Presents class activities to help elementary teachers prepare their students for cooperative learning. Phase one involves building team spirit and appreciating differences. Phase two includes strategies for trying substantial cooperative projects. Phase three offers ideas for adding cooperation to basic subject areas all year long. (SM)

This paper describes shared writing (in which two individuals alternate turns in creating a composition) as a technique used to motivate students with learning problems who find it difficult to write. The procedure involves aspects of the writing process approach and cognitive modeling. This article describes its theoretical support, instructional…

Presents one model for a liberal arts mathematics course that combines probability and calculus. Describes activities utilized in the course to heighten students' interest and encourage student involvement. Activities include use of visualization, take-home tests, group problem solving, research papers, and computer usage with DERIVE computer…

Student support systems (small groups of students who meet to learn), help combat the problem of large student-to-teacher ratios and increase cognitive and affective outcomes. Small groups allow large amounts of participation and interaction, rapid error correction, individualized practice, and self-paced work that actively involves students in…

In its quest for quality, a rural Utah elementary school is making thoughtful improvements in every area of the school's operations. Progress is being made in faculty communication, group instruction, curriculum integration, student assessment (through self-evaluation), and democratic discipline and problem solving. Partnership with Brigham Young…

Presents a game for learning about Canada's geography, natural resources, and major highways. Suggests that the activity will help students develop map skills, knowledge of capital cities, cooperative skills, and natural and human-made hazards. Includes instructions concerning game objectives, procedures, and materials. (SG)

Presents study results showing that a range of modes of interactive organization coexist in expert-novice problem-solving activity and vary with the asymmetry of the relationships. Reports that by combining high achieving status with task-related expertise, the resulting interactive dynamic is guidance/tutoring. Argues for multidimensional…

Primary students can learn about computation and estimation by reading a story about the use of money, then following up with estimation and calculation activities. Intermediate students can explore the relationship between addition and multiplication using a computation game, collaborating on when, how, and why they use addition and…

The Olympic games can help motivate students to learn geography. The article offers a geography decathlon with 10 events to help students build map skills, multicultural awareness, and cooperative spirit. Each event covers at least one of the five fundamental geographic themes (location, place, regions, human/environment interactions, and…

Describes the mechanics of group work in the college mathematics classroom specifically group formation, preliminary class work, class and group discourse, individual and group assignments, and impact on test taking. Includes examples from a first-semester calculus course. (JJK)

Offers several collaborative strategies that integrate reading and writing with mathematics instruction. Includes sample lessons demonstrating the applicability of these strategies across grade levels and topics in mathematics. (SR)

Advocates using literature logs and literature discussion groups as an effective way to develop a community of readers. Looks at the different kinds of comments and questions that a class of fifth graders wrote in their literature logs. (SR)

Although the benefits of student-centered or collaborative learning are real, the arguments made for them often appear ideological rather than pedagogical and rather than encouraging diversity, require revision of fundamental aspects of cognitive personality. What is needed is a broad view of the variety in teachers' and students' intellectual…

The learning contract is the ideal way to enable the teacher to raise levels of expectation, to provide individual attention, and to personalize the educational experience. Includes a sample contract and suggested practices for the use of a learning contract. (15 references) (MLF)

Argues that students embody multiple ways of knowing and learning, all of which can theoretically and practically be fostered in the literature classroom. Discusses various ways (especially choral reading and Readers Theater) of including different kinds of intelligence other than merely the verbal in the interpretation of literature. (HB)