Meant to be adapted by the K-4 classroom teacher to best meet the needs of students, this book describes Children's Own Stories, a program in which young children dictate their ideas and thoughts to adults, and develop a sense of community with their peers as they talk together, share their stories, collaborate on stories, and read and enjoy works…

Grade 7 mathematics students (n=18) were audiotaped while working in cooperative learning groups on 4 occasions over a 16 week period. After the second and third recordings, students were given edited transcripts of their discussions and were trained in how to interpret them. They used an instrument to appraise their group processes 1-2 times per…

This collection of four short articles presents teaching strategies to enrich the social studies curriculum and promote students' sense of citizenship. Diana Hess outlines how cooperative learning stimulates the skills necessary for effective participation in a democratic society. By taking an active role in their own education and respecting the…

This paper describes the Accelerated Schools Project, which was begun at Stanford University in 1986 to improve schools for children caught in at-risk situations. The first sections describe the present deficiencies of schools serving at-risk students and the limitations of general reform proposals for educating at-risk youth. The Accelerated…

This pamphlet describes the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) program, a comprehensive approach to reading and writing instruction for grades 2 through 8. The pamphlet addresses the three principal elements of the program: story-related activities, direct instruction in reading comprehension, and integrated writing/language…

Preparing students to be successful in a rapidly changing world means showing them how to use the tools of technology and how to integrate those tools into all areas of learning. This booklet is divided into three sections: Design Activities, Experiments, and Resources. The design activities ask students to collaborate on design projects. In these…

The difficulties that students with learning disabilities experience in cooperative learning activities include failure to attend to their peers, low levels of participation, inappropriate interactions with peers, and inactive learning. Three techniques are suggested to improve performance during cooperative learning activities. The first…

This paper presents an alternative instructional strategy, cooperative learning, and argues that it can help to address the recognized need for greater student participation in learning at the higher education level. Cooperative learning is presented as a complement to the traditional lecture/discussion format. The method is described as…

This study examined the effect of cooperative learning on two female sixth-grade students' attitudes toward mathematics. The students (one Caucasian, one African-American) were individually interviewed to obtain background information relevant to the study. An initial survey was also given to 17 sixth-graders to obtain general attitudes of…

Teachers who are looking for new ways to approach the research paper, and to use cooperative learning in the classroom, can employ the "we-search" paper--a combination of cooperative/collaborative learning and Ken Macrorie's (1988) "I-search" paper. To get started, teachers should: (1) introduce the project and explain its…

This article, written in Spanish (with an abstract in English) presents an overview of recommended interactive instructional models at the college level. The first section lists characteristics of a reflective college professor stressing that reflection revolves around the students, the curriculum, the methodology, and the college's overall…

How can students develop shared criteria for problems that have no "right" answer? Ill-structured problems of this sort are called design problems. Like portfolio projects, these problems are difficult to evaluate for both teachers and students. This investigation contrasts two methods for developing shared criteria for project…

This paper discusses interactivity enabled by two-way technologies providing real-time exchanges of audio, video, text, and graphical information among distributed participants, as one of distance learning's primary identifying characteristics. Background is provided on interaction agents, including three types of instructional…

Intended for people who are willing to expend the effort to help children become independent readers and writers, this book presents professionally accepted approaches and techniques with step-by-step instructions for tutoring on a one-on-one basis in the language of the lay person. It contains a theoretical and attitudinal base from which to…

The abstracts in this series provide brief discussions of issues related to leadership, administration, professional development, technology, and education in community colleges. Volume 11 for 1998 contains the following 10 abstracts: (1) "What If They Learn Differently: Applying Multiple Intelligences Theory in the Community College" (Rene…