The paper summarizes two studies on Team Assisted Instruction (TAI), combining cooperative learning and individualized instruction to accommodate the social and academic needs of mainstreamed academically handicapped students and their nonhandicapped classmates. TAI improved social and academic behavior, and in one study, increased mathematics…

Cooperative learning focuses group activity on preparing all members to succeed on individual assessments. Research findings show significantly greater achievement for the cooperatively taught class. Describes the elements of two comprehensive cooperative methods and proposes a model of a cooperative elementary school. (MLF)

Six classes enrolling academically handicapped and normal-progress elementary students were randomly assigned to study mathematics cooperatively or under a traditional classroom structure. Results indicated that cooperative techniques improved social acceptance, academic achievement, and self-esteem. (Author/CL)

The study examined effects on 117 mainstreamed academically handicapped students (grades 3-5) of an instructional method, Team Assisted Individualization (TAI), that combined cooperative learning with individualized instruction in mathematics. TAI and individualized instruction both had positive effects on social acceptance, attitudes toward math,…

The study investigated the effects of a cooperative intervention designed to allow 40 academically handicapped (learning disabled or mildly retarded) and normal progress students (in third, fourth, and sixth grades) to work cooperatively on academic materials in improving social relationships between these groups of students. In the cooperative…

The study, involving 119 academically handicapped third, fourth, and fifth graders, examined the effects of an instructional method (Team-Assisted Individualization) that combines cooperative learning with individualized learning in mathematics. Previous studies have found that the use of cooperative learning instructional processes can improve…

Student team techniques, involving two conceptually distinct components--a cooperative reward structure, in which students are evaluated and rewarded based on the performance of the group as a whole, and a cooperative task structure, in which students are encouraged to peer tutor--have had positive effects compared to control methods on academic…

Several Maryland schools are experimenting with Roots and Wings, a collaborative project of Saint Mary's County Schools, the state education department, and Johns Hopkins University. Funded by the New American Schools Development Corporation, the pilot project's goals are to guarantee every child's successful completion of elementary school and to…

Student Team Learning instructional techniques (Teams-Games-Tournament, Student Teams-Achievement Divisions, and Jigsaw II) have been extensively researched in six-to-twelve-week classroom experiments and found to have many positive effects. This study examines the effects of the techniques when they are used as the primary instructional method…

The cooperative elementary school model uses cooperation, particularly cooperative learning, as a philosophy for educational change. A 2-year study of the cooperative elementary school model in 2 treatment and 3 comparison schools involving 1,012 students demonstrates positive effects on academic achievement and social relations. (SLD)

Describes a program initiated in a Baltimore (Maryland) elementary school intended to test the limits of the principle that all children can learn. Presents results indicating that the program had positive effects on the language skills of preschoolers and kindergartners and on the reading skills of students in grades one through three. (MW)