The Effectiveness of Reciprocal Teaching in Improving Comprehension Skills in Mathematics

Considering the importance of comprehension skills in understanding and solving problems in mathematics, and the fact that those who comprehend the problem better come up with better solutions, it was hypothesized that if the teaching method emphasizes on comprehension skills the learners would become better problem solvers. One method that emphasizes both cognitive and metacognitive skills is the Reciprocal teaching (cooperative learning).To show the effectiveness of this method, two groups of female sixth graders were initially tested on their comprehension and problem solving skills and then one went through a series of sessions in which Reciprocal teaching method was utilized while the other group experienced the usual method of teaching the same material. The analysis of both pre- and post-test data shows a statistically significant difference between the two groups due to the method used.