bled children in middle school (grades 6, 7, and 8).
The purpose of the research is to investigate the effects of cooperative learning techniques on the academic achievement of middle school (grades 6, 7, and 8) learning disabled students. The hypothesis that will be tested is as follows:
The use of cooperative learning techniques will improve the academic achievement of middle school (grades 6, 7, and 8) learning disabled students.
The research method will include an experimental design in which student performance subsequent to the cooperative learning intervention will be compared with baseline student performance prior to the cooperative learning intervention. Students participating in the study will be assigned to one of four groups: three experimental groups and one control group. Students assigned to each of the three experimental groups will be exposed to different variations of cooperative learning during the period of the intervention. Students assigned to the control group will not be exposed to cooperative learning during the intervention.
Baseline student academic performance and post-intervention student academic performance will be measured by the students' regular classroom teachers. Academic achievement data will be analyzed through the application of analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures to test the hypotheses.
Section 1: Nature of the Research Problem
In an extensive review of the literature on increasing the academic success of at-risk learners, Johnson (1998) noted that diverse strategies were associated with high success levels. These included: maintaining high expectations, administering praise, using learning technologies, teaching learning strategies, accommodating learning styles, teaching vocabulary directly, establishing an experiential base for learning, teaching self-monitoring, providing creative opportunities, facilitating parental involvement, and cooperative teaching strategi...