The purpose of this study was to investigate whether gifted students scored higher on reading achievement and self-esteem ratings when they worked in mixed ability (heterogeneous) groups or similar ability (homogeneous) groups while participating in cooperative learning activities. The participants were 47 fourth grade students from six intact classrooms in four elementary schools in small midwestern school districts.The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests were used to obtain pre- and posttest scores in the area of reading ability. The test consisted of 93 items, including 45 vocabulary and 48 comprehension questions. The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was also given to the students as a pre- and posttest measure of self-esteem. A treatment of cooperative learning activities was then completed with each class by the researcher to determine if there was a difference between the two groups.The following hypotheses were tested at the.05 level of significance:Hypothesis 1: There is no significant difference between the reading achievement of gifted students who participate in cooperative learning with heterogeneous groups of students and gifted students who participate in cooperative learning with homogeneous groups of students.Hypothesis ll: There is no significant difference in the self-esteem ratings of gifted students who participate in cooperative learning with heterogeneous groups of students and gifted students who participate in cooperative learning with homogeneous groups of students.To test the hypotheses an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. For each hypothesis, the obtained F-ratio exceeded the F-value for significance at the .05 level. Therefore, the tests failed to reject the null hypotheses. The findings of this study indicate that students achieve equally well in reading achievement and self-esteem regardless of the grouping strategy used. / Department of Elementary Education
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/174843 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Armstrong, Nancy A. |
| Contributors | Smith, Lawrence L. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 2, xi, 111 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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