Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is a method of student assisted learning in which a successful undergraduate student guides a team of 6-8 students engaged in solving problems developed by the course instructor. The peer leaders serve as role models for their students who want to become peer leaders and the leaders also recruit other students to…

Explains a collaborative research project in which students study a phenomenon known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect which is a measure of the near-surface air temperature contrast between urbanized and adjoining rural areas. Includes background content and literature review, preliminary studies, development of research questions,…

Prior research concluded that collaborative learning reduces test anxiety. Examination of the evidence used in that research, however, calls into question those conclusions. The present study used an empirical measure of test anxiety and an experimental design to provide an improved estimate of the effect of collaboration in an evaluative context…

The changing context of community colleges today is enough to make even the most versatile and experienced administrator's head spin. The constancy of change and the ways in which traditional responses fall short in addressing current challenges seem to relegate leaders to a place where they have a toolbox of strategies from which to draw in hopes…

The study investigated the effects of cooperative learning on junior high school students who worked in structured or unstructured cooperative groups. Two hundred and twenty-three junior high school students participated in the study and worked in three or four-person, mixed gender and achievement groups. The results show that the children in the…

Over a three-semester period in a large undergraduate human development course, students were assigned to 5-7 member groups to work together in preparing for an exam in one of the five content units in the course. Their exam performance was tracked over three units: a baseline unit in which students worked only individually, a unit in which they…

Unlike other professions, such as medicine and law, newly qualified teachers (NQTs) are required to assume full professional responsibilities from the 1st day they enter a classroom. A lack of support for beginning teachers has been linked with widespread attrition from the profession in the United Kingdom and the United States. This article…

In this article, Mary Doveston and Marian Keenaghan discuss their work with teachers and students in developing more effective and satisfying interpersonal relationships in the classroom. Their approach focuses on increasing the capacity of a classroom community to address and measure its progress in the social and emotional competencies which…

This study examined how grouping arrangements affect students' achievement, social interaction, and motivation. Students of high, average and low ability were randomly assigned to homogeneous or heterogeneous ability groups. All groups attended the same plant biology course. The main results indicate that low-ability students achieve more and are…

There is widespread acceptance of formalized cooperative learning (CL) programs in the schools. Research evidence of CL's power has been documented, (Vermette, 1998) but there is still an interesting dilemma for early childhood educators: a great deal of the research on CL has been done at grade levels above those holding children from 4 to 8…

Pairs of students from two age groups made choropleth maps using Arc View. Evidence from their discourse is used to assess aspects of their cartographic understanding as well as the nature of their collaboration. Students from both age groups spent a high percentage of their time talking about cartographic strategy and a low percentage of time on…

The Department of Engineering & Design at Eastern Washington University (EWU) offers a bachelor of arts degree in visual communication design and bachelor of science degrees in mechanical engineering technology, manufacturing technology, construction technology, design technology, electrical engineering, computer engineering technology and…

To monitor and enhance the learning performance of learning groups in a Web learning system, teachers need to know the learning status of the group and determine the key influences affecting group learning outcomes. Teachers can achieve this goal by observing the group discussions and learning behavior from Web logs and analyzing the Web log data…

German universities are taking part in a competition that supporters believe will reshape the country's higher-education system by funneling billions of dollars to institutions identified as the best in the nation. The competition, known as the excellence initiative, aims to improve research performance and increase the international…

This article presents the results of research about students' and teachers' use of an interaction framework (THINK) to guide group communication about problem solving. Students who used the THINK framework demonstrated greater gains in problem-solving achievement than students who did not use the framework.