EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING METHOD VERSUS TRADITIONAL LEARNING METHOD ON THE WRITING ABILITY OF THE STUDENTS

The study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of cooperative learning method in the subject of English. This study focused to find the effect of cooperative learning and traditional learning on the writing skill of the students of large 8th class. It was an experimental study in which cooperative learning method was compared with traditional method. The aim of this cooperation is for learners to maximize their own and each other’s learning. Three sections of 8th class of Government Comprehensive High School Rawalpindi, equally divided on the basis of teacher-made pretest scores, were taken as the sample of the study. Sample size was 128, Sixty-four students were included in experimental group and sixty-four students were placed in control group. Pretest, posttest equivalent group design was used. Treatment of planned cooperative learning (STAD) was provided to experimental group while control group was taught by using traditional method for a period of 56 days (eight weeks). At the end of treatment, a teacher made posttest was administered to measure the achievement of the students. Same teacher taught writing skill to both the groups’ one with cooperative learning method and other with traditional learning method. For the purpose of writing skill, parts of speech (five) and tenses (two) were taken. To determine the effect of cooperative learning on the writing ability the significance of difference between the scores of groups at 0.05 level was tested by applying t-test and analysis of variance. Data analysis reveals that both the experimental and control groups were almost equal in writing ability at the beginning of the experiment. The experimental group outscored significantly the control group on posttest showing the supremacy of cooperative learning over traditional method of teaching. Hence, the ultimate result of the study indicated that cooperative learning was more effective instructional paradigm for English as compared to the traditional method of teaching. Furthermore, cooperative learning appeared to be more favorable for overcrowded class.