URLS Pertinent to Cooperative Learning Activities

 

Highly Recommended Sites

 

http://curriculum.calstatela.edu/faculty/dpaulso/active/

Dr. Don Paulson, a chemist at California State at Los Angeles, has written a number of articles related to using active learning techniques in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology courses.  His web site contains a number of rapid techniques useful in a variety of classes.

 

http://www.capecod.net/~tpanitz/tedspage/

This comprehensive web site by Ted Panitz of Cape Cod Community College contains a vast number of resources on cooperative learning including an e-book, articles, faculty surveys, threaded discussions, links, and examples.  Additionally, it has material on writing-across-the-curriculum and a joke file. 

 

http://www.clcrc.com/

Maintained by David T. Johnson and Roger W. Johnson, long-time cooperative learning researchers and practitioners, the web site for the Cooperative Learning Center at the University of Minnesota contains valuable background information on cooperative learning including three newsletters and some key articles such as “Cooperative Learning Methods: A Meta-Analysis,” which focuses on what can be proved to work.

 

http://www2.emc.maricopa.edu/innovation/CCL/CCL.html

This valuable site on cooperative learning contains models, theories and research; cooperative learning syllabi and teachers; the classroom context for cooperative learning; cooperative learning lessons and activities; faculty training and development; and further resources. Maintained by Susan Ledlow, Arizona State University, with Neil Davidson, University of Maryland, as liaison, large portions of the site are still under construction.  Nonetheless, it is well worth a visit.

 

http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/RMF.html

Richard Felder’s wonderful web site contains a wealth of articles, advice, and research to promote better teaching, particularly in the sciences.  Dr. Felder’s home page declares:

This Web site offers guidance on what those techniques are and tips and resources for using them.

Dr. Felder has included over forty articles published as a column, “Random Thoughts,” in Chemical Engineering Education, including his well-known, “We Never Said It would be Easy,” on group work caveats.  Also recommended is Felder and Brent’s: “Cooperative Learning in Technical Courses: Procedures, Pitfalls, and Payoffs.”

 

A Web Site of Interest to Researchers and Writers

 

http://www.newforums.com/coopjournal2.htm

The Journal of Cooperation & Collaboration in College Teaching, a refereed journal replacing the Cooperative Learning and College Teaching newsletter formerly edited by Jim Cooper, provides a viable outlet for practical articles on all aspects of collaboration in higher education, including cooperative learning.  The site specifies guidelines for submissions.

 

Web Sites with Useful Information, but not as Highly Recommended

 

http://www.collab.org/collabkeynote8.pdf

PowerPoint slides on “Building the New Learning Communities” were presented by Dr. Karl A. Smith, a civil engineer at the University of Minnesota, during a faculty development conference sponsored by the Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning in Fall, 2000.  Dr. Smith provides useful definitions, research findings, and rationales for using cooperative/collaborative learning approaches.

 

http://www.kagancooplearn.com/

A highly commercialized site geared primarily toward a K-12 audience, it is nevertheless worth a visit for a few nuggets and to pay tribute to Spencer Kagan, the pioneer of the structured approach to cooperative learning.

 

http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~iascecwis/

The homepage of the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Higher Education contains some good web resources.

 

http://doe.concordia.ca/cslp/index.html

The home page of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance at Concordia University, whose goal is to study and promote effective teaching/learning strategies through an active association with schools, administrators, and teachers, has a strong emphasis on cooperative learning.

 

http://www.uwplatt.edu/~clume/

The Mathematical Association of America's Project CLUME is a program for mathematics instructors at all post-secondary levels who are interested in using cooperative learning in their mathematics classes.

 

http://www.wpi.edu/~isg_501/bridget.html

An uneven site with many broken links, it offers some useful articles with basic insights into cooperative learning.

 

http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed370881.html

An ERIC publication by Robert J. Stahl, Arizona State University, “The Essential Elements of Cooperative Learning in the Classroom,” provides a useful overview to anyone new to cooperative learning.

 

http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed347871.html

An ERIC publication by David W. Johnson, and others, on “Cooperative Learning: Increasing College Faculty Instructional Productivity” gives an overview of cooperative learning, some ways to implement it, plus the rationale for doing so.

 

http://www.sedl.org/scimath/compass/v01n02/welcome.html

This K-12 science and math site contains an issue of Classroom Compass, a publication of the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, promoting cooperative learning.

 

http://www.jigsaw.org/

This highly specialized site focuses on one elaborate cooperative learning approach, Jigsaw.  It contains articles relating to school violence, including a book chapter by Aronson, “Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion After Columbine.”

 

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Thebes/1650/internet.html

Twenty-two internet resources on cooperative learning have been compiled and annotated by Gan Siowck Lee and George M. Jacobs. 

 

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Thebes/1650/COOPLEARN.HTML

The home page of George M. Jacobs, an educator based in Singapore, contains a wealth of articles and a PowerPoint presentation on cooperative learning. Many, but not all, of the articles deal with English-as-a second-language issues. 

 

http://astro.fccj.cc.fl.us/~sccl/menu.htm

The Southeastern Center for Cooperative Learning was established to provide an on-going effort to promote, research, explore and disseminate the practices, theories and strategies of cooperative learning within Florida Community College and to other institutions.  The web site contains a brief rationale for using cooperative learning and several free publications.

 

http://www.cde.ca.gov/iasa/cooplrng2.html

With an emphasis on cooperative’s learning ability to promote respect for diversity, this web site, maintained by the California Department of Education, contains some interesting insights.

 

http://www.howardcc.edu/profdev/resources/learning/groups1.htm

“Ideas on Cooperative Learning and the Use of Small Groups,” is part of an extensive compilation of teaching resources for Howard Community College’s (MD) faculty.  Almost twenty-five classroom activities are featured, including The Inner Circle (The Fishbowl Technique), Paraphrase Passport, and Think-Pair-Share.

 

http://www.pgcps.pg.k12.md.us/~elc/learning1.html

This resource provided by the Prince George’s County, MD, School System is a good start for those new to cooperative learning. It contains basic information, including the key elements of cooperative learning, team formation issues, and some useful activities.

 

http://forum.swarthmore.edu/~stemma/cl/topics-gen.html

This site contains archives on discussions on collaborative learning.  It’s of some value, but limited.

 

http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/3852/index.html

Pete Jones’ web site contains a number of novel cooperative activities suited for modern language classrooms.