* Indicates that the abstract was specially written and did not appear with the original article.

1.        Ghaith, G. [Email: gghaith@aub.edu.lb] (2001). Learners’ perceptions of their STAD cooperative experience. System, 29, 289-301.

This article reports a study of the perceptions of the STAD cooperative learning experience of a group of EFL learners who studied language rules and mechanics according to the dynamics of the STAD method. The results revealed that the learners were generally positive about their CL experience and willing to recommend STAD as a teaching method in other classes. Furthermore, the results indicated that the males were clearer about the STAD procedure than the females and that they had learned more than the latter. Likewise, the high achievers felt that they had contributed to the learning of others more than their low-achieving counterparts.

2.       Ghaith, G. M. [Email: gghaith@aub.edu.lb] (2002). The relationship between cooperative learning, perception of social support and academic achievement. System, 30, 263-273.

This article reports on an investigation into the relationship between cooperative learning (CL), perceptions of classroom social support, feelings of alienation from school, and the academic achievement of university-bound learners of English as a foreign language. The results revealed that CL was positively related to academic achievement, and to the degrees of academic and personal support provided by teacher and peers, but not related to learners’ feeling of alienation from school.

3.   Ghaith, G. M. [Email: gghaith@aub.edu.lb] (2002). Using cooperative learning to facilitate alternative assessment. English Teaching Forum, 40(3), 26-31.

* This article shows how cooperative learning can be used to facilitate alternative assessment in the second or foreign language classroom. It presents seven examples of cooperative assessments based on the assumption that language teaching involves instructional objectives in the linguistic and paralinguistic domains and that meeting these objectives requires continuous and performance-based assessment.

4.   Veeneman, S. [Email: s.veenman@ped.kun.nl], Kentner, B., & Post, K. (2000). Cooperative learning in Dutch classrooms. Educational Studies, 26, 281-301.

This study examines teachers’ use and evaluation of cooperative learning along with pupils’ reactions to cooperative grouping and the quality of the group cooperation in a sample of Dutch primary school teachers who implemented cooperative learning methods. Teachers reported that cooperative learning occurred in their classrooms about four times a week. Teachers reported social skills, on-task behaviour and pupil self-esteem to improve as a result of having pupils work in groups. The pupils reported a positive attitude towards cooperative group learning and rated their work in groups as effective. About half of the teachers reported problems with the monitoring of the cooperative groups. Observations showed the time-on-task levels of the pupils working in groups to be high, but effective learning and cooperation not to be promoted. The teachers devoted little time to the teaching of groupwork skills. In general, the implementation of cooperative grouping was found to lack the features recommended in the literature for effective cooperative learning.

5.   Aviv, R. [Email: Aviv@oumail.openu.ac.il] (2000). Educational performance of ALN via content analysis. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 4(2), http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/Vol4_issue2/le/reuven/LE-reuven.htm.

Learning in an ALN mode is modeled by a set of educational processes. The group is modeled by an abstract entity that provides services to the learners via its group educational processes. The learners reciprocate by their corresponding educational processes. Following findings of the Social Interdependence Theory of Cooperative Learning, we conjecture that the ALN is Cooperative Learning enhanced by extended think time. If ALN is structured for effective cooperation then the group dynamics will regulate the high level reasoning and the interpersonal relationships of the learners towards their highest levels. If this conjecture is found to be true, it identifies the maximization of reasoning and interpersonal relationships as one of the educational benefits of an ALN.

To test the conjecture, we developed a methodology for the evaluation of the performance profiles of the ALN educational processes. Performance profiles are calculated via content analysis of the information flows exchanged between the participants, and the results are tested for reproducibility. We use this methodology to analyze three weeks of asynchronous discussions embedded in an ALN course of the Open University of Israel (OUI). The results of this analysis indicate the plausibility of our conjecture.

6.     Hiltz, S. R. [Email: roxanne@vc.njit.edu], Coppola, N., Rotter, N., Turoff, M., & Benbunan-Fich, R. (2000). Measuring the importance of collaborative learning for the effectiveness of ALN: A multi-measure, multi-method approach. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 4(2), http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/Vol4_issue2/le/hiltz/le-hiltz.htm

Are there any differences in outcomes between traditional classroom-based university courses and courses delivered via ALN, which feature extensive on-line interaction among students? Under what conditions are ALN courses most effective? What can be done to improve the publishability of ALN evaluations, and counter the attacks of critics?

After providing background on the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Virtual Classroom (VC) projects, this paper describes three studies that address the issue of the importance of collaborative learning strategies to the success of ALN for students. A three-year longitudinal field study of 26 courses that are part of an undergraduate degree in Information Systems compared the process and outcomes of learning using an on-line anytime/anywhere environment to those for comparison sections taught in the traditional classroom. An embedded field experiment looked at the separate and joint effects of working on-line versus in the classroom and of working individually versus in groups. Semi-structured interviews with experienced ALN faculty probed their pedagogy and their perceptions of whether or not students learned, on the average, more, less, or about the same as in their traditional sections. The results support the premise that when students are actively involved in collaborative (group) learning on-line, the outcomes can be as good as or better than those for traditional classes, but when individuals are simply receiving posted material and sending back individual work, the results are poorer than in traditional classrooms.

7.     Hannah, J. [Email: j.hannah@math.canterbury.ac.nz] (2002). Using connected curriculum project modules in a differential equations course. Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications, 2,  http://www.joma.org/vol2/articles/hannah/hannah1.html

This article is about my experiences, and those of my students, the first time we used modules from the Connected Curriculum Project (CCP)  <http://www.math.duke.edu/education/ccp>. The CCP modules are part of an integrated approach to learning mathematics, taking in not just the use of technology, but also problem solving, cooperative learning and communication skills. The modules aim to combine the interactivity and accessibility of the Web with the power of a computer algebra system like Maple. They are quite adaptable, and could be used either as an integral part of a course, or as supplements to classroom discussion, or even for independent study by individuals. Each of the modules I used was a single-topic unit designed to be completed in one to two hours with students working in pairs in a computer lab environment.

8.   Zhu, W. [Email: vzhu@chumal.cas.usf.edu] (2001). Interaction and feedback in mixed peer response groups. Journal of Second Language Writing, 10, 251-276.

With the growing number of foreign students on university campuses in the United States, mixed peer response groups consisting of both native English speakers and English as a Second Language (ESL) students are often seen in mainstream composition classes. Although writing researchers have examined various issues concerning peer response in first (L1) and second (L2) language settings, little research has centered on mixed peer response groups. The study reported here examined interaction and feedback in mixed peer response groups by inspecting participants’ turn-taking behaviors, language functions performed during peer response, and written feedback on each other’s writing. Data were collected from three mixed peer response groups, each with a non-native speaker and two or three native speakers. Transcripts of student discussion of peer writing as well as peer response sheets with students’ written comments were analyzed. Findings indicate that the non-native speakers as a group took fewer turns and produced fewer language functions during oral discussion of writing, particularly when they were performing the writer role, but they were comparable to the native speakers with respect to the number of global comments provided in writing.