Using Small Group Collaborative Teaching and Learning Strategies to Improve the Academic Performance of 7th Grade Students in Biology of a State High School in Battambang Province

Over the years, Cooperative learning small groups has become a widely used teaching and learning strategy from kindergarten to undergraduate in all subjects. At the same time, many studies have found that cooperative learning small groups can be applied to help improve students' learning outcomes in biology. That's why researchers choose cooperative learning small group strategy to research and solve problems in the target shcool. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cooperative learning small groups on seventh-grade students' learning outcomes in biology course of a state high school in Battambang Province. This research is action research that uses quasi-experimental designs. The samples for this study consisted of the seventh-grade students of a state high school in Battambang Province in two classes with a total of 80 students. The sample was divided into two groups. The experimental group was taught by cooperative learning small group strategy. The control group was taught by the lecture method. Data were collected in this study using pre-test and post-test. The data collected from this research is fed into Microsoft Excel and cleaned. The cleared data were analyzed by inferential statistics using Paired-samples t-test and Independent-samples t-test in HAD17. This study found two main results. The first results found that the mean of students before and after using cooperative learning small groups increased significantly from Mean = 9.55 to Mean = 29.90 based on p<.001. The second result found that the mean of the students after being taught by cooperative learning small groups was Mean = 29.90 higher than the mean of the students who were taught by the lecture method, Mean = 23.67 based on p<.001. Additionally, observations during the implementation of small group collaborative teaching and learning strategies showed that students were more active than teachers, making students think, analyze, express opinions, be bold, make students understand lessons faster, and share knowledge with each other. These factors may contribute to increased learning outcomes. In conclusion, implementing cooperative learning small group strategy in biology is highly effective, providing a significant positive impact on student learning outcomes.