The vision of the Department of Education is to enable all Filipino students to contribute

to the building on the nation and to enable the students realize their full potentials, such as
developing their scientific skills, so that they would serve the nation with meaningful dedication.
Presently, the Department of Education starts a new curriculum that aims to develop the 21st
century skills of the students to gain edge from other students in the neighboring countries.
Quality education is the important core to thrust the country securely to the next century
and the quality of the education needs to be realized. Studying directly from the teacher through
memorizing and focusing only on the course contents cannot develop students in all aspects.
Thus, children and young people have not yet been developed to their full potentials and have
not cultivated the desired characteristics such as curiosity, analysis thinking, logical solution,
disciplines and honesty. Moreover, teachers usually give lectures focusing on the contents and
the subjects, but not the students. This kind of teaching cannot help students learn to face
problems and solve them in their real lives.
In the implementation of K-12 curriculum, there are many issues and concerns about on how to
deliver the teaching learning activities in the classroom. One of these issues is the competence of
the teachers to deliver the lesson. As mentioned by Durban (2012); Issues and Concerns in the
Philippine Education, the immediate need for teachers to acquire the needed teaching skills
should be addressed through trainings for their professional growth. The most important factor is
teachers should be able to use the cooperative learning model as a holistic approach in teaching.
There are several factors that could be attributed to this problem: first, is the lack of science
culture and deficiencies regarding the teaching-learning process, the instructional materials
and the teachers training, sense, the lack of mathematical and thinking skills in Science. For
these reasons science is tagged as boring and difficult subject to students. This attitudes is a

disadvantage on the part of the students when they step-up to another level. Their incapability
would hinder them to catch-up with their classmates. This scenario would force the students
to drop or skip from their classes or may lead to failure. (HO and BOO, 2007, Smithers 2006).

Formal education has not achieved what it was supposed to achieve. Our schools right
now, particularly Balocawehay National High School, is in a difficulty on how to keep students
in school. With the increasing rate of drop outs and failure in different subject areas we can
predict teachers are not achieving much, thus quite an alarming situation.
Good teaching and learning activities need to attract more students attention, serve
different groups of students, and emphasize more on skill practice, thinking process and
situational management (Tiantong 2013). Mainly in the structure for 21st Century Skills, that
learning consists of core subjects and themes that revolve around three core skills: life and career
skills, learning and innovation skills, and information media and technology skills. These are the
skills that students need in order to be successful in the 21st century, therefore the students
should have diverse backgrounds, a variety of achievement levels, and different learning styles
which will all affect their abilities to acquire knowledge. That teachers need to prepare students
for the jobs that have not yet been created, for the new products that have not yet been invented,
and for the new skills to build towards creativity and innovation (Trilling & Fadel, 2009).
In term of collaborative learning, it emerges from active learning as a method that
develops critical thinking and problem-solving skills, both areas of weakness in educational
environments (Box, 1986; Boyer, 1987, Ocker & Yaverbaum, 2004). Cooperation is said to occur
when individuals cooperate with others and exercise, verify, solidify, and expand mental models

through both discussion and information involvement (Leidner & Jarvenpaa, 1995).
Conventionally, collaboration has occurred between face-to-face, synchronous groups of
students. With telecommunications technology, collaborative experiences can now include
anytime/anyplace (Ocker & Yaverbaum, 2004).
Moreover, cooperative learning is an appropriate way to solve such problem because it
tends to inspire learners to learn to work together with friends to meet the course goals. Learners
will learn to do different types of activities in smaller groups, such as negotiations,
conversations, exchanging ideas in groups or open learning that gives them more opportunities to
search for, discover and find answers to existing problems (McAlphine, 2000). Collaborative
efforts among students result in a higher degree of accomplishment by all participants as opposed
to individual, competitive systems in which many students are left behind (Slavin & Tanner,
1979). Competition fosters a win-lose situation where superior students reap all rewards and
recognition and mediocre or low-achieving students reap none. In contrast everyone benefits
from a collaborative learning environment. Students help each other and in doing so build a
supportive community which raises the performance level of each member (Kagan, 1986). This
in turn leads to higher self-esteem in all students (Webb, 1982), and also fosters a higher level of
performance by students. Their critical thinking skills increase and their retention of information
and interest in the subject matter improves. When students are successful they view the subject
matter with a very positive attitude because their self-esteem is enhanced. This creates a positive
cycle of good performance building higher self-esteem which in turn leads to more interest in the
subject and higher performance yield. Students share their success with their groups, thus
enhancing both the individual's and the group's self-esteem.

