Proceedings of the International Conference on Education towards Global Peace

30 November – 01 December 2016

Kulliyyah of Education, International Islamic Education Malaysia

COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP AND ASSESS VALUES AND

SOFT SKILLS AMONG TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL STUDENTS

Madihah Khalid
International Islamic University Malaysia

Dk Hjh Marlina bte Pg Hj Metersad

Sekolah Vokasional Nakhoda Ragam, Institute of Brunei Technical Education

Abstract: This study investigates the feasibility of utilizing Cooperative Learning as a pedagogy
in developing and assessing values and Soft Skills on the Vocational and Technical Institution
(VTI) students. In addition, the study also explores the effect of Cooperative learning (in this case
Students Teams-Achievement Division (STAD) on students’ achievement and attitude towards
learning Mathematics. A total of forty four students and fifty five instructors were involved in this
study which collected qualitative and quantitative data via questionnaires, interviews, observations
and journals. These various methods of data collection were employed to support and triangulate
the study to give a more credible analysis and result. In the first part of the research; from the
surveys and interviews conducted, it was found that the majority of the instructors did recognize
the potentials of Cooperative Learning in developing as well as assessing of Soft Skills and positive
values among VTI students. In addition, Cooperative Learning was seen to possibly provide
solutions in enhancing the assessment of Soft Skills. The result also showed significant
improvement in VTI students’ learning in terms of achievement and attitude towards Mathematics.
However, the need to consider Cooperative Learning as a feasible pedagogy for learning and
fostering values will depend on the students’ familiarity with the strategy and their acceptance of
it. In conclusion, Cooperative Learning in this study has shown advantageous gains for the VTI
students in terms of cognitive thinking and attitude towards learning Mathematics.

Introduction

Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions or Vocational and Technical
Institutions (VTI) are places where students enroll to acquire knowledge and skills for the world
of work. VTI is the key for the development of skilled manpower that are needed to meet the
challenges of the rapid changing world especially in technological advancement (Afeti, 2010). The
goal of VTI is to equip people not only with technical and vocational skills, but with a wide range
of awareness that are obligatory for meaningful participation in the working place and daily life.
Among the important traits that will be developed in VTI students are workplace values and ethics
which are sometimes subsumed under soft skills. Values and ethics are important in the workplace
to help keep order, to ensure that a company runs smoothly, besides making profit. Values can be
defined as one’s principles, or standards of behaviour (Stacey, 2014). They are often called morals
or ethics and are enshrined in codes of conduct or rules of behaviour. Values are important and
long lasting beliefs shared by the members of a culture or community. They define what is good
or bad and what is desirable or undesirable. Values have an immense influence on a person’s
behaviour and serve as broad guidelines in all situations (Stacey, 2014). Types of values include

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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Education towards Global Peace
30 November – 01 December 2016
Kulliyyah of Education, International Islamic Education Malaysia

ethical or moral values, religious or political values, social values, and aesthetic values, many of
which are also universal values. Some of the workplace values that are sought after are integrity,
accountability, diligence, perseverance and discipline.

On the other hand, soft skills are personal attributes that enable someone to interact
effectively and harmoniously with other people. ‘Soft skills are character traits and interpersonal
skills that characterize a person's relationship with other people’ (Investopedia, 2016, p. 1). Soft
skills, or other terms such as generic skills, social skills and people skills include skills such as
communication skills, problems solving skills, leadership skills, critical thinking skills and group-
working skills. The importance of soft skills cannot be dismissed. A study conducted by the Centre
for Academic Development (CADE) UPM, identified issues related to soft skills as the top ten
ranked issue during an interview, compared to academic issues which is ranked eighteenth
(Mohamad & Azali, 2008). However, teaching soft skills are challenging (Shakir, 2009; Taylor,
2016) especially when it is being incorporated into core traditional subjects like mathematics,
which is one of the subjects that students in VTI need to learn. Most of the time, instructors are
not sure on how to integrate soft skills in the classroom, what more assessing the soft skills (Groh
et. al., 2016).

Despite the challenges, training institutes have taken the steps to promote soft skills among
their trainees using whatever approaches they perceived as suitable. The Department of Technical
Education (DTE) in Brunei, in the process of implementing the 21st Century National Education
System, SPN21 (launched in 2012), aspires to develop students with the 21 st century skills such as
communication, critical thinking, creativity and ICT skills (Ministry of Education, 2005). DTE
(currently Institute of Brunei Technical Education) is also very much in line with the vision of
SPN21, in providing holistic education to develop the students’ fullest potential, for instance with
the assessment of Soft Skills (currently known as Life Skills) introduced by the Brunei Darussalam
Technical Vocational Education Council (BDTVEC) back in 1999. The underlying objectives of
Soft Skills assessment are to prepare students for adult life and to assist in coping with the demands
and responsibilities of the world of work (BDTVEC, 2008).

