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.