Scramble Cooperative Learning and Fourth-Grade IPAS Achievement: A Classroom Action Study with Student-Level Reanalysis

Abstract

Integrated natural and social science (IPAS) learning requires conceptual understanding, active inquiry, and sustained participation, yet conventional explanation and note-taking can produce disengagement. This classroom action study examined the progression of 31 fourth-grade students at SD Negeri 09 Tilamuta, Indonesia, during Scramble cooperative learning. The design included a baseline assessment, two meetings in Cycle I, and one meeting in Cycle II. Students worked in five groups to match question cards with scrambled answer cards, explain their reasoning, present group results, and receive feedback and reinforcement. Student-level scores were reanalysed using descriptive statistics, the Friedman test, planned Wilcoxon signed-rank tests with Holm correction, Kendall’s W, Cochran’s Q, and exact McNemar tests. Mean scores increased from 63.23 at baseline to 71.13, 79.13, and 87.48 across the three action meetings. The repeated change was significant, chi-square(3) = 93.00, p < .001, Kendall W = 1.000. Every student improved at every measurement. Mastery at the school criterion of 75 increased from 54.8% to 64.5%, 71.0%, and 80.6%, Cochran Q(3) = 15.69, p = .001. The baseline-to-final mastery transition was significant after Holm correction, exact p = .031. Scramble learning was associated with substantial and increasingly consistent achievement. However, the perfectly monotonic score pattern, uncertain equivalence of the teacher-developed assessments, repeated exposure, and the absence of a comparison class require cautious interpretation.