Mathematics is one of the core subjects in the Pre National Diploma programme at the VTI
in Brunei. Being one of the typically unpopular subjects, Mathematics is commonly associated
with solitary, passive as well as laborious and meaningless rote learning. These are the main
reasons why students lack the motivation and enthusiasm in learning Mathematics. Hence, the
introduction of Cooperative Learning is hoped to bring a better alternative pedagogy of learning
Mathematics to encourage students’ active participation and meaningful learning. Also,
Cooperative Learning exemplifies the cooperative working environments found in today’s
workplace (Sharan et.all, as cited in Mandel, 2003). As such Cooperative Learning emulates the
conditions present in the workplace: i.e. the need to work together in a team, a requirement to
communicate with each other and the dependence on others to complete a work task. It also gives
opportunities for students to experience real working conditions with peers in a classroom climate.

The Study

This study investigates the feasibility of using cooperative learning approach to improve students’
learning of mathematics and to foster soft skills and values of VTI students in one vocational

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 Proceedings of the International Conference on Education towards Global Peace
30 November – 01 December 2016
Kulliyyah of Education, International Islamic Education Malaysia

institution in Brunei. This quasi-experimental study, which was conducted in two mathematics
classrooms, examined students’ achievements in mathematics and attitudes towards cooperative
learning. It also explores the instructors’ perception on the potential of cooperative learning
pedagogy in developing and assessing values and soft skills of VTI students.The research
questions that guided this research are as follows:

1. What is the instructors’ perception of cooperative learning as a tool in developing and

assessing values and soft skills in VTI students?

2. Is there any improvement in VTI students’ achievements in mathematics and their attitude,
before and after Cooperative Learning is incorporated?

A cooperative learning strategy known as Students’ Teams-Achievement Divisions

(STAD) was chosen to be implemented in this study because the researchers felt that it is suitable
for the subject of mathematics and is manageable for classes of smaller sizes. STAD is made up
of five major components namely: class presentations, teams, quizzes, individual improvement
scores, and team recognition (Sharan, 1994). Firstly, the teacher introduces a certain topic to the
class and allows for the teams to discuss/peer teach/peer learn on what has been introduced.
Secondly, the students are given individual quizzes to test their understanding and these quizzes
are given periodically after certain topics/subtopics have been covered. Students’ improvement
marks are recorded in addition to the raw marks obtained from each quiz. These improvement
marks make up the total team score and the team with the highest score will receive recognition
for their significant effort.

Literature Review

According to Johnson, Johnson and Smith (1991), Cooperative Learning is defined as the
instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximise their own and each
other’s learning. The Cooperative Learning definition is further explicitly defined by its five basic
fundamentals which include: positive interdependence, individual accountability, interpersonal
and small group skills, face to face promotive interdependence and group processing.

As mentioned by Killen (1996), there are various forms of Cooperative Learning strategies,
among others, Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD), Teams-Games-Tournaments
(TGT), Jigsaw, Group Investigation (GI) and Think-Pair-Share. All forms of Cooperative Learning
would form unique settings whereby students are to work in pairs or groups to assist each other in
learning. They would operate differently in terms of the presentation of the information for
students to learn, the assessment of students, the selection of topic to be learnt and the interaction
between students.

In this study, the Cooperative Learning strategy “Students Teams-Achievement Division”

(STAD) was employed to a group of students from a Vocational Technical Institution (VTI). In
STAD, firstly, the students are placed in groups of 4 or 5 students of mixed abilities. Prior to that,
the students’ abilities are determined from the pre-test or consultation with their instructors on
their academic achievements. Basically, the teacher teaches the lessons and then students are asked
to work on activities/tasks in their respective groups. The students are instructed to master the tasks

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Kulliyyah of Education, International Islamic Education Malaysia

given by discussing and peer-teaching/learning. In the course of the group activities, the teacher
monitors the functioning of the groups and intervenes when deemed necessary especially in the
learning of the communication skills. Consequently, individual quizzes are administered to assess
the improvement of each team member from one quiz to another. Finally, the teams’ overall grade
is then determined based upon the collective improvement of the team members (Sheehy, 2004).

