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Letter from the Co-president February 2004 Dear Colleagues: In conjunction with our conference in Singapore, IASCE is pleased to bring you this edition of our member newsletter. Conferences are so exciting—and so tiring! IASCE conferences always provide wonderful opportunities to reconnect with old friends, to make new friends, and to learn how cooperative learning is researched and implemented around the world. At the Singapore conference, IASCE will be celebrating its 25th birthday. In this issue of the newsletter, Yael Sharan shares with us a reflection on our early years and reminds us how cooperative learning has developed and spread. As an organization, we have much of which to be proud—including our most recent book Teaching Cooperative Learning, and we know that many exciting challenges and possibilities lie ahead. On the last day of the conference--as one way of encouraging continued work and new directions for practitioners, researchers, and the organization itself—former and current IASCE Board Members will facilitate a conversation designed to help discover and articulate both these challenges and these possibilities. In reading the articles in this issue, notice too that many authors suggest both challenges and possibilities. For instance: Gertrude Tinker Sachs describes steps towards the implementation of cooperative learning in primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong and the challenge of moving from a view of cooperative learning as an “add on” technique to the view of cooperation as integral to learning and schools. Describing cooperative learning applications in higher education in Asia, Dean Tjosvold suggests that cultural context is often a challenge in the implementation of cooperative learning. Spencer Kagan, in his article which previews the interactive keynote he will be sharing in Singapore, outlines links between brain-based learning and cooperative learning; these links suggest new directions for research and new reasons for educators to renew and expand their understanding and use of cooperative learning. In the recent special issue of Theory into Practice, edited by David and Roger Johnson, the links between cooperative learning and conflict resolution and mediation are explored in depth. Again, these links suggest many possibilities and remind us of the power of cooperation. This issue of Theory into Practice is the third issue in five years to focus on the benefits and uses of cooperation in education. That kind of in-depth commitment to a “topic” is rare in education writing. It suggests, as does the breadth of articles in this issue’s “From the Journals” section and the formation of the Japanese Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education, that cooperative learning is inclusive, relevant, and vital. To those of you who have joined us in Singapore, we welcome you and your voice as we reflect on our history and focus on our future. To those of you at home, or in your classrooms, or who are reading this issue in the company of colleagues, we welcome your thoughts and honor your work and your support for IASCE. Cooperatively yours, Lynda
Lynda Baloche
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