Magister Educationis - MEd / Euclidean geometry was recently re-introduced as a compulsory topic in the Mathematics Curriculum for learners in the Further Education and Training (FET) band in 2012. The diagnostic analysis reports on the National Senior Certificate (NSC) Mathematics Paper 2 examinations since 2014 has repeatedly expressed concern of the poor performance of learners in proof and reasoning items linked to circle geometry. Various efforts have been made to examine the composition of the curriculum to find ways of motivating learners in the study of circle geometry and enhancing their performance but not much has been realized. The use of technology or cooperative learning approaches for the teaching of geometry is beneficial for pedagogical purposes, particularly for improving learners’ performance in geometry

This study investigated the effects of Cooperative Learning on seventh graders’ vocabulary learning in China. This study was conducted because in China, students usually learn vocabulary via traditional learning method-rote memorization. However, this method has a lot of issues. For example, students only know how to write the words but they cannot use them in contexts. Students tend to forget new words they have newly learned. The purpose of this study was to find out whether Chinese secondary school students can benefit from Cooperative Learning in vocabulary; whether Cooperative Learning can help students in applying new words and whether students can retain new words longer using Cooperative Learning. This research followed a quasi-experimental design, with an experimental group and a control group. Data were collected in a secondary school in Beijing, China. The participants took three tests: a pretest, post-test and a delayed post-test. A one-way repeated ANOVA was used to analyze the data in SPSS (25.0). The findings showed that there was a significant difference across three time points in the two groups (p < .001). There was no significant difference in the students’ vocabulary scores between the two groups (p > .05). However, it was found that there was a significant interaction between time and group on students’ vocabulary learning. An ANCOVA analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in the delayed post-test (p = .01). These findings can be beneficial to the professionals who work as English teachers in secondary schools in China. My results suggest that Cooperative Learning may be helpful in improving students’ vocabulary learning outcomes.

Syftet med denna kunskapsöversikt är att skapa en överblick över aktuell forskning angående metoden kooperativt lärande med fokus på elevernas resonemangsförmåga inom ämnet matematik. Kooperativt lärande är ett arbetssätt att strukturera samarbete mellan eleverna när de lär sig. För att jag ska kunna svara på undersökningsfrågan harjag genomfört systematiska undersökningar i olika databaser, exempelvis Ebsco, Swepub och även sekundära sökningar. Texten är uppbyggt med en inledningsdel som redogör vad kooperativt lärandet och resonemangsförmåga innebär. Sedan har jag sammanställt de funna artiklarna i en tabell och vidare har artiklarna studerats och analyserats. Resultatet visar hur kooperativt lärande kan påverka elevernas resonemangsförmåga positivt, dock krävs det en välstrukturerad undervisning där lärarens kompetens och engagemang är en viktig faktor. Avslutningsvis diskuteras resultaten utifrån framtida yrkesverksamhet och förslag på fortsatt forskning.

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This study is a multi-method exploratory quantitative and qualitative examination of the degree to which students produce, share, and learn vocabulary and cooperative skills as they carry out three types of individually and cooperatively structured art-based tasks regarding carefully selected and sequenced artworks. The artwork was selected from, and the tasks were adapted from Visual Thinking Strategies, an approach for teaching art appreciated and critical thinking skills. There has been little research that reports the degree of vocabulary through the use of images in general, very little research on cooperative learning and language learning, and an extremely limited amount of research on cooperative learning carried out in the field of foreign language learning through the use of artwork in the Japanese context. This study aims to fill these gaps. There were five main purposes of this study. The first purpose was to explore the range of vocabulary elicited through the cooperatively structured art-based tasks regarding the artworks. The second purpose was to measure students’ learning and use of two cooperative skills as they carried out the art-based tasks. The third purpose was to examine the implementation of the art-based tasks adapted for language learning in the Japanese college context investigated in this study. The fourth purpose was to explore the degree to which vocabulary is produced, shared, and learned in the adapted art-based tasks. The fifth and final purpose was a qualitative and quantitative examination of students’ attitudes towards the art tasks and towards working cooperatively in groups. To answer questions based on the purposes listed above, AntWordProfiler was used to analyze students’ production of vocabulary as they wrote their individual comments about the artworks and the RANGE feature of AntWordProfiler was used to analyze the frequency of particular vocabulary within and across groups in the group activities. The degree of learning was measured through pretests and posttests adapted from the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale. Finally an ANOVA was used to compare the vocabulary learned in the individual and cooperative drawing tasks following a Latin Square design. The qualitative study involved examination of many sources of data, including the worksheets students filled out as they carried out the art-based tasks, the artwork they drew, and audio recordings. Finally, a combined qualitative and qualitative survey at the end of the semester allowed an exploration of students’ opinions regarding art-based tasks, working and learning in groups, and the class as a whole. The results to the 12 research questions showed very little predictability in the specific vocabulary elicited, but did find patterns in the frequency of vocabulary elicited through the artworks, especially in terms of the percentage of vocabulary elicited. Students showed a significant increase in vocabulary knowledge between the pretests and posttests on all tasks, although there was a significant difference in vocabulary learned by students who did the drawing task individually for one artwork over those who drew that artwork in cooperative groups. A frequency analysis of student self-reports of their use of the cooperative skills they were taught and an examination of audio recordings showed they used and processed their use of the skills in ways that cooperative research suggests are beneficial for learning. Finally, the results of the quantitative and qualitative course-final survey showed that students had generally positive attitudes towards both the learning vocabulary using artwork and working in groups and that students enjoyed interacting and learning from fellow group members. There were some negative views of the cooperative tasks that need to be addressed in future use of these tasks, primarily making students aware of the reasoning behind the way they were being asked to carry out the tasks. The findings showed teachers can use artwork with confidence that students will learn vocabulary and that students are generally positive to the cooperatively structured art-based tasks. Future research needs to be carried out with other artwork, in different contexts, with students at different levels of language ability, and with additional art-based tasks. / Teaching & Learning

