The effectiveness of using cooperative learning to promote reading comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency achievement scores of male fourth- and fifth-grade students in a Saudi Arabian School

by Alhaidari, Mohammed S.

This study examined the extent to which the use of cooperative learning in the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Washington, DC had an impact on the reading performance of grade four and five students in the standard reading curriculum. The ISA is a bilingual English-Arabic school with dual American and Saudi Arabian curricula. The Arabic language arts (including reading) and religion curricula follow the Saudi Arabian education system, while the remaining curricula such as math and science reflect the American education system. The study used a quasi-experimental design. Four groups of ISA male students participated in the study: two fourth grade classes, and two fifth grade classes. The researcher developed and administered pre- and post-measures for reading performance, which designed vocabulary, reading comprehension, and fluency. Additionally, the researcher administered pre- and post-measures of students’ attitudes toward cooperative learning and students’ motivation toward reading. Students from both grades and both treatment conditions received all pre- and post-measures. Finally, the researcher developed and administered measures of teachers’ attitudes toward cooperative learning. Data were analyzed using a one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test the differences between the experimental and comparison groups on the pre-measures. Results of this analysis indicated no significance difference between experimental and comparison groups for all measures. For the post-measures, the pretests served as a covariate, where grade and treatment were independent variables, and the post-measures were the dependent measures. The results of this analysis indicated significance iii differences between experimental and comparison groups on post-measures of vocabulary and fluency, and students’ attitudes toward cooperative learning. Conversely, the result showed no significant difference between experimental and comparison groups on post-measures of reading comprehension and students’ motivation toward reading. iv