Two mathematics teachers having equal qualification with equal teaching experience and considerably equal
teaching potential were selected to teach the control and experimental groups. The teacher volunteering for teaching the
experimental group was provided two weeks training in cooperative learning i.e. one week for theory and one week for
practical teaching. Same lesson plans and worksheets were used along with the direct teaching strategy for both control
and experimental groups. The control group was kept under control condition by providing traditional competitive
situation in the class while the experimental group was provided with cooperative learning method STAD (Students Team
Achievement Division) as treatment. This experiment lasted for a period of 10 weeks. In the 10th week of experiment,
both groups were observed to measure the level of students’ engagement in learning process for three days. After the
provision of instruction and practice on 18 lesson plans covering five chapters, the academic achievement of control and
experimental group was examined through a posttest. The students and teachers continued working on next chapters.
The same posttest was administered surprisingly six weeks after the first evaluation to test the retention level of students
of both experimental and control group.
It is obvious from discussions by Ellett & Chauvin ( 1991) and Assor & Connell (1992) that direct observation is
the most suitable and reliable tool for measuring students’ engagement. Therefore observation checklist was used to
measure students’ engagement level in learning during last six days of this treatment. Using momentary time sampling
system technique, each student of experimental and control groups was observed for performance orientation, rigorous
thinking, meaningfulness of work, clarity of learning, individual attention, confidence, verbal participation, consistent focus
and positive body language. Individual engagement score was calculated on basis of five points scale of observation
checklist. Moreover, pretest and posttest were used as research tools to measure the academic achievement and
retention of comparison groups. Actually posttest was a test parallel to pretest. Equality and similarity of these two tests
was ensured on the basis of judgmental evaluation by the experts. Reliability of this test was determined by using
Spearman – Brown’s prophecy formula. Reliability of the posttest was found to be 0.75. McDaniel (1994) has mentioned
this value of reliability coefficient is acceptable