Effectiveness of collaborative method in teaching and learning secondary school algebra

Basic concepts of algebra have been taught while students are at the lower secondary school level so that the concepts can be used to solve problems involving algebra when they get to the upper secondary and subsequently higher school levels. Thus, in strengthening the foundation of algebraic concepts among students, 21st century learning methods have been proposed and applied in the Malaysian education system. One of the methods proposed is collaborative learning where a group of students cooperate in performing the learning tasks with guidance from their peers to achieve the same goal. The topic of Factorization and Algebraic Fractions was chosen to be explored in a collaborative environment involving 45 students at a secondary school in Perlis, Malaysia. The aim was to identify whether collaborative method can improve students’ performance in the topic. The research involved only one experimental group using a single-group pre-test and post-test method. In addition, a questionnaire was distributed to see the acceptance and motivation of students towards collaborative learning methods. Results from the statistical analysis of the students’ achievement scores in the pre-test and post-test showed that there was a significant improvement in performance following the collaborative teaching and learning. Responses from the questionnaire also showed that the acceptance and motivation towards learning mathematics with the collaborative method was also positive.