The Effect of Cooperative Learning on Group tendency and Academic Achievement of High School Students in Mashhad

This quasi-experimental study with pretest – posttest and two control groups investigated the impact of cooperative learning on group tendency and academic achievement of high school students in Mashhad, Iran.The study population was high school first-grade female students of Mashhad in academic year 2010-2011. The sample size was 77, in which 24 were in the experimental group, 26 in control group 1 and 27 in control group 2. In the experimental group cooperative teaching method was used and in control groups the traditional teaching method. The tools were Evans and Jarvis’ group tendency questionnaire (1986) and researcher-made academic achievement tests.All the tests were consistent in terms of validity and reliability coefficient (0.86). To analyse data, both descriptive and inferential statistics (MANCOVA) were used.MANCOVA test showed significant differences among the tendencies of the three groups (P=0.001). Benfroni’s post hoc test results showed that the experimental group was affected more by cooperative teaching method compared with the other two groups (control group 1 with (P= 0.004) and control group 2 with (P=0.005)). But there wasn’t any significant diffenrence among the three groups considering academic achievement (P=0.646). Although this difference is not statistically significant, comparison of the averages of academic achievement in three groups showed better performance of experimental group. Teachers should learn active teaching methods and apply them in their classes. Also they should take measures to change students’ attitudes toward group work.