Cooperative Learning research conducted in Brunei Darussalam in various institutions like

primary school, secondary school and vocational and technical institution have shown positive
results (Noor Kartimala, 2006; Ngo, 2000; Fung, 2011). The positive results were in terms of
achievements, attitude and social skills. Similar studies by Zakaria and Habib (2006), has stated
that the utilization of Cooperative Learning method has shown significantly better results in
Mathematics achievement and problem solving skills as well as positive responses of students
towards group work. Other researchers have reported similar findings which support Cooperative
Learning to result in improvement in Mathematics achievement (Yee, Earn and Faizah as cited in
Zakaria & Iksan, 2007). In general, there is unanimous agreement that Cooperative Learning
methods bring about positive impacts in developing students’ higher-order thinking skills,
enhancing motivation for learning and improving interpersonal relations (Sheehy, 2004; Wing,
2006).

This study embed soft skill training in a hard skill course in order to facilitate the desired
values and soft-skills. Instructors were surveyed in this study to find out their views on the
feasibility of using cooperative learning to develop and assess soft skills. According to Lejk and
Wyvill (2001), cooperative learning provides the suitable environment and interactions necessary
to learn soft skills. Zhang (2012), suggested the utilization of cooperative learning to foster soft
skills development and assessment in an Instructional Technology (IT) course, He concluded by
stating that cooperative learning could promote soft-skill training and could be used for peer
evaluations to achieve success in IT education. Cheong (2010) observed opportunities to practice
soft skills such as self-assessment, communication skills, teamwork, etc., also in his study on IT
students.

Methodology

This is a mixed method study where both quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed.
Surveys and interviews were conducted to answer research question 1 while tests, interviews,
rubrics and observations were conducted to answer research question 2. The various methods of
data collection makes this study rich with adequate data to satisfy the credibility criteria of research
such as triangulation and persistent observation. Meanwhile other criteria such as member check
and peer debriefing were also observed.

The study is categorized into two parts: the first part involved instructors whilst the second
part involved students. Part 1 involved questionnaires responded by 55 instructors from different
departments of the same technical institution. In addition, 6 instructors chosen randomly were
interviewed. The research made use of both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data, For Part
2, a total of 44 students from 2 Pre-National Diploma (PND) electrical groups of a vocational
technical institution in Brunei were included in this study. One group was taught with the
Cooperative Learning strategy and the other group functioned as the comparison group. The taught

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group was made up of 13 male and 9 female students, whilst the comparison group had a total of
22 students with only 5 female students. The experimental group was taught by one of the
researchers using cooperative learning (STAD) while the control group was taught the normal
way. The table below maps the research questions with the methods of data collection, the
instrument used and the data analysis conducted. All of the instruments shown were pilot tested to
obtain the reliability and were content validated. The Cronbach’s alpha values were found to be
more than 0.738. Statistical Package for Social Science version 22 was used to analyze the
quantitative data. As for the qualitative data, interview data were transcribed and themes analysis
was performed to answer the research questions. It was also performed to support the quantitative
findings in some cases. Qualitative analyzing was crucial to triangulate data and provide more
meaning to the resultant information.

Table 1: A mapping of the research questions to the data collection methods, instruments
and data analysis

Research Questions Data Instruments for data collection Data Analysis

Collection
Methods
1. What are the 10 self-developed statements
instructors’ Questionnaire requiring the instructors to SPSS –
perception of choose between strongly Descriptive
cooperative disagree, disagree, agree and statistics
learning as a tool in strongly agree on a scale of 1 to 4
developing and respectively. Instructors are also
assessing values asked to answer 1 open-ended
and soft skills in question on soft-skills assessment
VTI students?? or learning in general
Interview protocol with
Interview with questions: Theme
6 instructors 1. Is the guideline to instil SS searching
clear?
2. How is SS mark awarded?
3. Should values and SS be
fostered when learning any
courses?
4. Comment on CL as a tool to
instil SS and also assessing SS
2. Is there any Pre and post-test in mathematics,
Test and Quiz
improvement in several mathematics quizzes for
VTI students’ the topics of percentages and
mathematics standard form t-tests and
achievements and Interview protocol with sample theme
Interview
their attitude, questions: searching
before and after 1. Do you think math is difficult?

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Cooperative 2. Does CL improve mathematics

Learning is understanding and
incorporated? achievement?
3. Does CL setting help in
solving problems?
4. CL makes you more
participative
5. CL makes you want to learn
more
6. Do you prefer Math in CL
setting or previously?
Journal Students and Researchers
reflection
Cooperative learning rubric,
Observation
observation checklist

Results and Discussions

First Research Question.

