Teachers must give adequate attention to teaching social skills and monitoring for total team involvement if they are to introduce cooperative learning successfully. Interpersonal skills are more important than positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual accountability, or group processing skills. Includes five references. (MLH)

People do not know instinctively how to interact effectively with others. For cooperation to succeed, students must get to know and trust one another, communicate accurately and unambiguously, accept and support one another, and resolve conflicts constructively. A seven-step recommended procedure is outlined. Includes nine references. (MLH)

Profiles Andre Allison and Florence Mondry, English teachers at Shoreham-Wading River High School (New York), who have placed composition at the center of their curricula, giving students more responsibility and fostering cooperative learning. Both use reading logs to help students interpret literature intelligently and extract meaning from their…

Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) in mathematics and Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) are among the best researched and most effective of all cooperative learning methods. TAI was developed to apply cooperative learning techniques to solve individualized instruction problems. Relevant research on both methods is discussed.…

A fourth-grade teacher describes educational uses of a loft he constructed in his classroom. After drafting a constitution, the children brainstormed possible uses as reading/writing nook, small-group work area, and time-out space. The loft also serves as a minilibrary, private conference room, test makeup room, and staging area. (MLH)

An inventive first grade curriculum using a school construction project illustrates the fundamentals of the Mid-California Science Improvement Program, based on Susan Kovalik's integrate, thematic learning model. This cooperative learning program does not ask teachers to add yet another subject, but makes science the ingredient uniting all other…

A new science program for elementary schools (developed by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) emphasizes concrete experiences, providing students with opportunities to observe phenomena, record their observations, and discuss them with other students. Cooperative learning is a primary program component because it enhances children's ability…

Effective heterogeneous cooperative learning helps students grow academically, socially, and emotionally. Within heterogeneous groups, teachers can differentiate tasks by complexity and quantity, use high-achieving students' ideas, enhance individualized work, plan challenging peer-tutoring assignments, add enrichment options, vary criteria for…

By studying Mexican-American families, the author learned that Latinos have a comprehensive, inclusive conception of educating children. "Bien Educado" connotes a sense of being well-bred, mannerly, clean, respectful, responsible, loved, and loving. Parental involvement in preschool may increase Latino parents' confidence in actively…

A successful reading instruction program requires ample time for actual text reading; teacher-directed comprehension strategy instruction; opportunities for peer and collaborative learning; and time for discussing what has been read. To develop independent, motivated, lifelong readers, a substantial part of children's reading instructional time…

Having never embraced behaviorism and its emphasis on fragmented knowledge, direct instruction, and reinforcement contingencies, German schools have fostered a constructivist learning perspective for quite some time. German students are helped to make connections that develop and strengthen their internal knowledge structures and build their…

Staff at a Louisville, Kentucky, school have created a caring community of learners whose members feel valued, personally interconnected, and committed to everyone's growth and learning. Child Development Project schools emphasize warm, supportive, and stable relationships; constructive learning; intrinsic motivation; a challenging curriculum; and…

The ideal classroom climate promotes deep understanding, excitement about learning, and social and intellectual growth. Students are active decision makers, teachers work with students, and learners' interests and questions drive much of the curriculum. This brief article provides guidelines and a checklist to help administrators, parents, and…

In its quest for quality, a rural Utah elementary school is making thoughtful improvements in every area of the school's operations. Progress is being made in faculty communication, group instruction, curriculum integration, student assessment (through self-evaluation), and democratic discipline and problem solving. Partnership with Brigham Young…

While reminiscing over wine and granola bars, some elementary teacher-survivors from the sixties pondered timeless teaching truths newly "discovered" by education reformers, including authentic assessment, cooperative learning, a national curriculum, and brain-compatible learning. Reformers are insensitive to realistic classroom contexts when…