This book offers an overview of the cooperative learning process, including its rationale, research base, value, and practical considerations, with an emphasis on two key characteristics: cooperative learning's ability to create communities within classrooms, and well-structured, sequenced assignments which allow students to internalize information. Chapters are organized around classroom management and structure, assessment, and support of cooperative efforts. The discussion covers components of a cooperative learning program, include forming structured-learning teams, assigning and rotating roles within the group, and using team-building activities. Various cooperative-learning structures that can be implemented into college courses are described, including reciprocal or paired teaching activities which focus on cooperative problem solving and metacognitive strategies; the complex variations of peer teaching and coaching; the use of cooperative learning principles with educational games, problem-based learning, and cooperative case studies; and technological approaches, such as networked multimedia labs and computer-assisted learning. Issues related to group and individual assessment and peer- and self-assessment are considered, as are the use of classroom observations by faculty colleagues. Forms and checklists are included which can be used in the cooperative learning classroom. (Individual chapters contain references; there are 317 bibliographic entries.) (SW)