EE use me wisely: A collaborative learning activity

Abstract

This study is a required output from a seminar-workshop on telle-collaboration sponsored by United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and funded by the Korean government. The whole problem-based learning (PBL) activity centered on how electrical energy (EE) can be maximized by households. The PBL activity was designed by six participating teachers from two schools and implemented by four teachers handling English, Economics and Physics classes in the Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology – Integrated Developmental School (MSU – IIT IDS) during the second year 2011-2012. This study investigates the effectiveness of the designed collaborative activity enhancing the students’ achievement in three subject areas and developing their collaborative skills. The subjects were 132 fourth year high school students of MSU-IIT-IDS. To test the effectiveness of the Collaborative Learning activity, the study made use of the Pre-test – Post-test One Group Design with qualitative support. The major findings of the study are as follows: (1) The designed activity effects cognitive gain among the student participants; (2) the students’ collaborative skills were enhanced as shown in the qualitative assessment tool; (3) the best features of the study are their practicality/applicability in the students’ households and that they provide a venue for fun and group interaction while the students and learning; (4) the portions of the activity that requires improvement includes: the time frame, guidelines to address uncooperative members and alternative method for monitoring energy consumption. Teacher recommendations include: designing collaborative learning activities for other topics and with other subject areas; incorporating points of improvement of the EE PBL activity; and including a more general population of high school students in the study.