Investigating the Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning on Verbal Behaviors of Visually Impaired Students

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cooperative learning on the verbal behavior of sixth-grade visually impaired students in the field of experimental sciences in Zahedan. This experimental research adopted a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of the study included sixth-grade visually impaired students in primary schools in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran, in the academic year of 2019-2020. Twenty students were selected as the study sample using the simple random sampling method and they were assigned randomly to experimental and control groups. The tool used in this research included an observation schedule of positive and negative verbal behaviors of students. The educational intervention was implemented for the experimental group in 12 sessions, each lasting 45 minutes. The covariance analysis of positive verbal behaviors showed that collaborative learning had a significant positive effect on students’ positive verbal behaviors. Also, covariance analysis of negative verbal behaviors showed that cooperative learning affected students’ negative verbal behaviors. The results showed that teaching based on cooperative learning strengthened positive verbal behaviors but discouraged negative verbal behaviors in visually impaired students. Therefore, it can be suggested that collaborative learning is one of the effective methods for changing the verbal behaviors of visually impaired students.