Action Research: Improving Students’ Academic Achievement Through Effective Peer Learning

Abstract

The major purpose of this action research was to improve student achievement through effective implementation of peer learning in animal science department first year student. Specifically, this research was intended to improve student’s awareness about peer learning, distinguish the major challenges that hinder the implementation of peer learning in the department, find and apply possible strategies that help to improve student’s academic achievement. Both primary and secondary data sources were used to collect qualitative and quantitative types of data. The primary data were collected via questionnaires, interview and observations. Secondary sources of data were collected from guidelines; journals and students’ achievement in the previous semester report. Descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage and mean were used to analyze the data. According to the result, unequal sharing of tasks among group members, problem of group organization/formation, lack of students’ awareness to work in group, lack of preparation and shortage of reference materials were found to be the major problems that hinder student peer learning. In order to alleviate these challenges the researchers have implemented four suggested solution. This were giving different responsibility to each and every member of the group to minimize the unequal sharing of tasks among group members, re-organizing the group structure of students, improving the awareness of students about peer learning and providing supportive materials that can help the students to prepare themselves participation in peer learning. Finally, the researchers observed that student academic achievement is significantly improved.

Keywords: Peer learning, achievement, student