Jigsaw method: Addressing the learning loss in mathematics among secondary school students due to COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected all the fields in the world including education. During this epidemic it is noticed that the majority of young learners lost their basic literacy and numeracy skills. In order to identify the standards of the students who are studying II to X classes in all the Primary, Upper Primary and Secondary schools functioning under Government management, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has conducted a Baseline assessment survey on 22nd and 26th July 2022 by employing the Oral and Written tools recommended by Pratham Foundation. The foundation annually assess the country-wise academic standards of students and publishes its results in the form of Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). The researchers collected the baseline assessment results of the Mathematics subject of Class VI from the AP Model Schools and KGBVs. From the results, 60 VI class students who are in the level of ‘Not having Basic Numeracy Skills’ were considered the study's sample. To bring the sample's standard to the next level of learning for ensuring Foundational Numeracy, the researchers followed the Jigsaw Method of Cooperative learning strategy for 40 instructional hours. The investigators developed Lesson transcripts and Achievement tests in Mathematics for both pre and post-test levels. Both the pre and post-test results were analysed by employing Mean, SD, Paired sample t-test and Correlation. The results indicate that Jigsaw Cooperative learning strategy has effectively improved the Foundational numeracy levels (Mathematical academic standards) of VI class students.