THE EFFECT OF NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER (NHT) TYPE COOPERATIVE LEARNING ON STATIC ELECTRICAL MATERIALS ON STUDENTS' LEARNING MOTIVATION AND CONCEPT UNDERSTANDING

Abstract

This study examines the effect of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) cooperative learning on students' learning motivation and conceptual understanding of static electricity. The research employed a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design with a quantitative approach. Seventy-two ninth-grade students were equally divided into an experimental class (NHT) and a control class (conventional instruction). Data were collected via a motivation questionnaire based on Uno's (2010) indicators and multiple-choice pre/posttests. Results revealed that the experimental class achieved a motivation score of 62.08% (good category) compared to 47.92% (sufficient) in the control class. Conceptual understanding was significantly higher in the experimental class, as confirmed by tₕ = 3.72 > tₜ = 1.67 (p < 0.05) and a mean N-Gain of 0.51 (moderate) versus 0.23 (low) in the control class. These findings affirm the efficacy of NHT in fostering both intrinsic motivation and conceptual mastery in physics learning.