The Effectiveness of Collaborative Learning Method on Academic Motivation and Emotion Control in Children with Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder

Background and Purpose: Attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood disorder and finding effective treatment that reduces the severity and depth of its symptoms is particularly important. This disorder is one of the most common problems in childhood that the rate of referral to health centers is higher than all other disorders. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cooperative learning on academic motivation and emotion control in children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder. Method: This study was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test with control group. The study population consisted of sixth grade male students with ADHD in Tabriz in the academic year of 2017-18. A sample of 30 people was selected by multistage cluster random sampling and were divided into two groups of 15 (one experimental and one control). Harter's (1981) academic motivation questionnaire and Gross and John's (2003) Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were administered to both groups. Then, the experimental group received 10 sessions of collaborative learning. No intervention was performed on the control group during this period. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of covariance at the significant level ( = 0.05) using SPSS software version 2. Results: The results showed that collaborative learning training increased educational motivation (F = 12.25 and P <0.041) and emotion control (F = 19.92 and P <0.03) in the experimental group in post-test. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it can be said that using cooperative learning can enhance academic motivation and control their emotions by enhancing the sense of cooperation and usefulness of children with ADHD. As a result, this method can be used as a complementary method along with other methods of intervention for these children.