Enhancing Primary School Students’ Social Skills Using Cooperative Learning in Mathematics

This research study was conducted on 1) development of social skills from activities based on the Cooperative Learning Model (STAD) and 2) measuring students’ achievement through the cooperative learning model. The set criteria was 80% of the students showing a ‘good’ behavioral level and 80% of students achieving 70% of the test scores. The target group of this study was 36 Grade 2 (Class 2/1) students of the Demonstration School, Khon Kaen University, Primary Section (Modindang) during the 1st semester of academic year 2011. The specific case learning form (one-shot case study) was applied. The instruments included: 1) 10 lesson plans under the cooperative learning model (STAD) on the topic of weight measurement, 2) the questionnaire for social skill observation classified into 4 levels, and 3) a test of learning achievement. The data analysis was done in percentage and means, and analysis of qualitative data was obtained from observation and action evaluation. For social skill evaluation, it was found that 100% of 36 students and the overall social skill were at a good level with the mean scores of 3.81, which met the set criteria. For learning achievement, 100% of the students achieved the mean score of 89.15%, which also passed the set criteria.