Özet:

The purpose of this research is to study the effects of cooperative learning and traditional methods elementary school students' reading comprehension and the student gender. The pre- and post- test experimental design with control group was employed for the research. “Learning Together” technique was used in the experimental group and the traditional teaching methods in the control group. The data of the research was collected through Reading Comprehension Tests (Multiple Choice and Essays). Mean, Standard Deviation, t-test, Correlation, Analysis of Variance, Analysis of Covariance, Benferroni Pairwise Comparisons and Scheffeé test were utilized in data analyses. Research results indicate that cooperative learning method is more effective than traditional methods on reading comprehension. In addition, it has been found out that cooperative learning eliminates the gender differences in reading comprehension. Summary Reading has been one of the most important ways of getting information. Particularly, in the new millennium of industry, reading and reading comprehension will be the most important steps to information production and reproduction (Altunay, 2000). Reading is not merely seeing the words or the sentences. Some cognitive activities must take place beyond seeing for comprehension. Achievement in reading comprehension, which is one of the fundamental objectives of the Turkish language course and which is important not only in students' education process but also in social life, varies significantly in terms of gender. According to most research, female students are more successful than male students (Brantmeier, 2000; Moss, 2000; Phakiti, 2003; Rothman, 2002). Cooperative learning method is an alternative to reach the actual goals of reading comprehension activities and to diminish the differences in the levels of reading comprehension due to gender. Cooperative learning is considered to increase the achievement in school, improve the students cognitively, socially and emotionally and, therefore, improve the quality of their life in the future (Açıkgöz, 2002). Cooperative learning has been proved to be effective on reading comprehension as well as many other subject matters because cooperative learning makes up one of the most important component of the instruction of reading comprehension programs (Fielding Pearson, 1999). However, since the research into the effects of cooperative learning on primary school students' reading comprehension is very little and there is not any research into the relationship of these effects with gender, it has been thought that research needs to be done in this area. The purpose of this research is to study the effects of cooperative learning and traditional methods elementary school students' reading comprehension and the student gender. Method The model of the research: The pre- and post- test experimental design with control group was employed for the research. The Cooperative learning technique “Learning Together” was used in the experimental group and the traditional teaching methods in the control group Participants: 56 students (experimental group: 12 females and 18 males, control group: 12 females and 14 males). Data Collection: The data of the research were collected through Reading Comprehension Tests (Multiple Choice and Essays). The process: The experiment lasted for 30 hours. The same reading comprehension passages were in both the Cooperative Learning and the Traditional Instruction groups. After the preparations had been made, the applications began. The cooperative learning technique “Learning Together” was used with the experimental group. The “Learning Together” technique was used along with such instructional tasks as illustrating, story tree, drawing conclusions, generating slogans, story completion, listing what has been learnt, summarizing, making posters, writing poems, writing lyrics to songs and making questions. Data Analysis: Mean, Standard Deviation, t test, Correlation, Analysis of Variance, Analysis of Covariance, Benferroni Pairwise Comparisons and Scheffeé tests were utilized in data analyses. Results and Discussion Cooperative learning was found to be more effective on students' achievement in reading comprehension in the Turkish language course than the traditional teaching method. It is not surprising that cooperative learning is more effective than traditional methods on the students' achievement in reading comprehension because in the traditional class a) the teacher conducts the reading comprehension activities with only a few students, b) the students answer the questions about the reading passages reciting word-for-word extracts, and they do not produce original answers about the ideas and the themes in the passages, c) the students do not question or criticize ideas but only follow lessons in a passive manner, d) the students feel bored in the monotously conducted reading comprehension activities. Therefore, the reading comprehension activities do not lead to the desired objectives. Reading is an active cognitive process. When the student only listens passively as a passive receiver, she/he has difficulty igniting her/his own cognitive processes. Unlike the traditional instruction group, all the students in the cooperative learning group participated in the activities, interacted with the texts and their peers, thought about information in the passages, made comparisons, questioned the ideas in the passages, made inferences, synthesized and reproduced the information in the passages, even made such decisions as which instructional task would be more suitable for her/his learning and stated that they were pleased with what they were doing. In addition, the students made gains not only in “reading and understanding” but also in “listening”, “writing” and “speaking”, which form the basis for mother tongue instruction. Therefore, cooperative learning technique has proved to be more successful than the traditional method in teaching reading comprehension. Cooperative learning has eradicated the gender-based differences in reading comprehension. This result is consistent with that of Wilson (1991). In the research conducted by Wilson, no differences were observed between the female or male students in the cooperative learning group. Other studies in the literature have also proved that female students are more successful in reading comprehension (Brantmeier, 2000; Phakiti, 2003). The researchers think that the reason why female students are more successful is that their teachers are also females and that the male students move around a lot, more careless and more trouble-making. They think that the gender-based differences occur as a result of teachers' beliefs and expectations (Legge, 1994; Shaywitz, 2003). It is a natural result that the students educated according to expectations will display behaviors in line with those expectations. It is impossible for the teachers to develop higher expectations for only a few students and do the activities with only those students. However, it is inevitable for the teachers to reflect their expectations in traditional classrooms (Kılıç-Güngör, 2003). This research has proved that it is essential to go beyond the limits of traditional instruction methods in order for the teachers to improve both the female and male students' achievement in reading comprehension levels equally. When the fact that reading comprehension affects the achievement in all other subject matters is taken into consideration, cooperative learning method, which has positive impact on the students' affective and cognitive outcomes, must be employed more in order to solve the related problems.

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