Significance of the Study

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides some theories related to the study. The theories focused on cooperative learning, narrative text, and teams games tournaments. This chapter also provided the relevant studies, framework of thinking, and research hypotheses.

A. The General Concept of Cooperative Learning 1. Definition of Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is the term used to describe instructional procedures whereby learners work together in small groups and are rewarded for their collective accomplishments. 1 In cooperative learning students learn together in the groups share the material which taught in order to achieve the goals of teaching and learning process. Roy Killen said that “Cooperative learning is an instructional technique in which learners work together in small groups to help one other achieve a common learning goal ”. 2 It means in cooperative situations, individuals seek outcomes that are beneficial to themselves and beneficial to all other group members. Cooperative learning enhances students’ enthusiasm for learning in order to get academic success. Slavin, one of the founders of cooperative learning, believes that the group focus of cooperative learning can changes the norm of youth culture and make it more acceptable to excel in academic learning tasks. 3 In addition, cooperative learning encouraged the students to work together and responsible for all comprehension of the groups’ members. According to Donald R. Cruickshank, Deborah Bainer Jenkins, and Kim K. Metcalf, they stated that: 1 Donald R. Cruickshank, Deborah Bainer Jenskins, Kim K. Metcalf, op. cit., p, 238. 2 Roy Killen, Effective Teaching Strategies 4 th Edition, South Melbourne: Cengage Learning, 2007, p, 181. 3 Richard I. Arends, Learning to Teach 7 th Edition, New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2007, p, 345. 7 Groups must be heterogeneous in terms gender, academic ability, race, and other traits. Heterogeneity is promoted for at least three reasons: First, cooperative learning is based partly on the humanistic school of thought about learning. One of its major objectives is to make students feel better about themselves and to be more accepting of others. A second reason to form heterogeneous teams is so that each member will have an equal opportunity to learn, since “talent” is about equally distributed to each group. Finally, heterogeneity is fostered because students with lower abilities are more likely to improve their achievement in mixed group than in homogeneous groups. 4 From the statements above, it can be said that members of groups in Cooperative Learning method consist of various background ability. It conducted to make the students feel better and accept the others. Moreover, students with lower abilities will improve their achievement because they will learn with the students of higher abilities in the same group.

2. Characteristic of Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning has some characteristics. According to Carolyn Kessler the characteristics of Cooperative Learning are: First, Positive Independence. Positive independence occurs when the gains for one individual are associated with gains for others: that is, when one student achieves, others benefit, too. Second, Team Formation. Positive independence implies the grouping has occurred, either by assignment or by change. Students can group themselves: “leaders” can take turns selecting teammates: or teachers can assign students to teams. Informal or spontaneous grouping is less desirable in many situations than formal or planned grouping methods. Four types team formation: heterogeneous, random, interest, and homogeneousheterogeneous language ability. Third, Accountability. Research shows that both individual and group accountability is important for achievement in Cooperative Learning setting, and most scholars e.g., Slavin, 1990 consider this to be a defining characteristic of Cooperative Learning. Methods which use only a group grade or a group product without making each member accountable do not consistently produce achieving gains Slavin, 1983b. Students may be made individually accountable by signing each student a grade 4 Donald R. Cruickshank, Deborah Bainer Jenskins, Kim K. Metcalf, op. cit., pp, 238, 239.