When students enter middle school, they face 2 major challenges, one involving the biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes they are going through, and another involving the transition from elementary to middle school. Peer learning has considerable influence on how well they manage these challenges. The research that exists on peer…

Three types of student-student interaction patterns (cooperative, competitive, and individualistic) can be structured for learning of physical skills. Students were studied to observe which type of interaction process promoted learning the golf skill of putting. Results are presented. (Author/DF)

Fifth- and sixth-grade students (N=154) participated in a study which found that cooperative learning situations, compared to individualistic ones, promoted more positive cross-sex and cross-handicap relationships. It was also found that males achieved higher and had more positive attitudes toward science than did females. (Author/JN)

Results indicated that cooperative learning experiences, compared with competitive and individualistic ones, promoted more interpersonal attraction between 12 learning disabled and behavior problem fourth graders and 47 nonhandicapped peers and promoted higher self-esteem for all students. Cooperation promoted greater perspective-taking ability…

The impacts of computer-assisted cooperative, competitive, and individualistic instruction were compared on student achievement and attitudes. Results indicated that computer-assisted cooperative instruction promoted greater quantity and quality of daily achievement; more successful problem solving; and higher performance on factual recognition,…

Examined the effects of positive interdependence versus no interdependence on college students' academic achievement. Students took weekly electronic quizzes where they could interact with groupmates in a chat room. Achievement was measured via biweekly examinations. Students in the positive interdependence condition engaged in significantly more…

The self-esteem and perceived personal acceptance by the teacher of 18 nonhandicapped and l2 trainable retarded students were studied in a mainstream junior high setting. Students in the cooperative condition had the highest self-esteem and perceived the most personal acceptance. Handicapped students reported higher self-esteem than nonhandicapped…

Cooperation promoted stronger student perceptions of teacher academic/personal support than did individualistic learning experiences, stronger perceptions of peer academic/personal support than either competitive or individualistic learning experiences, and higher achievement than the other two conditions. Competition promoted higher achievement…

Using 74 eighth graders, the effects of computer-assisted cooperative, competitive, and individualistic instruction were compared. Computer-assisted cooperative instruction promoted greater quantity and quality of daily achievement, more successful problem solving, more task-related student-student interaction, and increased the perceived status…

Research on the educational outcomes of cooperative learning strategies suggests that educators can "have their cake and eat it too" since these strategies have been found to promote simultaneously high achievement, constructive student-student relationships, positive attitudes toward subject areas, continuing education, critical…