperative learning, traditional learning, social skills development.