Table 2 Survey questions and the mean, standard deviation and percentage of respondents in
strength of agreement to each statement.
mea Std.
N STATEMENT SA A D SD
n Dev
O % % % %
1 The Soft Skills (SS) assessment should be
conducted throughout the course. 3.23 .57 61.
6 30.9 8 7.3 0.0
2 SS assessment is mostly based on student’s 3.15 .52 70.
individual performance. 4 21.8 9 7.3 0.0
3 I am very sure when giving marks for my
students’ SS assessment, (for instance, I have a 2.76 .69 47. 38.
certain system to guide me when awarding the 3 14.5 3 2 0.0
overall marks).
4 2.47
It is reasonably sufficient to assess SS of a .81
2.52 29. 50.
student when he/she is working alone. 3
* 12.7 1 9 7.3
5 It is easier to assess students SS in Cooperative 3.27 .48 69.
learning settings 9 29.1 1 1.8 0.0
6
Students can develop values and SS when they 3.42 .53 54.
work in cooperative pairs/groups. 4 43.6 5 1.8 0.0

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7 Students can improve their learning when they 3.22 .60 61.
work in cooperative pairs/groups. 7 30.9 8 5.5 1.8
8 Getting students to work cooperatively in 1.89 10. 56. 29.
pairs/groups does not benefit them much in terms 3.05 .73 3.6 9 4 1
of developing their SS. * 7
9 Students’ SS and values can be developed 2.87 .64 58. 27.
through cooperative learning strategies. 0 14.5 1 3 0.0
10 Even though students acquire their social skills
previously, they can learn a great deal from their 3.27 .48 69.
interaction with their peers. 9 29.1 1 1.8 0.0
Average mean on development of SS and values
(statements 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) with negative statement 3.17 .60
8 recoded 8
Average mean on assessment of SS (statements 2.95 .80
1, 3, 4, 5) 1
*The values denoted with asterisk shows the mean when the negative statement is decoded.

It can be seen from Table 2 that statements related to fostering values and soft skills (6, 7,
8 (negative statement when transposed give a value of 3.05), 9, 10) scored an average mean of
3.17 which shows that instructors ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’ that cooperative learning could
develop values and soft skills although there is a small percentage who don’t seem to agree. As for
assessment of soft skills (SS), statement 2 showed the situation at research, where most instructors
agree and strongly agree that soft skill assessment is mostly based on individual work, which
shows they rarely consider group work for assessment of soft skills. However, statement 4 shows
that many instructors disagree and strongly disagree that it is sufficient to assess soft skills without
cooperative learning. In statement 5, only 1 instructor disagrees that it is easier to assess students
in cooperative learning setting.

Interview data of 6 instructors clarifies some of the survey data. For example, although
most instructors agree that soft skills should be done throughout the year, at least 3 of them hinted
that they usually awarded soft skills marks by recalling the practical sessions they had with the
students when SS marks need to be submitted. This is due to their non-awareness of any guidelines
on how soft skills assessment should be conducted. It is harder for instructors teaching core
subjects like mathematics and languages because they rarely have practical sessions when teaching
the students. All instructors agree that values and SS should be incorporated in the learning of their
subjects and that cooperative learning will help them to assess soft skills as well as develop it.

Second research question

Mathematics Achievement Pre-test and Post-Test

Paired sample t-test was conducted on both the experimental and the control group to examine the
difference between the post-test and the pre-test. The result is shown below:

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Table 3: Paired samples statistics for research sample

Mean N Std.
Deviation
Pair 1 Pre-test 15.80 22 1.697
Post-test 19.27 22 1.183

Table 3 shows that the difference between the mean marks in the post-test as compared to pre-test
is 3.467. Table 4 shows that the paired sample t-test conducted on the two means gives a
statistically significant result.

Table 4 Paired samples test for research sample

95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Mean Std. Std. Lower Upper t df Sig. (2
Deviation Error tailed)
Mean
-3.467 5.792 1.496 -6.674 -2.59 -2.318 21 0.036

As for the control group, Table 5 showed that difference in scores between the post test
and pre test is 2.00. Table 6 shows that the difference is not significant for the control group.

Table 5 Paired samples statistics for comparison class

Mean N Std.
Deviation
Pair 1 Pre-test 18.44 22 1.275
Post-test 20.44 22 1.558

Table 6 Paired samples test for research sample

95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Mean Std. Std. Lower Upper t df Sig. (2
Deviation Error tailed)
Mean
-2.000 4.848 1.116 -5.726 1.726 -1.238 8 0.251

Students’ structured interviews, rubric and reflection

Six students were interviewed to explore their perception towards mathematics in the cooperative
learning setting. Table 7 shows the number of responses towards the interview questions as the
researchers analysed and categorized the students answers into ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘neutral’.

