EFFECT OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGY ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST IN CHEMISTRY IN ABAKALIKI EDUCATION ZONE OF EBONYI STATE

The study investigated the effect of cooperative learning strategy on students’ Achievement and interest in chemistry in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State. Eight research questions and Eight null hypothesis which were tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. Quasi-experimental research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 1175 SS II students in the said zone. The sample of the study was 160 SS II students. Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) and Chemistry Interest Inventory (CII) were used for data collection. Three experts carried out construct, face and content validity on the instruments. The reliability coefficients of 0.914 and 0.861 were obtained for CAT and CII respectively. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions and ANCOVA was used to test research hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that cooperative learning strategy significantly enhanced academic achievement and interest of students in chemistry more than the conventional lecture method. Gender had a significant main effect on the achievement and interest of students in chemistry which shows that male students achieved higher in chemistry more than the female students when exposed to cooperative learning strategy. Location of school was not a significant factor on students’ achievement and interest in chemistry when taught using cooperative learning strategy. It was recommended among others that teacher training institutions such as colleges of Education and the universities should adopt cooperative learning strategy as a teaching strategy for teaching their students, since those students will turn out to be chemistry teachers in secondary schools.