Some collaborative learning structures formalize this effect by awarding certificates of

achievement or improvement to students, or extra credit to groups for an individual's or group's
improvement (Kulik & Kulik, 1979). Group members realize that each members efforts benefit
not only himself/herself, but all other group members as well. Jacobs (2006) asserts that positive
interdependence is a perception among group members that what helps one group member helps
all, and what hurts one group member hurts all (Jacob, 2006).
STAD stands for student team achievement divisions, it is a collaborative learning
strategy in which small groups of learners with different levels of ability work together to
accomplish a shared learning goal. It was devised by Robert Slavin and his associates at Johns
Hopkins University (Innovative Learning, 2009), students are assigned to four or five member
learning teams that are mixed in performance level, gender, and ethnicity. The teacher presents a
lesson, and then students work together within their teams to make sure that all team members
have mastered the lesson. Finally, all students take individual quizzes on the material, at which
time they may not help one another. Students quiz scores are compared to their own past
averages, and points are awarded on the basis of the degree to which students meet or exceed
their own earlier performance. These points are then summed to form team scores as in Figure 1,
and teams that meet certain criteria may earn certificates or other rewards. In a related method
called teams-games-tournaments (TGT), students play games with members of other teams to
add points to their team scores. STAD and TGT have been used in a wide variety of subjects,
from mathematics to language arts to social studies, and have been used from second grade
through college. The STAD method is most appropriate for teaching well-defined objectives with
single right answers, such as mathematical computations and applications, language usage and
mechanics, geography and map skills, and science facts and concepts. However, it can easily be

adapted for use with less well-defined objectives by incorporating more open-ended assessments,
such as essays or performances (Adesoji & Ibraheem, 2009).

Figure 1. Student team achievement divisions (STAD) technique

Learning strategies are very important in teaching for this will help the learners to
conceptualize the concepts in science. The use of cooperative learning particularly STAD helps
students succeed in the classroom by engaging them socialize their peers (Inamullah, 2011).
Moreover, Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) technique through the Moodle to
Enhancement Learning Achievement, emphasized that there is a success in learning different
contents in studying computer programming through socialization. (Taintong,2013).
Cooperative learning is commonly defined as a band of learners working together in a
small group, so that everyone can contribute in the collective task that has been plainly defined
by the teacher. Cooperative learning is not simply another name for group work for it includes
learners working together in groups. Cooperative learning is a practical teaching approach to
offer learners for more active learning involvements, equal access to learning and a more
compassionate social atmosphere (Johnson et al.1999).
Teachers who effectively implement the cooperative learning promotes a learning
environment that engages students in an active search and acquisition of new knowledge
(Furtwengler, 1992). Learning is characterized by a process of interaction between the student's
mind and the stimuli providing new information. Such learning environment enables students to
modify their existing cognitive structures. Students experience a dynamic interaction between
their preconceptions and the appropriate scientific conceptions.
Learning takes place not only through getting information but also in organizing and
imaginative restructuring of the conceptions and frameworks. In learning, learners do not only

absorb and organize the information, but gain insights and the perspectives of other learners.
Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) is one teaching model that rises today. This
learning models includes group work, cooperative learning, and discussion. Sociologists, pointed
out that it is hard to be working with people without any approach to use. This learning model is
widely used in our daily living. It is an avenue to achieve the purposes of inquiry of this study.
Furthermore, based on the anecdotal reports of the Guidance counselor and of EMIS
coordinator, consolidated MPs of students in Science of Balocawehay we have the following
factors that were diagnosed as causes of poor achievement of the learners. 1. The student truancy
in the schooling or high drop-out rate; 2. Students irregular attendance; 3. Low proficiency level
in formative and summative test; 4. Students skip from their classes on selected teachers.
This research differs from other conducted researches due to the following reasons: 1. This
was a school-based research; 2. This study was an action research will be using the Student Team
Achievement Division (STAD)method as intervention; 3. This study aimed to contribute for a
holistic Science Education Development; 4. And lastly, the result of this study was to arrange the
order of high thinking skills on science, not merely intuitions and logic, and a teaching strategy
that will help science teachers lift the teaching-learning process in the school.