Abstract:

Teaching methods are reflected in student learning, academic achievement and interest in physics. In Kosovo, frontal teaching still dominates in physics classroom in the secondary schools, and students show little interest in learning physics. The cooperative learning approach is widely recognized as a pedagogical practice that also promotes social skills. It involves structuring small groups so that students work together to maximize their own learning and that of others. The problem of lack of interest and weak social skills is one of the main problems of teaching physics at the secondary level, which is a challenge for teachers. Teachers deal with this low interest in learning and try to find a way to make students use logical thinking when solving problems. As for the success of the Kosovar school system, it is reported that Kosovo ranked third to last among the 72 countries that participated in the PISA test in 2015. What has been described in the contribution is the subject of a broader study on the impact of the introduction of the cooperative learning approach in secondary education in Kosovo. In this paper, we address the research questions on the level of interest in physics and social skills of secondary school students in Kosovo. The instruments used to collect the above data were a paper-pencil questionnaire on interest in physics and a paper-pencil questionnaire on social skills. The instruments were prepared in Albanian language and derived from the literature. A non-randomized purposively sample was used for the study. The students are 15 years old, in mixed-gender classes. 135 students participated in the study, 62 students were female or 45.9% and 73 were male. The reliability test was conducted for the question groups on interest in physics and social skills. The results show that the reliability of the questionnaire on interest in physics with 10 statements on the 5-point Likert scale is .751 and that the reliability of the questionnaire on social skills with 20 statements is .755. It is obvious that the statement I like experiments in physics has the highest value. And the lowest value I like methods used by teachers in physics classes. In social skills, the highest ranked statement is I help angry people around me to calm down. And the lowest ranked statement I start the conversation easily. Details can be found in the contribution.

Keywords:

Cooperative learning, interest in physics, physics education, secondary school, social skills.