Performance of the Senior High School Students Using Groupings in General Physics 2
Abstract
There has been a long standing debate whether students performed better when placed in homogeneous or in heterogeneous group; hence, this study determined the effects of groupings, homogeneous and heterogeneous groups, on the performance of grade 12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) strand students. Students were first classified as low-ability students and high-ability students based on the result of their mental ability test. Then, they were divided into three sections namely low-ability homogeneous group, mixed -ability or heterogeneous group and high-ability homogeneous group. The experimental method of research was used in the study. Descriptive statistics and t-test were used in treatment of the data. Result of their mental ability test scores showed that majority of the students were classified as average. The posttests’ performance revealed that high-ability students performed significantly better when put in heterogeneous group than in homogeneous group. But, there is no significant difference in the posttests’ performance of low-ability students in homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. The following recommendations are, however, offered. Guidance office should administer mental ability test or placement test which will be the basis in sectioning the students. Also, for classroom-based group activities, teachers should mix the high-ability and low-ability students because this will help the high-ability students to master the lesson because they were given more opportunities to teach their peers. This study recommends the conduct of a further study on the effects of grouping in performance of the students.
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