Action Research on Minimizing Students? Absenteeism during Cooperative Learning Class among Adigrat University, College of Medicine and Health Science Undergraduate Students, Tigrai, Ethiopia 2016

Back ground Education is the backbone of societal transformation in all aspects of life. The interdependence among different part of the society is very essential to share the limited resources as well as to achieve their common goal. In this support, as Ashley Montagu stated that without the cooperation of its members society cannot survive, and the society of man has survived because the cooperativeness of its members made survival possible in a similar manner. Objective The main objective of the study was to assess action needed to minimize students absenteeism from cooperative learning class and impact of the cooperative learning on students performance in Adigrat University, College of Medicine and Health Science. Method an institutional based qualitative, participatory action research study was conducted among Adigrat University, College of medicine and Health Science under graduate students. In the College there are six departments of these conveniently we select four departments Medicine, Public Health, Nursing and Midwifery. The data collecting method was In-depth interview and focus group discussion. The total number of sample collected was four In-depth interview with department heads, one focus group discussion with mentor teachers, four focus group discussion with leaders of the cooperative learning students team and with the member students of the cooperative learning team from each departments. Finding The finding of the study suggested that, cooperative learning is important in improving students performances, not only in knowledge, skill but also development of their communication skill and ethics. Absenteeism of students from cooperative learning class as taken attendance from department of Midwifery, public health and nursing found to be 5 %, 7-9 %, 60-70 % respectively. the reason of students absenteeism from cooperative learning was the mentor teachers, department heads, had no follow up on the cooperative learning process and the reason of student absenteeism from the cooperative learning was, load of courses, preference to study alone and shortage of time to cover the courses. Besides luck of awareness on cooperative learning is also one of the reasons for student absenteeism. Conclusion and recommendation This study concludes that cooperative learning is important to increase the students performance as the students and mentor teachers said in the in-depth and focus group discussion but still lacks awareness on cooperative learning and lack of follow up from departments. So, giving training on cooperative learning, follow up by quality assurance of the college and department heads is mandatory, in addition to these research an interventional research should be studied in future.