Describes a cooperative learning activity in a fifth-grade class in which students researched, wrote, and sponsored classroom resolutions honoring African Americans during Black History Month. Discusses how literacy has the power to connect students with their heritage or with any heritage they choose to connect with. (SR)

Argues that active learning strategies and child-centered curriculum, commonly used in primary grades, are also particularly effective in the intermediate elementary grades. (SR)

This paper discusses a cognitive model of how action agendas and goals emerge through the dynamics of self-organization in collaborative activities. While machines are designed to perform a function, or goal, humans are self-organizing systems that set their own goals and produce order without having external order imposed on them, or, more…

Reports on the findings of a study that examined the writing behavior of eight fifth graders as they composed original mathematics story problems. Reveals strategies and techniques employed by students to accomplish this task. Analyzes student story-problem writing behavior. (HB)

Teachers who recognize the value of working together can put their belief into practice through the use of collaboration and cooperative learning methods. Lists 19 characteristics of a well-functioning and collaborative team. (MLF)

Participating in a transition to a middle-level school provides the most potential for professional growth within a given school culture. In this article, a former middle school principal shows how a content-oriented, somewhat inflexible veteran seventh-grade social studies teacher reluctantly embraced middle-school teaming and eventually…

Reflects on research that investigated whether Mexican-American students with learning disabilities would be more cooperative with their Mexican-American peers than Anglo-American students with learning disabilities in cooperative learning situations (EC 618 919). The benefits of using cooperative learning situations are reviewed. (CR)

A parent deplores the overemphasis on socialization and collaboration in his son's seventh-grade classroom. He believes cooperative learning limits his son's educational opportunity, intellectual growth, and motivation to achieve. In the wake of corporate downsizing, there's even greater need for individual initiative and expertise. Social…

Advocates using literature logs and literature discussion groups as an effective way to develop a community of readers. Looks at the different kinds of comments and questions that a class of fifth graders wrote in their literature logs. (SR)

Investigates what students internalize from the dialogues elaborated in process writing classrooms. Focuses on four culturally diverse students in a fifth-sixth-grade class in New York City. Suggests that material students internalize is related to the quality of interactions with their teacher. (HB)

This study examined the relative effects of homogeneous versus heterogeneous ability grouping on performance and attitudes of students working cooperatively during interactive videodisc instruction. After two cooperative training sessions 80 fourth through sixth grade students, classified as high and low ability, were randomly assigned to…

Establishing instruction in heterogeneous small groups as standard practice in middle-grade classrooms is a central goal of present reform efforts. Addresses the following: (1) the nature of the curricular materials; (2) the organization of the classroom for groupwork; and (3) the provision of providing access to learning for all students in the…

Traditional assessment of student progress focuses on product and emphasizes only the academic aspects of student development. Teachers are often frustrated by the teach-test-report model, since grades cannot truly reflect a student's progress. A Canadian secondary school teacher's experience with grade-2 cooperative learning helped restructure…

This paper proposes examining cooperative learning from an anthropological perspective and presents a theoretical framework for doing so. The paper first briefly reviews the psychological theory and research underlying cooperative learning. The paper uses data from a pilot ethnographic study of cooperative learning in a fourth-grade classroom to…

The emphasis of middle school philosophy on heterogeneous grouping is examined in relationship to the needs of gifted learners. Arguments supporting such grouping based on developmental needs of young adolescents, social discrimination, and the need for positive role models are considered. Cooperative learning is seen to be an unproven…