A collection of activities is presented for use at home to foster cooperative attitudes and build social skills. The activities are aimed at strengthening the cooperative bond in a family and giving family members practice in the skills needed to cooperate effectively. This handbook explains the cooperative learning concept, outlines the rules for…

Over 800 studies suggest that students who learn via cooperative learning groups--as compared to competitive or individualistic learning--(1) achieve more; (2) are more positive about school, subject areas, and teachers; (3) are more positive about each other, regardless of ability or ethnic background, handicapped or not; and (4) are more…

The characteristics of cooperative instructional designs are defined, and their effect in enhancing adult motivation and learning is discussed. Following a discussion of some aspects of adult needs in the instruction environment, the critical features of control theory, synergogy, and cooperative learning in general are examined. The advantages…

Technical writing teachers who believe in the fundamental value of group work and its potential for helping students preevaluate their papers must deal with the problems associated with the technique by adding structure to student efforts in the areas of group training, group activities, and group evaluation. Explicitly training students to…

The objective of the study was to (1) systematically study the process by which small group cooperation develops and to (2) produce guidelines that will be useful to teachers. The sample consisted of 84 seventh grade boys and girls of middle class families. Three randomly assigned samples (rotating, solid, and control) comprised the experimental…

In the secondary school drama course at Phillips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire), the emphasis is upon group cooperation. Founded on the theories of Stanislavsky, teaching is directed toward a broad variety of skills in acting, directing, stage designing, and playwriting. The main focus of the program is on acting, which is taught in a sequence of…

General information about United States' aircraft is provided in this program activity guide for teachers and caregivers in Air Force preschools and day care centers. The guide includes basic information for teachers and caregivers, basic understandings, suggested teaching methods and group activities, vocabulary, ideas for interest centers, and…

Forty sixth-graders of three mental maturity levels--low, middle, high--were randomly assigned to classes using either the Preplanned Sequentially Structured Approach or the Incidental Unstructured Approach to determine the differential effectiveness of these two approaches in the teaching of literature appreciation. The effect of literature study…

This study was an attempt fo document aspects of small group work in classrooms engaged in the process education curricula called "Materials and Activities for Teachers and Children" (MATCH). Data on student-student interaction was related to small group work and gathered by paper-and-pencil sociometric questionnaires and measures of group…

Emphasizes the importance of participatory, consultative interaction among teachers using the Conference Writing Process (CWP) in the classroom. Describes CWP as inclusive of gender, class, and ethnicity. Discusses how CWP actively involves students in talking, reading, and writing. Considers the appropriateness of this method at one high school.…

Describes the following steps in an approach to writing research reports in which students work in teams, with systematic guided practice: (1) topic selection, (2) planning, (3) researching the topic, (4) organizing, and (5) writing. Includes pointers for implementation. (JD)

Suggests the use of thematically integrated readings to impose meaningful organization on reading course content, by selecting a theme which lends itself to a broad spectrum of academic disciplines and genres. Recommends a variety of collaborative learning problem-solving tasks to help students assert control over their learning environment. (DMM)

Explains how instructors can use a journal assignment to facilitate and monitor student groups without directly participating in them. Shows how students learn how to run groups that succeed. (EL)

This paper reports on the work of Ransom A. Mackie, a scholar and instructor in Massachusetts under the mentorship of G. Stanley Hall, the prominent adolescent psychologist. Mackie published a book in 1920 which, along with further writings, outlines a cooperative learning strategy. Performance-based education and authentic assessment proponents…

This ethnographic case study investigated the challenges of six elementary teachers who attempted to embrace, comprehend, and apply elements of cooperative learning. The study examined solutions that teachers found effective in dealing with problems they encountered when using cooperative learning. Over the course of 1 year, researchers collected…