Cooperative Learning In Diverse Classrooms

This is an exploration of the fundamentals of co-operative learning which explains its theoretical and research foundations. This book also provides real-life examples and lesson plans for creative co-operative group instruction, co-operative classroom management, and assessment and problem solving. It is designed to help students develop a repertoire of instructional strategies, exploring multiple approaches and methods. It also presents explicit suggestions for modifying standard lessons (objectives, materials and the environment) in order to meet the needs of diverse and exceptional learners.

This book reviews the basics of cooperative learning and provides guidance to educators and administrators on adapting curricula and implementing methods such as multilevel instruction.

Cooperative Learning for Intercultural Classrooms helps both pre-service and in-service teachers to develop a well-researched pedagogy that supports inclusive practice for a globalised world. It provides: an overview of theoretical perspectives that illustrate why cooperative learning is an effective learning strategy; reviews research findings about how cooperative learning supports inclusion; and outlines the strategies and methods that support teachers in putting cooperative learning into practice. Providing a step-by-step guide to implementing cooperative learning for schools, teachers and teacher educators, this invaluable resource includes: guidelines for a staged approach to implementation; case studies of cooperative learning in classrooms from a range of different contexts, including Australia, England, Sweden, Italy, India, Singapore and Hong Kong; guidance on developing an effective professional development programme for a school; appendices with valuable information on a range of cooperative learning structures and explanations of the main types of cooperative learning used in classrooms.

Our classrooms are multicultural, even where there are no learners from minority ethnic backgrounds. All of our learners have different cultures: socioeconomic status, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, health and other factors contribute to these differences. We continue to find learners for whom traditional teaching approaches don't work - so we need to provide active, creative learning environments and methods to reach all learners and give them an equal chance to thrive and learn. This book is a practical toolkit for teachers, trainee teachers, and others active in the field of education. The main focus is on the application of a range of co-operative learning approaches, and how to use them with diverse groups of learners.

In this timely resource, 16 teachers describe their experiences with groupwork in vivid detail, focusing on both their successes and failures. Their compelling stories are excellent discussion catalysts that will lead teachers to examine their own views, prejudices, and attitudes toward typical dilemmas on groupwork in their classrooms. Groupwork in Diverse Classrooms present actual cases that will help teachers use groupwork in their classroom.

Cooperative learning is widely endorsed as a pedagogical practice that promotes student learning. Recently, the research focus has moved to the role of teachers’ discourse during cooperative learning and its effects on the quality of group discussions and the learning achieved. However, although the benefits of cooperative learning are well documented, implementing this pedagogical practice in classrooms is a challenge that many teachers have difficulties accomplishing. Difficulties may occur because teachers often do not have a clear understanding of the basic tenets of cooperative learning and the research and theoretical perspectives that have informed this practice and how they translate into practical applications that can be used in their classrooms. In effect, what do teachers need to do to affect the benefits widely documented in research? A reluctance to embrace cooperative learning may also be due to the challenge it poses to teachers’ control of the learning process, the demands it places on classroom organisational changes, and the personal commitments teachers need to make to sustain their efforts. Moreover, a lack of understanding of the key role teachers need to play in embedding cooperative learning into the curricula to foster open communication and engagement among teachers and students, promote cooperative investigation and problem-solving, and provide students with emotionally and intellectually stimulating learning environments may be another contributing factor. The Teacher's Role in Implementing Cooperative Learning in the Classroom provides readers with a comprehensive overview of these issues with clear guidelines on how teachers can embed cooperative learning into their classroom curricula to obtain the benefits widely attributed to this pedagogical practice. It does so by using language that is appropriate for both novice and experienced educators. The volume provides: an overview of the major research and theoretical perspectives that underpin the development of cooperative learning pedagogy; outlines how specific small group experiences can promote thinking and learning; discusses the key role teachers play in promoting student discourse; and, demonstrates how interaction style among students and teachers is crucial in facilitating discussion and learning. The collection of chapters includes many practical illustrations, drawn from the contributors’ own research of how teachers can use cooperative learning pedagogy to facilitate thinking and learning among students across different educational settings.

This book provides a wealth of practical ideas for making group work work in a multicultural context.

Offering first-hand insights from the early originators of Cooperative Learning (CL), this volume documents the evolution of CL, illustrating its historical and contemporary research, and highlights the personal experiences which have helped inspire and ground this concept. Each of the chapters in Pioneering Perspectives in Cooperative Learning foregrounds a key approach to CL, and documents the experiences, research, and fruitful collaborations which have shaped and driven their development. Contributions from leading scholars include Aronson, Davidson, Kagan, Johnson & Johnson, Schmuck, the Sharans, Slavin and Madden, as well as retrospective pieces on the work of Deutsch and Cohen. These chapters detail the historical development of cooperative learning, cooperation versus competition, and cover major approaches including the jigsaw classroom; complex instruction; the learning together model, and several more. Chapters include qualitative, personal, and retrospective accounts, whereby authors outline the research and theory which underpins each approach while highlighting practical strategies for classroom implementation. This text will primarily be of interest to professors, researchers, scholars, and doctorial students with an interest in the theory of learning, educational research, and educational and social psychology more broadly. Practitioners of CL with an interest in varied forms of small group learning and classroom practice, as well as those interested in the history and sociology of education, will also benefit from the volume.