Team study training in the college biology laboratory

Students in college biology laboratory classes were grouped heterogeneously or homogeneously according to preferred cognitive learning style and were instructed using the cooperative learning method Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD). In the first year of a two-year study students were given training in a team study strategy. No significant difference in achievement, as measured by the difference in pre and post-test scores, was detected for the students grouped homogeneously when compared with the students grouped heterogeneously. However there was a significant difference (p > 0.005) in score improvement between the year that students had training in the scripted team study strategy and the year they did not. In the first year of the study, when students had training in the strategy, the mean improvement in scores between pre and post-tests was 35.5%, but in the second year, when students did not have training in this strategy, the mean improvement was 18.6%.