Writing Proficiency and Learning Activities among First Year College Students

The study examined the writing proficiency and learning activities of first-year college students. An experimental research design was employed, involving two groups: the problem-based learning (PBL) group and the cooperative learning (CL) group. Participants were randomly selected from sections A1B, C1C, and E1F, with 10 respondents from each section. Both groups underwent a treatment or intervention program, and their writing competency was assessed before and after the intervention using rubric. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine any significant differences in their scores. Based on the rubric-based evaluation, most students in both the PBL and CL groups demonstrated good performance in writing, particularly in content, organization, vocabulary, sentence construction, and mechanics. While their posttest results showed similar interpretations to the pretest, there was a notable increase in mean scores and the number of students who improved. To further explore the effects of the intervention, the researcher implemented problem-based and cooperative learning strategies to determine their impact on students’ writing proficiency. The findings showed that cooperative learning was more effective than problem-based learning in improving content. However, in terms of organization and vocabulary, both approaches yielded no significant difference between pretest and posttest scores. In sentence construction, both PBL and CL resulted in significant improvements, indicating the effectiveness of the activities. As for mechanics, problem-based learning showed a significant difference and was found to be more effective than cooperative learning. Overall, the use of problem-based and cooperative learning strategies contributed positively to students’ writing performance, suggesting that these approaches can be valuable tools for English teachers and professors to enhance writing instruction.