Effects of jigsaw cooperative learning strategy on students’ achievement in secondary school mathematics in Laikipia East District, Kenya.

Abstract

Secondary school students in Kenya have continued to perform poorly in mathematics in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E) national examinations. This raises concern for all stakeholders in education due to the importance they attach to mathematics. The factors that are attributed to the students‟ dismal performance in the subject include; inadequate facilities in the schools like the text books and qualified teachers, poor attitude towards the subject by the students and teachers, gender stereotypes, lack of role models, and the instructional methods used by teachers. This study sought to address the problem of ineffective instruction by teachers by finding out if the use of Jigsaw Cooperative learning Strategy during instruction of Surds and further logarithm in mathematics to form three students had effects on their performance. Surds and further logarithm are topics that are performed poorly in the KCSE. There is however inadequate documented information in research conducted in Kenya on effects of the use of Jigsaw Cooperative learning Strategy on students‟ achievement in mathematics. Solomon four non-equivalent control group design was used in the study. The two experimental groups received the Jigsaw cooperative learning Strategy as treatment and two control groups were taught using the conventional learning/teaching methods. A simple random sample of four district secondary schools was selected from Laikipia East District. The sample size was 160 students out of population of about 20,000 students in the district. A mathematics achievement test (MAT) was used for data collection. The instrument was piloted in a school which was not used in the study in the Laikipia East District. The instrument used had reliability coefficient of above the required threshold of 0.70. The instrument was validated by education experts from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Data was analyzed using t-test to test hypotheses at Coefficient alpha (ά) level of 0.05. Findings of this study show that learners taught using Jigsaw cooperative learning strategy performed better than those taught using Conventional learning methods. The results also show that there is no significant difference in achievement of girls and boys when taught using Jigsaw cooperative learning strategy. The findings are expected to be useful to students and teachers in secondary schools because they will be able to identify learning strategies which will enhance achievement in mathematics. Policy makers, curriculum developers and education officers are likely to benefit from this study in deciding on the appropriate learning strategy for learners to improve the quality of education in the country