Team Achievement Challenge (TAC) Model

An application of cooperative learning is the study of Bulaon (2011). Devising what he coined as ‘Team-Achievement Challenge (TAC) Model,’ he made pairings among the combination of his criminology and business administration students taking up College Algebra. His problem arose from the “poor academic performance of University of the Cordilleras freshmen in college algebra, where he had to review past and basic lessons in arithmetic, high school algebra, and even college algebra in order for students to cope with current lessons (p.19).” He made use of the quasi-experimental method whereby he paired one control group of criminology and business administration students and another set of students for the experimental group. The experimental

Both the individual and the social contexts are active and constructive in producing learning and understanding (p.52).

The above quote, according to Bulaon (2011), is the very essence of cooperative learning. Bulaon (2011) adds,

In cooperative learning, students work together in small groups on a structured activity. They are individually accountable for their work, and the work of the group as a whole is also assessed. Cooperative groups work face-to-face and learn as a team (p.24).

Cooperative learning, according to Bulaon (2011), is based on two educational theories: a) Pragmatism by Charles Pierce, William James, and John Dewey; and b) Constructivism by Giovanni Battista Vico, Jean Piaget, and Lev Semenovich Vygostsky. For Dewey (in Bulaon, 2011), “the classroom should mirror the larger society and be a laboratory for real-life learning (p.25).” Bulaon further cites Dewey, stating that the emphasis is on small, problem-solving groups of students searching for their own answers and learning democratic principles through day-to-day interactions with one another (in Arends, 2009; p.

Like most module makers, she designed her material on theories of learning according to John Locke (theory of knowledge), Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (learning through the senses), and Jean Piaget (cognitive development theory).

In her module, Laquiao (2011) devised lessons centering on vocabulary, where the pupils are to supply three-letter words ending in –ag (bag), -at (bat), -am (ram), -og (log), and –ot (cot). These words come in different levels of exposure (identification, matching, and sentence use). After the exposure of the pupils to her module, she came to the conclusion that ”the reading achievement level of the children during post-test is higher than in pre-test, and that the children read more words during the post-test than the words they read in the pre-test (p.80).” The use of modules to reinforce learning is backed by experts. Kolb (in Laquiao, 2011) states that modules combine visual representations and learning activities that enable children to do and experience the lesson itself (p. 30). Laquiao adds: “modules are self-paced that children are given the opportunity to advance at their own rates” (p.