An Investigation of Differential Effects of Cooperative Learning Methods on Reading Comprehension of Iranian Students From High and Low Socioeconomic Status

This study was an experimental study with pre-test and post-test aimed to study the effect of cooperative learning method on the learners with low and high socioeconomic status in Iran. Forty participants who were homogeneous according to the obtained results of the PET test were selected as the sample for the purpose of the research. Homogeneous participants participated in the study by having them in 2 classes of 20 homogeneous learners in the new term of the institute. Another variable of the study was participants' socioeconomic status which was evaluated by socioeconomic questionnaire (Kuppuswamy 1976). For the purpose of the study 14 Low SES participants plus 16 high SES students have been selected for the group of Cooperative Learning (CL) and 14 low SES plus 16 high SES learners have been selected for the group of Conventional Method (CM). By the end of the treatment reading post test were given to the students. SPSS statistical software was used for analyzing the data. It was found that Jigsaw and Numbered Heads Together Cooperative methods have positive effect on reading comprehension of the learners. Also it was found that Cooperative Learning Methods positively affects learners from high SES more than learners from low SES.

Keywords:

Cooperative Learning , Socioeconomic status , Reading Comprehension , Jigsaw , Numbered Heads Together