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Table 7 Parts of questions and number of respondents.

No. Questions Responses
Yes Neutral No
1 Do you think Mathematics is a difficult subject? 6
2 Does CL help you to improve your 6
understanding and achievement in Mathematics?
3 Do you find you are able to solve Mathematics 6
questions when you are in CL setting?
4 Do you find that you can be more participative 6
now in Mathematics class?
5 Do you think CL makes you want to learn 4 2
Mathematics more?
6 Do you prefer to learn Mathematics in a CL 5 1
setting as compared to previous setting?

From the interview questions and answers, it can be seen that most of the students agreed
that Cooperative Learning was the factor influencing their improvement and understanding in
Mathematics. From the interview, overall positive remarks on both attitude and cognition were
received from the students on Cooperative Learning. Nevertheless, limitations such as the
existence of non-cooperative peers was identified to influence a few students’ perception which
caused them to be neutral in considering Cooperative Learning as the preferred learning style for
Mathematics and other subjects. Note that all six students are neutral in their judgment of whether
mathematics is a difficult subject or not.

Other Results

A rubric on cooperative learning was designed and used to observe the effectiveness of
Cooperative Learning implemented in this research. The rubric examines all 5 elements of
cooperative learning –individual accountability, positive interdependence, Interpersonal and small
group skills, face to face promotive interaction and group processing, on three scales 1=beginning,
2=developing and 3=accomplished. The rubric was used in every class to monitor students’ level
of cooperativeness. Students were seen to fairly improve from one lesson to another. The
comments of the students according to their groups based on the rubric administered to them were
shown in Table 8.

Table 8 Comments on group cooperative learning based on the rubric used

Overall comment

Group A Group showed inconsistent performance. Sometimes poor

cooperation amongst team members. However, in other
lessons, they were very good in delegating tasks.
Group B This was the only group that followed the suggestion of the
instructor to confer with other groups once they have
conferred with their own group. This group (4 members) made
use of pair discussion prior to conferring with the other pair

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within the group. A very united group although they can be a

bit noisy. (One member actually expressed discomfort in his
reflection on the noise level)
Group C The most organized group, a leader and a recorder. Everyone
was kept on the same pace with the help of the recorder. There
was one shy student; the teacher recommended the others to
encourage her to speak up. Interestingly, the group members
sided her by saying she was not always like that. (Again, it
would be interesting to triangulate this information by looking
at their reflection)
Group D Very cohesive and strong dependence on each other.
Group E Group displayed unity in aspects of coming early and serious
peer teaching. This was the first group to submit their
reflection. However, one high achiever in the group had to be
occasionally prompted to participate more.

In triangulating the information obtained from the rubric, reflective exercises from students
were used. The reflective exercises proved that students were aware of areas which need
improvement and made suggestions about how to move forward in Cooperative Learning
environment. In addition this is further supported by the researchers own reflection and
observation.

Discussion and Conclusion

This study has presented results from various data in determining whether cooperative learning is
a feasible strategy in developing and assessing values and soft skills, while at the same time
enhancing students’ achievement in learning mathematics. Instructors’ interviews show that they
are uncertain of how to conduct the soft skills assessment and that their primary way of assessing
was via observation of students individually. However, observing students individually do not
entitle instructors to look at students skills such as teamwork, leadership qualities, and even
communication. Therefore, all of the instructors agreed that cooperative learning would provide
them with the solution. The results satisfies the suggestions by Zhang (2012) and Cheong (2010)
that cooperative learning offers opportunities for students to inculcate their soft skills and values,
in preparation for the world of work. It also confirms the statement by Lejk and Wyvill (2001) that
cooperative learning provides suitable environment and interactions necessary for students to
develop soft skills. The result also shows that students’ learning of mathematics and attitude is
enhanced because they are able to discuss and work out mathematics problems together in order
to come-up with novel ways of solving problems.

In conclusion, Cooperative Learning in this study has shown advantageous gains for the
VTI students in terms of cognitive thinking and attitude towards learning Mathematics. In addition,
Cooperative Learning was seen to possibly provide solutions in enhancing the development and
improving the assessment of Soft Skills. No doubt Cooperative Learning could be a way forward
towards improving the learning of students in VTI, in support of the vision of upgrading and
revolutionizing teaching and learning pedagogies.

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