Observes collaborative activities in three writing classes. Offers two ethnographic reports: one illustrating the tension felt by the instructors as a result of stalled collaboration; the other demonstrating a more successful collaborative sequence. Concludes that once the instructors learned to think collaboratively, they began wholly to redesign…

Argues for increased attention to current events in social studies instruction. Suggests using mass media sources to supplement contemporary affairs teaching. Recommends that teachers create learning centers and display areas; encourage students to maintain current affairs folders, scrapbooks, journals, and learning logs; give current affairs…

Presents elementary school science activities with a Halloween orientation. One activity teaches students to appreciate and understand bats. A second activity has students group and classify monsters by individual characteristics. Activities for integrating science across the curriculum include creating monster myths, conducting surveys of…

Describes five classroom activities: helping students use strong nouns, strong verbs, and right adjectives; using acrostic poems for research reporting; improving student response in directed-reading (and directed-listening) thinking activities; using semantic mapping and cooperative groups to build descriptive writing; and math synonyms. (RS)

Discussion of the advantages of local area networks (LANs) focuses on their use for successful cooperative learning. Individual and group assessment of success are discussed, effects on academic and affective achievement are considered, and computer-assisted instruction (CAI) programs to use with networking are suggested. (19 references) (LRW)

Presents several classroom-tested model cooperative mathematics activities, ranging from simple to highly structured, for all grade levels. Some of the activities are creating and solving problems from the newspaper; playing team-building games; exploring with fractions; and working on grouping and informal computation using a jar full of candy…

Presents a humanistic, ecological approach to cooperative learning and science education, hypothesizing that science teaching should be a hands-on, cooperative experience based on principles of ecology. The article discusses implications for the classroom, the humanistic approach, ecological perspectives, and synergic thinking. (SM)

Presents strategies for peer conferences to help elementary students grow as writers. The strategies help make the process easier and more efficient. Suggestions are that teachers have warm-up activities, provide a conference space, allow students to choose conference partners, and have students keep records during conferences. (SM)

Describes and illustrates the rationale, purpose, and philosophy of the conceptually based, school mathematics program of instruction at the Kenilworth Public Schools in their long-term collaborative partnership, since 1984, with the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Computer Education at Rutgers University. (26 references) (JJK)

Includes "Learning by the Numbers" (Oliver); "Industrial Control through Electronics" (Cowen, Haynie); "Data Control with a PC" (Zoghi, Lorenzo); "Portfolio Assessment" (Wolansky); and "Quality in the Classroom: Evaluating Individuals in Group Projects" (McCrea). (SK)

The research on cooperative learning techniques in K-12 classrooms and collaborative learning at the college level is integrated, and suggestions are offered for ways in which collaborative learning can be put into operation at the college or university level, especially in special education courses. (Author/DB)

Opening up advanced placement English to all students willing to undergo a rigorous summer and yearlong regimen of writing and reading provided a Richmond (California) high school teacher with some positive insights about cooperative learning activities for mixed-ability students. Giving students the chance to work at the highest academic levels…

Describes a semester-long project for a first-year writing class in which students work collaboratively to research an artist as a person, write an essay as a monologue, and present the monologue as a one-person play to the class. (SR)

Assists teachers in improving the reading comprehension skills of students by using critical thinking strategies which can be integrated into the curriculum and adapted to many grade levels. Describes strategies grouped under microcomputer instruction, cooperative learning, and higher-order questions. Recommends that teachers integrate critical…

As girls move into adolescence, they become vulnerable to certain psychological losses: those of clarity, self-confidence, and voice. Cooperative-learning research shows that female students (from middle-school to college) interact and perform better when participating in same-gender groups. To use single-gender groups effectively, teachers must…