The effect of structured individual responsibility on students' achievement increase in cooperative learning science class

Generally, student group projects can be problematic due to the lack of structured individual responsibility leading to the uprising of the social loafing phenomenon among the students. The aim of the present research was to compare types of cooperative learning models which is least structured individual responsibility (STAD type) and more structured individual responsibility (jigsaw type) within two groups of junior high school students (14-15 years old). The research design was quasi-experimental with crossover-repeated measurements design within two sessions. The sample consist of 61 students of a junior high school studying he topic of magnet in Bandung (Indonesia). The results of a pre-test and a post-test for each session were compared for the two groups. The working hypotheses were the group who has given more structured individual responsibility (jigsaw) perform better in learning the topic of magnet. With respect to Hypothesis., the results appeared to show a better improvement in students' achievement in the more structured individual responsibility (jigsaw type) group compared to the least structured individual responsibility (STAD type) group, as it is shown both in the comparison between the n-gain value and statistical test.