3 . THE USE OF JIGSAW IN PRIMARY SCIENCE: WHAT DO YEAR 5 CHILDREN SAY ON ITS INFLUENCE ON THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS SCIENCE (32 - 43)

Abstract

This research was conducted to qualitatively gauge the influence of the use of Jigsaw in the teaching and learning of primary science on students’ attitudes towards science. A total of 12 Year-5 students (9 girls and 3 boys) in a low enrolment school or its Malay equivalent, Sekolah Kurang Murid (SKM) classified by the Ministry of Education as schools with less than 150 students were involved in this research. The two-week intervention consisted of three cycles of Jigsaw in the learning of primary science. Basically, one cycle of Jigsaw entails students working in their respective home groups, students moving to their respective expert groups to work on the teacher-prepared tasks, and students returning to their respective home groups to take turn to share what they have learned in their respective expert groups. Pre- and post-intervention interviews were conducted with six of the Year-5 students. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed through a recursive process. While the analysis of the pre-intervention interview data indicates students’ disinterest towards science, the analysis of the post-intervention interview data indicates a crystallization of two major themes which support the claim that students’ attitudes towards science has been increased as the outcome of using Jigsaw: Cooperative Activities and Looking Forward to Learning Science.