Groundwater related courses are offered through several colleges at Virginia Tech. These classes enroll a diverse group of students with varied academic backgrounds and educational levels. Though these classes emphasize different aspects of groundwater resources, they lack a unified approach in instructional materials and learning methodologies for knowledge they do share. The goals of this research are to lessen the impact of variable student backgrounds and to better integrate the courses to improve teaching and learning, through the development of a multi-tiered, interdisciplinary website, Groundwater Interactive (GWI). GWI, as an educational technology, employs a variety of interactive multimedia. The primary educational components of the website include interactive and graphical models and quizzes, and a student-authored primer. An implementation strategy based on experiential and cooperative learning models is developed for application of the GWI tool in the classroom. An assessment methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of these new learning methods and techniques was also developed, but was not implemented as part of this work. / Master of Science

本研究的主要目的在探討合作學習對商職學生英語口語表達能力的成效及商職學生對合作學習應用在英語會話課的看法。研究對象為商職二年級兩班學生共八十名，其中一班為實驗組41人，授以學生小組成就區分法(STAD), 小組遊戲競賽法(TGT), 及共同學習法(LT)三種合作學習法；另一班為控制組39人，授以傳統授課法。兩組所使用的教材相同，由研究者安排教學活動並親自授課。教學實驗為期一個學期。資料蒐集方式包括兩次學期成就測驗為前、後測，問卷調查表、及訪談。資料分析方式為量化的描述性統計及質化的內容分析法。歸納研究結果摘述如下： 一．實驗組學生在後測表現上明顯優於控制組學生，且達到統計的顯著差異。 二．從個別子項目來看，實驗組學生在文法項目與控制組學生相較下，並未有顯著差異外，其餘項目表現明顯高於控制組學生。 三．由問卷及訪談來看，合作學習對學生學習動機、學習態度、人際關係、及減輕學習焦慮均有助益。 四．針對合作學習應用在本研究中所發現的一些缺點和困難，提出討論以求因應策略。 根據上述研究結果，提出教學上涵義的探討，及對未來研究提出建議。 / The purpose of this study is to investigate how commercial vocational high school students perceive cooperative learning in terms of English oral performance, learning attitudes, social development and lowering of anxiety in speaking English. There were totally 80 students involved in this study. The experimental group was taught in cooperative learning for one semester with the methods of Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD), Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT), Learning Together (LT). The control group was taught in the traditional instruction. This study collected data from oral tasks, scores of pretest and posttest, questionnaire, and student interview to achieve methodological triangulation. The reliability and validity of the collected data were ensured by combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyze the data. The major findings of this study suggested that cooperative learning helped significantly to enhance the commercial vocational high school students' English oral performance , learning attitudes, social development and lowering of anxiety in speaking English. Besides, the problems of cooperative learning that emerged in students' responses and the researcher's observation was stated in the conclusion. The study suggested that cooperative learning be integrated into the vocational high school English instruction in Taiwan. Pedagogical implications for the application of cooperative learning in EFL teaching were proposed. Finally, suggestions for future studies were recommended.