Enhancing Problem Solving Skills of Physics Students Through Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) at Secondary Level

Abstract

Traditional pedagogy is often critiqued for conventional teaching methods that prevent students from developing their problem-solving skills. Therefore, this study focused on investigating the effect of a STAD approach on the problem-solving skills of secondary level students in physics. Quasi Experiment was conducted to compare the STAD method (experimental group) with traditional teaching methods (control group). Experiment was performed in a selected school having at least two sections of tenth grade. There were 30 students in each section and sections were randomly assigned as experimental and control groups. A test constructed by researchers was used to measure problem-solving skills before and after the experiment. Materials such as work sheets, lesson plans, quizzes, and rewarding certificates were designed to implement STAD methodology in the physics classroom. The dependent variable, physics problem-solving skills, was measured using researcher constructed ten items test consisted of physics numerical. The same tool was used as both pre and post measurement of problem-solving skills. The statistics indicated that the students taught through STAD improved their problem-solving skills in numerical problems of physics compared to those who were taught through traditional method. Additionally, post-test performance of students in groups was significantly different and experimental group outperformed the control group in problem-solving skills. This study demonstrated that the STAD is an effective teaching strategy for enhancing problem-solving skills of students at secondary level while using content of physics numerical.