Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning refers to instructional methods in which students work in small groups to help one another learn. There are many quite different approaches to cooperative learning, but in general, groups are composed of high, average, and low achievers and contain from two to four children.

Cooperative activities have been common for as long as education has existed, and research on cooperative learning goes back to the early days of the 20th century. However, development, research, and use of more formalized cooperative learning methods began in the 1970s, when various groups in the United States and Israel, in particular, initiated ambitious programs of research and development intended to create cooperative learning models that could be used in a broad range of elementary and secondary schools. In ...