Students Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD)

Cooperative learning is one of learning approaches that has been widely used in language

classes. This approach was introduced by Slavin (1980). This approach emphasizes on the team

work. Research on cooperative learning methods has indicated that team rewards and individual

accountability are essential for basic skills achievements. Three concepts of the Student Team

Learning are team rewards, individual accountability and equal opportunities for success. Team

rewards can be attained if all the team members can achieve the designated criterion. Individual

accountability refers to the success of every team member. In other words the team success

depends on each and every member of the team. Equal opportunities for success means that

students contribute by improving on their own past performance. One of the methods under

cooperative learning principles is Students Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD).

STAD is one the simplest of all cooperative learning methods. It is a good model to begin

with for teachers who are new to the cooperative approach. STAD can be used to teach any

subject from mathematics to language arts to social studies and science. The main idea behind

Student Teams-Achievement Divisions is to motivate students to encourage and help each other

master skills presented by the teacher. If students want their team to earn team rewards, they

must help their teammates to learn the material. STAD consists of five major components. They

are class presentations, teams, quizzes, individual improvement scores and team recognition.

This paper will try to shed some light into the practice of STAD.

The first component of STAD is class presentations. During class presentations, teachers

introduce the material. The class presentation can be in the form of lecture-discussion. The class-
presentation should cover the opening, development, and guided-practice components. The

difference between class presentation in STAD and the usual class presentation lies in the focus

of the material. Class presentation in STAD is obligatory for the students. In turn they must pay

attention to the presentation in order to help them with quizzes. Quiz scores are an important

element in STAD because it determines their team scores.

The second component is teams. In STAD, a team consists of four or five students

comprised of different academic performance, sex and race or ethnicity. The team should have a

high performer, a low performer and two average performers. In determining the class ranking,

teachers may use the score from the students past performances. After the students are put in

their respective rank, teachers can then divide the students into teams. It is advisable to put four

students in one team. The purpose of putting the students in team is to ensure that they learn and

prepare themselves to do well on the quizzes. After the class presentation is delivered, the team

meets and studies the worksheets or other material. Students must encourage their teammates to

do their best, expressing norms that learning is important, valuable, and fun. They work with

their teammates, assessing their strengths and weaknesses to help them succeed on the quizzes.

After the students are put in teams, quizzes are given. During the quiz, students are

required to work alone. This infers that each student must be responsible for mastering the

material during the tea m study.

The next component is individual improvement scores. Individual improvement scores is

done to show the students how well students do comparing from the past performance. Teachers

need to figure individual improvement scores and team scores. To figure improvement points,

teachers provide the quiz score sheet. The purpose of base scores and improvement points is to
make it possible for all students to bring maximum points to their teams, whatever their past

performance.

The last is team recognition. After each team has been showed their scores, they are

given the award. There are three levels of awards given. The awards are given based on the

average; 15 (good team), 20 (great team) and 25 (super team). All teams can achieve the awards

and they are not competing with one another. Teachers can give attractive certificates for

achieving at Great team or Super team. As for good team, teachers can give congratulations in

class or small certificates.

In conclusion, cooperative learning approaches focus on the idea of student team

learning. Students learn in team to ensure that each individual is given responsibility for their

own learning and equal opportunities to improve themselves. STAD as one of the methods can

be an alternative way to be used in language classes where competition always takes place.
 CLASS PRESENTATIONS COMPONENTS
Opening
- Tell students what they are about to learn and why it is important. Arouse student

curiosity with a puzzling demonstration, real life problem, or another means.

- Ask students to work in their teams to discover concept or to whet their appetite for

the lesson.

- Briefly review any prerequisite skills or information.

Development

- Stick close to the objectives that you want to students to learn.

- Focus on meaning, not memorization.

- Actively demonstrate concepts skills, using visual aids, manipulative, and many

examples.

- Frequently assess student comprehension by asking many questions.

- Explain why an answer is correct or incorrect, unless this is obvious.

- Move to the next concept as soon as students have grasped the main idea.

- Maintain momentum by eliminating interruptions, asking many questions, and

moving rapidly through the lesson.

Guided Practice

- Have all students work problems or examples or prepare answers to your questions.

- Call on students at random. This makes all students prepare themselves to answer.

- Do not give long class assignment at this point. Have students work one or two

problems or examples or prepare one or two answer, then give the feedback.