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THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF COOPERATION IN EDUCATION
INVITES PROPOSALS FOR A VOLUME ON PRACTICES
IN TEACHER EDUCATION AND COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Over the last ten years, as cooperative learning has become more accepted as a "best practice" in education, many teacher education programs have increased the number of courses and opportunities for novice and experienced teachers to learn how to implement cooperative/
collaborative learning. Teacher education programs now interpret, model and apply group work strategies at various levels. Many schools of education teach cooperative/collaborative learning strategies to their pre-service and in-service teachers, while others use cooperative learning to frame their own teaching and programs. For example, within some higher education settings, cooperative learning approaches provide opportunities for peer learning and interactive collegial student and faculty relationships. However, moving to more cooperative teaching or structures can represent a significant change in teacher education "business as usual." Effective use of cooperative learning may require a shift in program philosophy and values, a redesign of coursework in pedagogy and disciplinary areas to meet the challenge of complex classrooms, and a new alignment of field experiences to provide support for novice teachers to implement and reflect on their ability to create an effective heterogeneous learning environment.

This volume will examine practices in preservice teacher education programs where faculty are teaching about, effectively using but still confronting the dilemmas and challenges that arise from attempting to use cooperative and collaborative learning at any and all program levels: content in coursework, pedagogy, and program context. The goals of this project are (1) to understand the variables which create effective approaches for teacher learning about cooperative and collaborative groupwork practices in teacher education programs, and (2) to engage discussion about issues in how to prepare teachers who are able to manage and construct complex classroom and school learning environments where groupwork practices are implemented effectively. The following questions are representative of those which can guide contributors' discussions:

Content: How broadly or narrowly is the content of cooperative/ collaborative groupwork practices defined in your teacher education program? Is it defined as a teaching strategy, a pedagogical philosophy and/or a world view? Is it part of a more holistic orientation toward instruction, for example, whole language or mathematics learning from a constructivist perspective? What is the effect of the definition of cooperative learning on the content of the instruction?

Pedagogy: How is cooperative and/or collaborative learning taught in the program? What expectations do you held for students to apply cooperative/collaborative learning in field settings? What are the dilemmas concerning the apprentice teacher's inability to manage the classroom and the challenge of cooperative learning? Do you consider the teaching and learning about cooperative learning in terms of other program goals such as the novice teacher's capability to work with diverse student populations, infuse students with special needs in regular classrooms,