Thanks to Rashmi Kumar and Yael Sharan for helping to put together this issue’s collection of journal articles. 

Naughton, D. [naughton@ugr.es] (2006). Cooperative strategy training and oral interaction: Enhancing small group communication in the language classroom. Modern Language Journal, 90(2), 169-184.

*          This study focused on the effect of a cooperative strategy training program on the patterns of interaction that arose as small groups of students participated in an oral discussion task. The underlying assumption was that students could be taught to engage with each other and the task in a way that would foster the creation and exploitation of learning opportunities. Intact classes were randomly assigned to the experimental or control condition and triads from within each group were videotaped at the beginning and the end of the experimental intervention. Data taken from the videotapes were analyzed in order to measure changes in overall participation, strategic participation and the use of the individual strategies included in the program. Results showed that prior to strategy training, interaction patterns frequently did not reflect those deemed important for language acquisition as identified within SLA and sociocultural research. Nevertheless, the strategy training program was largely successful in encouraging students to engage in these types of interactional sequences. 

Brett, J., Behfar, K., & Kern, M. C. (2006). Managing multicultural teams. Harvard Business Review, 84(11), 84-91.

****    The authors conducted in-depth interviews with managers and members of multicultural teams from all over the world. Drawing on their extensive research on dispute resolution and teamwork and those interviews, they identify four problem categories that can create barriers to a team's success: direct versus indirect communication, trouble with accents and fluency, differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority, and conflicting norms for decision making. If a manager--or a team member--can pinpoint the root cause of the problem, he or she is likelier to select an appropriate strategy for solving it. The most successful teams and managers, the authors found, dealt with multicultural challenges in one of four ways: adaptation (acknowledging cultural gaps openly and working around them), structural intervention (changing the shape or makeup of the team), managerial intervention (setting norms early or bringing in a higher-level manager), and exit (removing a team member when other options have failed). Which strategy is best depends on the particular circumstances--and each has potential complications. In general, though, managers who intervene early and set norms; teams and managers who try to engage everyone on the team; and teams that can see challenges as stemming from culture, not personality, succeed in solving culture-based problems with good humor and creativity. Such managers are the likeliest to harvest the benefits inherent in multicultural teams.

Gillies, R. [r.gilles@uq.edu.au], & Boyle, M. (2006). Ten Australian elementary teachers’ discourse and reported pedagogical practices during cooperative learning. The Elementary School Journal, 106(5), 429-452. [Editor’s note: Robyn Gillies is a member of the IASCE Executive Board.]

*         This article describes the types of discourse 10 Australian grade 4-6 teachers used after they had been trained to embed cooperative learning in their curriculum and to use communication skills to promote students' thinking and to scaffold their learning. One audiotaped classroom social science lesson involving cooperative learning was analyzed for each teacher. We provide vignettes from 2 teachers as they worked with groups and from 2 student groups. The data from the audiotapes showed that the teachers used a range of mediated-learning behaviors in their interactions with the children that included challenging their perspectives, asking more cognitive and metacognitive questions, and scaffolding their learning. In turn, in their interactions with each other, the children modelled many of the types of discourse they heard their teachers use. Follow-up interviews with the teachers revealed that they believed it was important to set expectations for children's group behaviors, teach the social skills students needed to deal with disagreement in groups, and establish group structures so children understood what was required both from each other and the task. The teachers reported that mixed ability and gender groups worked best and that groups should be no larger than 5 students. All teachers' programs were based on a child-centered philosophy that recognized the importance of constructivist approaches to learning and the key role interaction plays in promoting social reasoning and learning.

Lou, Y. [ylou@lsu.edu], Bernard, R. M., & Abrami, P. C. (2006). Media and pedagogy in undergraduate distance education: A theory-based meta-analysis of empirical literature. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 54(2), 141-176. 

• This meta-analysis employs a theoretical framework in quantitatively synthesizing empirical studies that investigate the effects of distance education (DE) versus classroom instruction on undergraduate student achievement. Analyses of 218 findings from 103 studies were conducted according to how media were used to support DE pedagogy. The results indicate that the effect sizes for synchronous instructor-directed DE were consistent and not significantly different from zero; in asynchronous DE, media only supporting independent learning was generally less effective than media supporting collaborative discussion among students, although both subsets were significantly heterogeneous. Follow-up analysis of asynchronous DE findings was framed in terms of three patterns of interaction-student-content, student-instructor and student-student.

Smialek, T. [tws4@psu.edu], & Boburka, R. R. [rboburka@po-box.esu.edu] (2006). The effect of cooperative listening exercises on the critical listening skills of college music-appreciation students. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54(1), 57-72.

*         The authors investigated the effectiveness of cooperative listening exercises in developing critical music-listening skills in nonmusic majors. Subjects were college freshmen and sophomores enrolled in Introduction to Western Music. Control-group subjects attended classes taught exclusively in lecture format. Two experimental groups participated in four 50-minute group-listening exercises. Experimental Group 2 engaged in five additional group-analysis exercises, comparing known and unfamiliar musical styles. The consistent use of cooperative-listening exercises proved to be more effective in developing subjects' critical listening skills than either lecture-demonstration or occasional group work. On final exams, Experimental Group 2 scored significantly better than the other groups on identifications of texture, compositional genre, and musical style. To be most effective, group work needs to be implemented on a regular basis-for both the introduction of new material and for its review or application.

