1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

WORKING FOR EQUITY IN HETEROGENEOUS CLASSROOMS:
Sociological Theory in Practice
By Rachel A. Lotan, Eds.
(1997, New York: Teachers College Press.)
Reviewed by Liana Forest

Here's a rare gift for those of us who long for both a view of how cooperative learning fits into and has implications for the wider picture of diverse modern society AND a more precise knowledge about the subtle micro-processes in cooperative classrooms and small group learning within them.

This rich and significant volume is directed at an audience not only of sociologists of education but educational researchers of every stripe, graduate students of education and sociology (and I might add, anthropology), scholars of multicultural and intercultural learning around the world, and any who want to examine the knowledge base for treating issues of equity in heterogeneous class (p. viii).

For those of us specializing in cooperative learning research and implementation, reading the wide variety of chapters will teach us much we may not have considered about the organization of the classroom, interaction in small groups, and the essential nature of the teacher's role. This is an important book for anyone who wants to go beyond lip service to equity and promote a true working equality of participation and learning.

We begin with an understanding of what is meant by a truly equitable classroom--both in the context of larger issues of stratification in the society and in the smaller society of the classroom--and the method of complex instruction (CI) which Cohen and her colleagues have developed over the years. In Part II we get deeper into research on how classroom organization and instruction (CI) affect student interaction and achievement. Part III tells us more about the nature of status problems and methods of intervention and treatment. In Part IV the focus is on how to create multiple-ability tasks. Part V deals with the effects of CI on achievement. In Part VI we learn about research on organizational support, professional development, and dissemination of the program.

I'll highlight here just a few of the many aspects salient to Cooperative learning: the characterization of how today's heterogeneous classroom needs to become multidimensional compared to the unidimensional, homogeneous classroom of the past; the way in which children's status among their peers in that classroom derive from a variety of sources; and major changes that need to be made in the nature of key components of instruction (the task, the type of leadership given by the teacher, the technology and group organization, and role within the small groups).

In her introduction, Cohen defines "unidimensional classrooms" as having certain common features:

  •  an undifferentiated academic task structure, where all students work on   similar tasks, within a narrow range of materials and methods
  •  a low level of student authority

  •  whole class instruction and/or ability groups
  •  an emphasis on grading

Multidimensional classrooms, on the other hand, look more like what we are accustomed to requiring in cooperative learning, with some added features:

  •  more varied materials and methods
  •  higher degree of student autonomy

  •  more individual tasks (by which the author means not everyone doing the   same thing)

  •  varied grouping patterns
  •  less reliance on grading

The result in these latter classrooms is that fewer students define themselves as ìbelow averageî and students' opinions of classmates' competence are less likely to be influenced by the teacher's and general peer status evaluations. The reorganization of these elements forms the core of the CI intervention.

In order to change status expectations of our own and other students' competence, it is first necessary to understand where such expectations come from. Cohen, Lotan and colleagues point out how status can derive from stratification according to income, ethnicity, or gender in the wider society (diffuse status characteristics), from specific information about individual skills or training (specific status characteristics) or from local school or classroom culture (local status characteristics). (p.9, pp. 64-66). These may not be congruent in any particular setting. In middle schools, for instance, these researchers found that peer popularity may sometimes confound other sources of status expectations so that a teacher may be incorrect to assume that ethnicity or academic skill alone will affect the status a given student will occupy in the class (pp. 88-89).

The second step is to craft task, leadership interventions, group organization and roles in such a way that equality of status is brought about. This is crucial, since the authors' consistent findings have been that status indirectly affects student achievement through dominance within the small group. High status group members will talk more, direct the other students, and attract more of their attention, while low status students will doubt their own abilities and when they do have something to contribute, will be ignored by the group.

Key features of CI research and practice that address these issues include:

  1.  tasks that are open-ended, nonroutine, and which have a challenging degree of uncertainty, which one person cannot do alone, and which cannot be so divided that each person does a piece without referring to the work of the others.
  2. delegation of responsibility and authority to students for the tasks, since too much direct supervisionby the teacher results in a diminution of student interaction.
  3. differentiation of classroom techniques: a variety of activities so that the small groups are doing different tasks but on the same general topic or concept.
  4. a structuring of roles such that each is essential to the successful accomplishment of the task, rather than being something which, if omitted, has little effect on the academic outcome.
  5. direct status interventionby an authority figure (usually the teacher, but in middle school, peers could be equally or more important) to equalize expectations of competence among group members.

Cohen puts major emphasis on the last feature, pointing out that unless something such as a status treatment intervenes, students will use all the status information available to decide who will be good at a new task. Nothing about the rich character of the task will prevent them from doing so (p. 67). Since this is something most teachers using cooperative learning have not been taught to do, readers would profit by careful consideration of Chapter 6, "Raising Expectations for Competence: The Effectiveness of Status Interventions," where the methods (multiple ability treatment and assigning competence to low-status students) are described and research findings reported.

While not all schools and teachers may have the resources to implement the comprehensive CI program, all those interested in equity and cooperative learning can learn from and profit by the work and the findings reported here.