The Impact of Cooperative Learning Strategies on Social Skills and Academic Achievement in Economics among Higher Secondary School Learners

Higher secondary education plays a crucial role in developing learners' academic competence and social responsibility. In Economics, students need not only conceptual understanding but also communication, cooperation, and problem-solving skills to analyze socio-economic issues effectively. Cooperative learning encourages learners to work together toward common goals, fostering interaction, teamwork, and active participation. Therefore, this study examines the impact of cooperative learning strategies on the social skills and academic achievement of higher secondary school learners in Economics. This research study focuses on the impact of using collaborative methods of instruction in the subject of Economics among higher secondary students of average performance level. The quasi-experiment employed a pre-test-post-test control group design where 100 stratified subjects were divided into a control and an experimental group of equal size (n = 50 each). For three months, the control group followed the conventional mode of teaching involving lecture delivery while the other group participated in structured cooperative learning processes, namely Jigsaw, Group Investigation and Think-Pair-Share. The instruments used for data collection included the Economics Achievement test and Social Skills questionnaire. Independent samples t-tests were performed to analyse the results of average-performing students (n = 34). Analysis indicates that the average performers in the experimental group scored significantly higher than those in the control group in the post-test (t = 3.41, p < 0.05). Both male (t = 3.674) and female (t = 2.822) students made impressive gain in their scores without showing any gender differences. Even though there is no statistically significant difference between experimental and control groups in general Social Skills (t = 0.428), the analysis for gender groups shows that both male (t = 2.549) and female (t = 2.085) participants of the experimental group developed better social interaction skills than others in the control group. Hence, one may conclude that collaborative learning methods serve as a useful strategy to meet twin objectives effectively in secondary education.