Team Assisted Individualisation (TAI): Impact on Achievement and Retention in Mathematics

Cooperative Learning, as a teaching-learning technique provides opportunities for diverse students to develop skills in group interactions and in working with others that is required in the modern competitive world. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the Cooperative Learning Approach-Team Assisted Individualisation (TAI) on the achievement and retention in Mathematics among ninth graders. Cooperative Learning was compared with conventional teaching learning classroom structure using an experimental design. 98 students of ninth class were randomly selected out of which 52 students formed Experimental Group (E) and 46 students formed Control Group (C). Achievement Test in Mathematics and Instructional Material were developed by the investigators themselves. Whole teaching - learning process was carried out for ten weeks only. At the end of the experiment, achievement test in Mathematics was given to the subjects. After a gap of twenty days, achievement test was again administered on the same subjects to assess the retention of learned material. Data were analyzed by using t-test. The findings revealed that the Experimental Group outscored significantly the Control Group on post-test showing the obvious supremacy of Co-operative Learning Technique (TAI) over Conventional Method of teaching. On retention test, significant difference was found between mean retention scores of the two groups (E and C).