Efficacy of computer supported cooperative learning strategy on cognitive skills and Scientific creativity in relation to learning styles of class VIII students

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine the efficacy of CSCL strategy on cognitive skills and scientific creativity in relation to learning styles of Class VIII students. The Student-Teams achievement Division strategy along with the support of computer multimedia was used. The main effects and interactional effects of two independent variables namely instructional strategies and learning styles were observed on two dependent variables that were cognitive skills in science and scientific creativity. The pre-test post-test control group design was used. The final sample consisted of 200 VIII class students (age group-13 to 14 years) of representative government schools of Amritsar district. The random sampling technique was used. The descriptive statistics such as measures of central tendency, dispersion, kurtosis and skewness along with graphical representation were used. 2*4 ANOVA, t-ratios were computed. The results indicated that CSCL Strategy yielded better cognitive skills scores in science and scientific creativity scores than conventional teaching strategy. There exists significant difference in mean gain scores of cognitive skills and scientific creativity with respect to different learning styles and there exists significant difference in gain scores in cognitive skills in science due to interactional effect of instructional strategies and learning styles. But there exists no significant interactional effect of instructional strategies and learning styles on gain scores in scientific creativity. newline