Research on cooperative learning has been conducted primarily in elementary education. R. E. Slavin (1991) however, notes that researchers are beginning to investigate the effectiveness of cooperative learning at the college level. A study examined cooperative learning at the college level from a communication perspective. The approach considers…

The introductory writing course, English 101, at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, has gone through several stages in the last decade, changing from a course emphasizing writing in the rhetorical modes to an issue-oriented interdisciplinary course, to, at the present time, a course focusing on the writing process and on collaborative…

This resource book presents cooperative learning activities which relate to our world and the social studies. The book is divided into three sections: (1) "Preparation," to help make cooperative learning part of the curriculum today; (2) "Activity Units," focusing on world culture, natural history, governments and leaders, and contemporary…

Use of group story writing in second language classes is discussed, and specific instructional techniques are outlined. In this activity, students sit in a circle and each begins to write a story. The story beginning is passed to the next student, who adds a portion and passes the story on. This pattern continues until stories are completed and…

A truly interactive approach in the classroom involves giving students the freedom to add their own "twist" to course materials and allowing them to decide to some degree how the information will be used. Two learning activities employed in a psychology course serve to illustrate how interactive techniques can encourage students to…

Meant to be adapted by the K-4 classroom teacher to best meet the needs of students, this book describes Children's Own Stories, a program in which young children dictate their ideas and thoughts to adults, and develop a sense of community with their peers as they talk together, share their stories, collaborate on stories, and read and enjoy works…

Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Typical cooperative learning strategies used in grades 2 through 12 involve student teams in which students: (1) work on group projects that emphasize…

Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy involving students in small group learning activities that promote positive interaction. Cooperative learning is one of the most thoroughly researched strategies available to educators. Studies have consistently found that cooperative learning promotes increased academic achievement and can be…

The increased use of group work in teaching and learning has seen an increased need for knowledge about assessment of group work. This report considers exploratory research where the SOLO Taxonomy, previously used to analyse the quality of individual responses, is applied to group responses. The responses were created as part of an activity…

The purpose of this study is to investigate learning effects of online peer-support for generating critical questions and counter arguments in small group online discussion. The online peer-support includes descriptions of what to do and generic and domain specific examples of questions. About 45 students were recruited from an online introductory…

Two investigators developed a Web-based teambuilding instructional and activities module to improve the collaboration skills of team members involved in online collaboration. This module was formatively evaluated using 24 graduate students who were enrolled in an online course that assigned two online team projects during the Fall 2000 semester.…

The main purpose of this Naturalistic inquiry study is to explore four ethically diverse Web-based Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) students' perceptions of and experiences in knowledge construction and group collaboration. Findings suggest that individual and group successes are interconnected and rely on successful negotiation…

A method for measuring the contribution an individual makes to group work is described, and its use is supported through a study of 57 university students aged from 20 to 46 years working in 8 groups of 4 to 10 members each. The method recognizes that the most valid sources of information on the contribution of each individual to the group work…

This article, which details the benefits of collaborative learning, is intended to promote human interactions through cooperation as the favored educational paradigm. The first part of this article presents four major categories of benefits created by collaborative learning methods: academic, social, psychological, and assessment. Each of these…

Successful implementation of a Collaborative Learning (CL) strategy is much like planning for a journey. The more people are talked to and the more background research is done about the journey, the more successful it will be. Teachers who want to start using CL techniques should observe a teacher or teachers who are experienced and proficient in…