Educators seek ways to give students chances to communicate meaningfully in the target language. Thus, we see group work used more often in second language classes. However, some teachers report less than satisfactory results from the use of groups. Perhaps, these problems arise from a lack of understanding of how educators can facilitate…

This Action Research Project Report was conducted at one elementary school and two different high schools from August 20, 2007 to December 14, 2007. The purpose of this research was to decrease student off-task behavior in the classroom. There were four teacher researchers and 94 students at the beginning of the research, but during the action…

Group activities have become more common in second language instruction. For example, a few years ago I collaborated on a study comparing ESL coursebooks from the 1960s with those from the 1990s (Jacobs, Crookall, & Thiyaragarajali, 1997). My colleagues and I found many more group activities in the latter books. Key support for the increase in…

This dissertation investigates the effects of two different grouping strategies on secondary students concerning their preparation for, and performance at, a computer programming contest. Students were divided into two groups, experimental and control, for a 3-week treatment, followed by the contest. Students in the experimental group became…

Alberta Education has prepared this school handbook to help teachers and administrators select age-appropriate activities that can be done almost anytime and anywhere. The Daily Physical Activity (DPA) school handbook is designed to provide information, ideas and inspiration for developing a successful DPA plan. The handbook is divided into four…

The goal of this paper is to advocate that cooperative learning be a key, but not the only, methodology used in peace education. Two reasons will be put forward to support this view. First, research has shown that cooperative learning promotes positive educational outcomes generally. Second, cooperative learning is harmonious with peace education…

George Jacobs holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He has taught courses on English, cooperative learning, curriculum design, environmental education, and multiple intelligences in the U.S., Thailand, Singapore, Nicaragua, and China . Dr. Jacobs has published more than 100 articles, book chapters,…

Teachers are given too much power in a reading classroom. We choose the texts, design the course syllabuses, and put up a written exam after another written exam. However, we cannot stop our students from becoming book haters as soon as they leave our classroom. By implementing literature circles, we teachers might return the power back to our…

The purpose of this study was to identify how effective teachers manage productive groups in elementary grade classrooms. Multiple instrumental case study methods were used to document the managerial actions of selected teachers who made extensive use of cooperative learning (CL) activities. Four teachers in three elementary grade classrooms (two…

In this paper, the following key questions will be examined. What is distinctive about cooperative learning, which makes it different from just groupwork? What has research found about the effectiveness of cooperative learning in promoting thinking? What conditions in cooperative learning help promote thinking? What theoretical perspectives…

This article describes an investigation with a class of seventh graders to determine what impact the study of traditional literature would have on their narrative writing. The classroom teacher emphasized the narrative structure of the traditional literature genre by prompting his students to respond both orally and in writing with their thoughts…

Group activities developed in Western countries have been advocated for use in foreign and second language learning internationally. This article reports the views of 31 second language educators from six Southeast Asian countries (Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) on the appropriateness of group…

The authors of this collection of research reviews studied how single subject research designs might be a useful method to apply as part of being accountable to clients. The single subject research studies were evaluated in accordance with the following criteria: Was the study applied, behavioral, reliable, analytic, effective, and generalizable?…