YPUP

The cooperative learning techniques used in this study was the Student Achievement Dividions' (STAD) method developed by Robert Slavin (1986). STAD has been described as the simplest of a group of cooperative learning techniques referred to as STudent Team Learning Methods. In the STAD approach students are assigned to four or five member teams reflecting a heterogeneous grouping of high, average, and low achieveing students of diverse ethnic backgrounds and different genders. Each week, the teacher introduces new material through a lecture, class discussion, or some form of a teacher presentation. Team members then collaborate on worksheets designed to expand and reinforce the material taught by the teacher. Team members may (a) work on the worksheets in pairs, (b) take turns quizzing each other, (c) discuss problems as a group, or (d) use whatever strategies they wich to learn the assigned material. Each team will then receive answer sheets, making clear to the students that their task is to learn the concepts not simply fill out the worksheets. Team members are instructed that their task is not complete until all team members understand the assigned material