Effects of Cooperative Small Group Learning (CSGL) on Prospecting Primary Teachers? Performance and Attitude in Mathematics: The Case of Chipata College of Education

This study was guided by the research hypothesis, There is significant improvement in performance when Cooperative Small Group Learning (CSGL) is used in the teaching and learning of mathematics and when it is not used. It arose from the fact that primary school student teachers performance is not desirable and they graduate from colleges of education without experiencing innovations in the teaching of mathematics to uplift standards and performance at primary school level. Two classes were purposively selected of which one was a control class and the other was an experimental class. Both classes had common tasks in their classrooms and a common test. Primary data was collected through a common test, a standard questionnaire for students, one-to-one students interviews and from lecturers interviews. Other data came from observing interactive classroom activities, presentations and photos. The mean, the standard deviation, the Chisquare test and the z-test showed positive results in performance in favor of the research hypothesis. The class that experienced the CSGL outperformed the control class. Factor analysis, manual coding and observations positively showed that students attitude was enhanced in the class that experienced the CSGL strategy, especially when they were able to use it in their own classes. The fact that the strategy worked using two topics, (1) equations and inequations. (2) ratio and proportion, the author thinks that it can work using other topics in different contexts.