Impact of Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Strategy on academic achievement and opinion among Nursing Students

Introduction: Employing innovative teaching strategies is urgently needed for nursing education systems. Objective: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the jigsaw cooperative learning strategy on nursing students’ academic achievement and opinions. Materials and Methods: This research is a randomized controlled trial. The study sample consisted of 160 nursing students randomly selected and assigned to the intervention (80 students in 8 groups of 10 students each) and the control group (80 students in another 8 groups of 10 students each). The study data were collected at two time points after the intervention. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data about students’ academic achievement and opinions regarding the jigsaw cooperative learning strategy (only for the intervention group). The Chi-squared test and repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. Results: The mean age of the experimental group was 20.8±0.74 years, while that of the control groups was 20.7±0.81 years. There is a significant difference in mean scores of academic achievements between the control and intervention groups (P=0.001) over time based on repeated measure ANOVA, and a significant difference between the two groups over time group effect by using repeated measure ANOVA (P=0.001). The paired t-test showed a significant difference between students’ academic performance in time I and time II (P 0.05). In the control group, the descriptive statistics show that students’ academic achievement (time I) was slightly higher in the posttest (time I) and dropped slightly in time II. The paired t-test showed a nonsignificant difference between students’ academic performance in time II and time I. Conclusion: The results indicated the substantial need for using novel nursing education models in nursing education to enhance learning outcomes in training settings.