Six factors which influence carryover of innovative teaching methods (learned in teacher education programs) to elementary schools were studied. Lack of college instruction in organizing and managing the classroom for small group and individualized mathematics instruction was the main reason for not implementing the innovations learned in college…

Provides a series of guidelines for overcoming resistance and problems with cooperative projects in an introductory sociology course. These include coordinating common interests and common free time between team members, requiring allocation of various roles (presider, scribe, coordinator), and ongoing monitoring of the research teams. (MJP)

Cases are stories that are meant to educate. Teachers can deliver cases by lecture, through Socratic questioning, through discussion leading, and in small group learning. Some cases are fact driven and deductive, whereas others are context driven. Science appears to demand closed-ended cases with correct answers; however, in frontier science,…

Addresses the problem of students coming to tutorials not having done the assigned readings. Reviews three approaches to promote student reading and addresses why they failed. Reviews recent research on student motivation and cooperative learning and suggests ways to promote reading and interdependent learning. (MJP)

Common faculty concerns about implementing student-centered learning are discussed, and useful techniques for addressing them are offered. Issues include budgeting in-class activity time, losing control of the class, uncompleted assignments, student understanding of open-ended problems, student dislike or abuse of group work, and helping at-risk…

Describes a large-enrollment accounting course at Brigham Young University (Utah). This case focuses on the possibility of using blended approaches to reduce faculty time, re-focus student time, and raise the possibility of using blended learning as a way to admit more students to an academic program. (MES)

Techniques for training students of international business to understand collectivism and individualism, both as they affect classroom interaction and as they may affect intercultural relations in business, are presented. Tools are offered for adapting group projects given to individualists in individualist cultures to help them develop a…

Recounts an in-class group exercise where students individually rate 10 employee behaviors of a questionable ethical nature (use company car, call in sick). The students then calculate mean group ratings for each behavior and determine appropriate consequences for some of the actions. Includes statistical data and student responses. (MJP)

Fifth- and sixth-grade students and teachers were interviewed about their perceptions of the general aspects of cooperative small group instruction. Students' and teachers' perceptions were found to be fairly well aligned; differences were found regarding emphasis given to curriculum, group, and individual accountability. (SM)

Explores the emotive, social aspects of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learning in small group settings, with special attention to the classroom experiences of an adult Japanese woman. It is argued that the opportunity to consciously reflect about her negative feelings concerning her abilities had a positive effect on her ESL learning. (24…

Explores students' verbal interaction in small multiethnic groups after the students had participated for several months in classes conducted with either the Group Investigation Method or the traditional whole-class method. Found that the two instructional methods affected students very differently and that, additionally, these different effects…

Four third-grade bilingual-program students were observed repeatedly as they engaged in group discussions of reading comprehension questions as part of a cooperative learning curriculum. Rather than being an exchange of ideas, the discussion activity mimicked teacher and student roles in the larger classroom, demonstrating influences of classroom…

Teacher's abilities to remain sufficiently faithful to predefined learning scenarios are examined via case studies. The behavior of 2 teachers during problem-solving sessions in geometry with 13-14 year olds exhibited 2 types of factors that tend to hamper scenario reproducibility: constraints on the teacher resulting from the teaching situation;…

Because use of computers in second-language classrooms may tend to decrease interpersonal interaction, and therefore communication, ways to promote interaction are offered. These include small group computer projects, and suggestions are made for use with various computer functions and features: tutorials, word processing, voice recording,…

A study of 336 staff-led, problem-based tutorial groups in a European university health sciences program found that students who were tutored by subject-matter experts achieved somewhat better and spent more time on self-directed learning. In addition, tutoring skill and content knowledge were important in effective tutoring. (Author/MSE)