These digests provide information for educators about the nature of cooperation and how cooperative principles can be used to restructure classrooms, administrative hierarchies, and work relationships of all types. Digest 1 describes the competitive, individual, and cooperative interaction patterns and examines the impact of cooperative learning…

This conference proceedings focuses on structuring classrooms to optimize learning among Alberta (Canada) gifted students. The first paper, "Optimizing Parent Potential" (Trudy A. Harrold), describes a model and a process for helping parents acquire knowledge, organize their thinking, and act from a realistic base when dealing with their gifted…

Technology can be incorporated as a tool in business communication courses to help students format, revise, and enhance pieces of writing. The capabilities of the microcomputer should be introduced slowly to build competencies and confidence. This paper provides instructional tips and activities for introducing technology into assignments. Steps…

The development of educational and social relationships among students of different ethnic groups and social backgrounds is examined in these explorations of the reduction of prejudice among school children. Qualitative methods are used, and emphasis is placed on the role of collaborative learning and on the strategies and techniques teachers can…

Historically, educators in the United States have responded to differences among individuals and groups by separating students and altering the content of the curriculum to which they are exposed. Since the 1920s, most high schools have offered a tracked curriculum, and tracking starts as early as elementary school. Research and public commentary…

Human beings are in a constant ebb and flow; transcending boundaries at work and play, they learn, pray, and exist in an interdependent society. Given this reality, many practitioners, from kindergarten to college, have devised various methods of collaborative learning to meet the challenges of an increasingly diverse demographic and ethnographic…

In the context of a professional-development reform movement in Quebec, the Ministry of Education asked universities to participate in the training of school principals so that they could implement a culture of continuous learning in their own schools. The university researchers used a bottom-up approach to initiate collaborative inquiry with 37…

The HyperGLOB project introduced university-level graphic design students to interactive multimedia. This technology involves using the personal computer to display and manipulate a variety of electronic media simultaneously (combining elements of text and speech, music and sound, still images, motion video, and animated graphics) and allows…

Produced by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Project Haystack presents scenarios that depict various aspects of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Students conduct hands-on and minds-on activities while exploring what it means to send and receive a message across interstellar distances. Students explore and map vast…

"Volunteers Teaching Children" describes the Volunteer-led Investigations in Neighborhood Ecology, or VINE Programs, established by Denver Audubon Society members as an urban education project, and how that model has been adapted to draw on the human and financial resources available in other cities. VINE Programs give children…

Despite institutional reluctance to move away from a traditional lecture format for content presentation and written exams and term papers for evaluation, a team-taught course entitled "Integration of Learning Theory and Teaching Methodology" has been taught at Marist College, a small liberal arts college in New York. Rather than…

The purpose of this team unit is to provide students with knowledge, experience and an appreciation of technology. This unit is designed to give students an opportunity to solve problems in technology through cooperative learning activities in addition to addressing the needs of the individual student. This unit is intended to take 6 weeks for…

This paper presents findings from a study that explored students' perceptions of cooperative learning strategies used in educational administration classes. Specifically, the study sought to determine whether students perceived the strategies to be more effective than traditional methods in increasing their knowledge and retention and in improving…

The learning communities at New York's LaGuardia Community College consist of groups of students taking two or more classes together and providing each other with social and academic support, while professors integrate class content to broaden understanding. A study undertaken to compare the experience of students in the college's LC programs to…

Ways that both cultural differences and learning styles affect a child's ability to learn and use language are discussed and applied to the situation faced by Native American students. Cultural differences are cited as holding the answer to questions about the Native American student's lack of success on standardized tests and in the American…