An analysis of STAD cooperative learning implementation and its effect on the collaborative skill in solving the problems of addition and subtraction

Collaborative skill is needed in 21st century era. However, there is an indication that the learning model has not been able to improve the collaborative skill. This research was intended to analyze the implementation of Student Team Achievement Division (STAD)-based learning instruments and its effect on the students' collaborative skill in solving the problems of addition and subtraction. A mixed research model was used in this research. The triangulation design which combined both quantitative and qualitative researches. As many as 28 students of class 3A were targeted as the control class and 28 students of class 3B as the experimental one. The data was collected by filling out questionnaire, observation, validation sheet, test, documentation as well as pretest and posttest. The results revealed that the percentage of students' collaborative thinking skills in the control class after being implemented by STAD-based learning instruments covered of 57% of cooperation, 62% of responsibility, 60% of compromise, 59% of communication and 65% of flexibility. Whilst, the experimental class got better than the control class as it consisted of 83% of cooperation, 79% of responsibility, 76% of compromise, 80% of communication and 78% of flexibility. The scores obtained from independent sample t-test of post-test showed that there was a significant difference between the control class and the experimental class with a sig (2-tailed) value of 0.003 (p = <0.05). It can be concluded that the implementation of STAD-based learning instruments was able to improve the collaborative abilities of elementary school students in solving the addition and subtraction problems.