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Letter from the Co-president July 2005 Dear Colleagues: IASCE includes in this issue of its newsletter a tribute to Elizabeth Cohen. Liz died in March 2005. She was a wonderful thinker and researcher. Her support of IASCE spanned more than two decades—from participation in early conferences and service as a member of the Board, to her keynote address in Manchester, England in 2002. We are grateful to have known her life and work, and we mourn her loss. In this issue of our newsletter, we learn about efforts in educational reform in Armenia. This article is the latest contribution to the Forum series, coordinated by Board Member Yael Sharan. We thank Board Member Pasi Sahlberg for bringing us news of these developments. In this issue, we also hear from Yael about her recent trip to Verona, Italy where she presented at the International Association for Intercultural Education conference. The entire Forum series, and Yael’s account, remind us that, worldwide, the educational contexts continue to increase in their diversity. We need to remind ourselves that cooperative learning is critically linked—historically, theoretically, and philosophically—to implementation of meaningful education in diverse populations. Yael’s example and message are clear; she is encouraging us to build and maintain links with organizations whose interests and missions complement those of the IASCE. Please do look around you and consider other professional organizations with whom you work. Should the IASCE website provide a link to these organizations? Should IASCE consider and propose a deeper level collaboration such as Yael is suggesting? Think about this and let us know. You can send a note through the IASCE website or directly to me at lbaloche@wcupa.edu. Once again, our newsletter brings together an interesting collection of abstracts, reviews, lists, and web-based resources. Included in this issue are abstracts from recent work by two former IASCE Presidents, Bette Chambers and Robert Slavin, IASCE Board Member, Christine Lee, and two members of the Singapore 2004 planning committee, Kenneth Lim and Ho Boon Tiong. Some abstracts in the “From the Journals” section remind us that the mobility of our world makes for interesting educational challenges; these articles include one that focuses on graduate students from Japan who are studying in Canada and a second that focuses on immigrants from Cambodia, Laos, Cape Verde, and Hong Kong in an English language learning program. Other abstracts remind us that successful use of cooperative learning takes time and requires procedural knowledge, skills, and roles that help to coordinate the work of the group. Crouch and Mazur’s work reminds us that learning to appreciate and use the subtleties and power of cooperative learning is an ongoing process—they have been “at it” for ten years teaching Physics at Harvard University. Viewed together, the articles and journal abstracts in this issue once again demonstrate that research in the use of cooperative learning has breadth, depth, and longevity--around the globe, across the life span, and in a wide variety of disciplines. With this issue of our newsletter, we welcome Robyn Gilles, from Brisbaine Australia, as a new board member. Other changes include that Maureen Breeze has agreed to be IASCE Secretary and Kathryn Markovchick has taken over the responsibilities of Treasurer. Special thanks to Larry Sherman who was IASCE Treasurer for many years. Contact Board Member George Jacobs (george@vegetarian-society.org) about writing for future Newsletter issues and please check our website for updates, conference information, and links to resources and contacts around the world. Thank you for your support of the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education. Cooperatively yours, Lynda
Lynda Baloche
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