The effectiveness of STAD on the learning of fishes in vertebrate zoology among biology education pre-service teachers in sriwijaya university

This study aimed to compare the effects between Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD) of Cooperative Learning method with traditional method on academic achievement in the learning of Fishes (Vertebrate Zoology) among pre-service teachers. A quantitative approach was employed using a quasi-experimental design with a sample of 64 Biology Education pre-service teachers from two intact groups (30 in the experimental group and 34 in the control group) at Sriwijaya University, Palembang, Indonesia. Implementation of the study involving three topics of Fishes was carried out over a three-week intervention. The topics consisted of Agnatha & Placoderm, Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes. STAD effects were measured by using zoology achievement test instruments The data were analyzed using ANCOVA for academic achievements in three corresponding tests. The results indicated that STAD was more effective than the traditional method in two topics of Fishes: F(1,61) = 6.479, p = 0.013 < 0.05 for Agnatha & Placoderm and F(1,61) = 24.098, p = 0.000 < 0.05 for Osteichthyes, favouring the experimental group. However, there was no significant difference between the groups [F(1, 61) = 3.150, p = 0.81 > 0.05] in the learning of Chondrichthyes. The findings of this study are discussed in the context of science education and implications for future research are proffered.