Toronto, Canada, July 12-14, 1999:
Open-Space and Open-Hearts and Minds.

by Celeste Brody, co-president of IASCE

A small group of educators from around the world met at the Ryerson Institute for the International Conference of the IASCE. This was to be a different sort of meeting where participants would create the agenda for sessions on the spot. Called an "open-space " technology conference, the ground rules were simple: whoever comes are the right people; whatever happens is the right thing to happen; whenever it begins it begins, when it's over it's over; follow the law of two feet.

This format allowed participants to engage their most salient topics while putting all participants on equal footing. In moving away from a traditional paper or workshop format, we returned to the time when the organization when conferences were small, ideas were engaged and wrestled with, research agendas were formulated and human connections were encouraged. Mark Brubacher and Mara Sapon-Shevin deftly orchestrated the organization of the open-space format. When we were not in session talking about the issues we identified, and enjoying Toronto, a city ablaze with the energy of summer and youth.

Topics were identified in the opening "brainstorming" session. Participants signed up to attend a session at a particular time; a scribe took careful notes on a laptop computer and the summaries of the conversations were posted for all to see. Each participant received a summary of the sessions. At the end of the conference, the IASCE Board met and discussed future directions for the organization.

Topics of the Open Space Meeting:

• Societal Structures that give Relevance to Cooperative Learning
  Maureen Breeze, Great Britain
  Maureen.breeze@co-ooperataive.com
  
  
• Collaborative Leadership
  Carole Cooper, USA
  carolecooper@voyager.net
  
  
• The Current Situation and Future Role of the IASCE
  Celeste Brody, USA
  brody@lclark.edu
  
  
• How do you Institutionalize High Quality Cooperative Learning?
  Elizabeth Cohen, USA
  egcohen@leland.stanford.edu
  
  
• Out of Class Academic Collaboration among Students
  George Jacobs, Singapore
  gmjacobs@pacific.net.sg
  
  
• Teachers & Ideology:Receptiveness to Take on Cooperative Learning Ideas. What are the Barriers? Teacher Beliefs and Belief Systems
  Maureen Breeze, Great Britain
  Maureen.breeze@co-ooperataive.com
  
  
• Technology and Cooperation
  Larry Sherman, USA
  
  
• Comparing Local Cooperative Learning Organizations
  Sheila Silversides, Canada
  
  
• Group Problem Solving and Evaluation Criteria
  Elizabeth Cohen, USA
  
  
• Cooperative Learning and Higher Education
  Lynda Baloche, USA
  lbaloche@wcupa.edu
  
  
• Humor and Cooperative Learning
  George Jacobs, Singapore
  
  
• ESL/EFL/LOTE and Cooperative Learning
  Sally Olsen, Japan
  Callyo@bigfoot.com

The following is a summary of the key ideas from one of the sessions:

How do you institutionalize high quality cooperative learning? Are we going to have pockets of excellence or can it be implemented with more consistency and high quality? (Elizabeth Cohen facilitator)

Are there examples of excellence in institutionalizing high quality CL? Japan and Canada have standard curriculum that has led to some consistent mplementation. There are many examples demonstrating that after 4 years of implementation, teachers carry out good practices independent of organizational changes, but when there are changes in the administration, there are often changes in priorities and these can affect teachers' ability to continue CL practices.