Small Group Instruction in Higher Education

Lessons from the Past, Visions of the Future

This text represents a compilation of work completed by Jim Cooper and his colleagues in the Network for Cooperative Learning in higher education over the last fifteen years. The Network and its newsletter, Cooperative Learning and College Teaching, were formed in 1990 with funding provided by a FIPSE grant to Jim. The first part of the text reprints 30 of the best articles in small-group learning in higher education from 1990-1999, articles first published in the newsletter that Jim and Pamela Robinson edited during that time. The articles chosen for this volume include work in research and theory written by Alexander Astin, Joseph Cuseo, Roberta Matthews, Neil Davidson and Barbara Millis. However, the focus of the selected reprints is on applications of active and group learning to college classrooms. Practitioners contributing articles to the volume include Susan Prescott Johnston, Alison King, Mel Silberman, David and Roger Johnson, Karl Smith, Ted Panitz, Barbara Millis and Shlomo Sharan.

Eight new chapters were written specifically for this text, including work by David and Roger Johnson, Spencer Kagan, Barbara Millis, and Jim Mitchell. Topics treated by these authors include small group instruction and brain research, how group work and service learning are natural allies, and how cooperative learning can impact a variety of college experiences, inside and outside of the classroom. Susan Johnston contributes a new chapter on clarity in developing group strategies. Jim Cooper, Pamela Robinson and David Ball offer a chapter in which leaders in higher education teaching and learning respond to survey items concerning the past, present and future of group learning in higher education. Thus, the volume presents a look at the history of small group instruction research, theory and practice and offers a glimpse at the future of this powerful instructional strategy.

• A Note from Jim Cooper . . . vii
• Organization of Book . . . ix

Section 1. Group Learning: Definitions and Distinctions 1

0. What is Cooperative Learning? Jim Cooper . . . 3
0. Building Bridges Between Cooperative and Collaborative Learning
   Roberta S. Matthews, James L. Cooper, Neil Davidson, and Peter Hawkes . . . 6
0. Collaborative & Cooperative Learning in Higher Education: A Proposed Taxonomy Joe Cuseo . . . 18

Section 2. Why Use Cooperative Strategies? Research and Theory 27

0. FIPSE-Sponsored CL Research at Dominguez Hills and Community Colleges
   Jim Cooper and Pamela Robinson . . . 29
0. Research on Cooperative Learning in College Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Leonard Springer . . . 33
0. How Cooperative Learning Can Fullfill the Promises of the “Seven Principles” Barbara Millis . . . 39
0. What Matters in College? Implications for CooperativeLearning of a New National Study Alexander W. Astin . . . 44
0. Critical Thinking and Cooperative Learning: A Natural Marriage
   Joseph B. Cuseo . . . 63
0. Cooperative Learning: A Pedagogy for Diversity Joseph B. Cuseo . . . 75
0. Ten Reasons College Administrators Should Support Cooperative Learning
   Jim Cooper . . . 90

Section 3: Informal Small-group Procedures 97

0. A Cooperative Learning Structure for LargeClasses: Think-Pair-Share
   Barbara J. Millis and Philip G. Cottell Jr. . . . 99
0. Think-Pair-Square Applied to a Review Session Joy Ollen . . . 106
0. Guided Peer Questioning: A Cooperative Learning Approach to Critical Thinking
   Alison King . . . 112
0. Quick-thinks: Active-thinking Tasks in Lecture Classes and Televised Instruction Susan Johnston and Jim Cooper . . . 122
0. Supporting Student Success Through Scaffolding
   Susan Johnston and Jim Cooper . . . 135
0. The Use of Pairs in Cooperative Learning Mel Silberman . . . 146

Section 4: Formal Cooperative-learning Strategies 153

0. More Tips for Getting Started in Cooperative Learning (CL)
   Susan Prescott-Johnston . . . 155
0. Getting Started with Cooperative Learning Susan Prescott-Johnston . . . 161
0. Using Small-Group Development to Facilitate Cooperative Learning Base Groups Nancy E. Stetson . . . 166
0. College Classrooms’ Lost Gold Mine: The Cooperative Base Group
   Susan E. Gruber and Darlene Vanselow Habanek . . . 171
0. Structured Controversy/Constructive Controversy
   David W. Johnson, Roger T. Johnson and Karl A. Smith . . . 179
0. Group Investigation in the University Classroom Shlomo Sharan . . . 183

Section 5: Implementing Interactive Group Instruction: Practical Advice 191

0. Faculty and Student Resistance to Cooperative Learning Ted Panitz . . . 193
0. Building Community One Brick at a Time Marcy Hamby Towns . . . 201
0. Group Formation in Cooperative Learning: What the Experts Say
   Jim Cooper . . . 207
0. Trouble-Shooting Cooperative Learning Susan Prescott Johnston . . . 211
0. Trouble-Shooting Cooperative Learning Susan Prescott Johnston . . . 216
0. Trouble-Shooting Susan Prescott Johnston . . . 222
0. Peer Revision: Sharing the Power and the Work Susan Johnston . . . 231
0. Supporting Student Success in the Classroom Susan Johnston . . . 236

Part II: What the Experts Are Thinking 247

0. The 21st Century College: The Three Cs
   David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson . . . 251
0. Cooperative Learning and Service Learning: Soul-mates for Reflection in Higher Education James Mitchell . . . 267
0. Small-group Learning in Higher Education: A Status Report and an Agenda for the Future James L. Cooper, David Ball and Pamela Robinson . . . 282
0. Cooperative-learning Structures for Brain-compatible Instruction
   Spencer Kagan . . . 292
0. Surveys and Cooperative Learning: Using Student Experiences as the Basis for Small-group Work Mark H. Maier . . . 311
0. Using Cooperative Games for Learning and Assessment Barbara J. Millis . . . 321
0. The Interactive Lecture: Reconciling Group and Active-learning Strategies with Traditional Instructional Formats  James L. Cooper, Pamela Robinson, and David Ball . . .336
0. A Crisis of Clarity Susan Johnston . . . 349