(RE) visiting cooperative teaching learning: A study to assess the effectiveness of its application to arab nursing students, at Oman Nursing Institute, Muscat

Despite of widespread research information representing that cooperative teaching and learning improves level of academic performance, the improvement of communication skills, critical thinking skills and good group cohesion at all levels in their education, cooperative learning as an innovative teaching method, is still underutilized in the nursing curriculum. A cooperative teaching learning method was introduced in the Adult Health Nursing subject for the 162 second year General Nursing Diploma students through Quasi Experimental one group post test design. The 3 cooperative teaching methods namely Jig saw Puzzle, Partners and Team Pair Solo was imparted to the students. The quiz was conducted after each method at one week interval. Students were asked feedback about the merits and demerits of this method by completing the questionnaire. The result shows that this method progressively contributes to the student's academic scores. In addition, the merits and demerits tool reveals that the students “enjoyed the method; this method was very creative, motivating, interesting, beneficial and helps them in critical thinking process.” They also revealed this pedagogical method was student friendly and make their knowledge permanent. Therefore, it can be broadly concluded that this cooperative teaching method is beneficial and can enhance the overall academic achievement of the students in nursing courses.