SOCIAL STUDIES ACHIEVEMENT AND SELF-EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE IN JIGSAW AND COOPERATIVE STUDY HOMOGENEOUS GROUPS

Cooperative learning has been found to have positive effects, both cognitively and noncognitively. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the Jigsaw Model Group (JMG) and the Cooperative Study Group (CSG), on black high reading level sixth-grade students and their achievement on a social studies task. It also examined self-evaluations of their performances within the group. Information about the appropriate use of these structures was sought. The subjects were two intact classes composed of 64 black sixth-grade boys and girls of homogeneous ability based on standardized reading scores. Pretest scores on the Social Studies Knowledge Test (SSKT), designed to measure achievement on this unit, were used to divide subjects into levels of performance. These levels were used in the analyses of the findings, in addition to the randomly assigned subgroups in which they studied. In the JMG condition, each child in each subgroup was responsible for teaching the other group members specific portions of the unit on ancient Egypt which each student had studied with classmates who had the same assignment. The CSG members studied every portion of the unit with their subgroups and completed the activities as a group. To foster cooperation, both the JMG and CSG were informed that the grade received by each member of each subgroup would be an average of the individual members\u27 scores on the posttest SSKT. All groups were given the Self-Evaluation Scale (SES) after the posttest SSKT. The SES included the following attributes: ability, effort, task difficulty, individual performance, and evaluation of the subgroup\u27s performance. Data analysis of the SSKT indicated that the CSG achieved better than the JMG. The main SES attributes correlating significantly with achievement for the CSG were ability and effort. These correlations were not obtained for the JMG. The findings suggested that, for high reading score sixth-grade students, the CSG appears to be the better way to structure classroom learning groups and this group may enhance self-evaluations of ability and effort, which have been found to relate to positive attitudes about future success in learning