Walker, L. [lorenn@hawaii.rr.com] (2006). Violence prevention through cooperative learning. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 15(1), 32-36.

*        The author combines principles of cooperative learning where older students at risk of dropping out are recruited to teach violence prevention to younger learners. The secondary students learn problem solving and conflict resolution skills while providing a positive model through cross age peer tutoring.

Prichard, J. S. [J.Prichard@soton.ac.uk], Bizo, L. A., & Stratford, R. J. (2006). The education impact of team-skills training: Preparing students to work in groups. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 119-140.

• Despite a vast literature on collaborative learning (CL), there is little research on preparing students to work collaboratively. This two-phase evaluation investigated whether team-skills training could enhance the performance of collaborative groups through the introduction of a team development programme to a group-based undergraduate key-skills unit. Phase 1 compared two consecutive cohorts of second-year students, Cohort 1 (N = 94) who received no preparation, and Cohort 2 (N = 113) who received team-skills training. Phase 2 added Cohort 3 (N = 88), who also received team-skills training, to extend the analysis. In Phase 1, students in both Cohorts 1 and 2 worked on a series of curriculum based key-skill tasks across two semesters. Students worked in one group in Semester 1 and were then formed into new groups for Semester 2. Effects of the training were measured by student group marks and key-skill ratings. Marks and key-skill ratings were significantly higher for the trained cohort in Semester 1 (p < .01). However, in Semester 2 performance reduced for the trained cohort in comparison to Semester 1. To explore this further, Phase 2 of the study evaluated Cohort 3, where after training, collaborative groups remained intact throughout the academic year. Results for Cohort 3 showed no attenuation of performance effects in Semester 2. Phase 1 results support the use of team-skills training to enhance CL group performance. The findings for Phase 2 suggest that these benefits may be lost if training groups are disrupted.

Summers, J. J. [summersje@missouri.edu] (2006). Effects of collaborative learning in math on sixth graders’ individual goal orientations from a socioconstructivist perspective. The Elementary School Journal, 106(3), 273-191.

• Using socioconstructivism as a theoretical framework, this study investigated the ways in which classrooms that used peer learning groups influenced students' goals. Specifically, my goal was to examine collaborative learning as a process that may influence individuals' social and achievement goals. After confirming that 2 sixth-grade math teachers had fundamental beliefs supporting socioconstructivist practices, I administered surveys designed to measure achievement and social goals in their math classes to approximately 200 of their students at 2 times during the school year. I used hierarchical linear modeling techniques, with mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals as dependent variables at Time 2 and a selection of social goals and achievement goals as independent variables at Time 1. At the collaborative learning level, shared achievement goals were measured by asking students questions about the importance of group work, calculated as a mean score for students in their respective peer learning groups. For the more experienced math teacher, results indicated that students in groups that collectively valued the academic goals of group work were likely to adopt individual motivational strategies associated with performance-avoidance goals over time. I discuss explanations for this dynamic and suggestions for future research examining individual goals in the context of socioconstructivist teaching practices.

Yetter, G. [georgette.yetter@okstate.edu], Gutkin, T. B., Saunders, A., Galloway, A. M., et al. (2006). Unstructured collaboration versus individual practice for complex problem solving: A cautionary tale. The Journal of Experimental Education, 74(2), 137-159.

*         The authors used an experimental design to compare the effectiveness of unstructured collaborative practice with individual practice on achievement on a complex well-structured problem-solving task. Participants included postsecondary students (N = 257) from a liberal arts college serving primarily nontraditional students and from 2 state universities. Three videotaped instructional procedures were used: lessons on (a) introductory set theory, (b) a problem-solving heuristic, and (c) problem-solving modeling. Participants also engaged in active practice. A posttest assessed participant skills. A 2 (individual vs. collaborative treatment condition) × 2 (nontraditional vs. traditional educational setting) analysis of variance revealed significant main effects for treatment condition. Students who practiced individually outperformed those who practiced collaboratively. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

Saab, N. [N.Saab@uva.nl], van Joolingen, W. R., van Hout-Wolters, B. H. A. M. (2005). Communication in collaborative discovery learning. British Journal of Psychology, 75(4), 603-621.

• Constructivist approaches to learning focus on learning environments in which students have the opportunity to construct knowledge themselves, and negotiate this knowledge with others. Discovery learning and collaborative learning are examples of learning contexts that cater for knowledge construction processes. We introduce a computer-based learning environment in which the two forms of learning are implemented simultaneously. We focus on the interaction between discovery learning and collaborative learning. We aim to investigate which communicative activities are frequently used in the discovery learning process and which communicative and discovery activities co-occur. The study involved 21 pairs of 10th-grade students enrolled in pre-university education, ranging from 15 to 17 years of age. Participants worked in dyads on separate screens in a shared discovery learning environment. They communicated using a chat box. In order to find a possible relationship between communicative activities and discovery learning processes, correlational analysis and principal component analysis were performed. Significant relationships were found between communicative and discovery activities, as well as five factors combining the communicative process and the discovery learning processes. Communicative activities are performed most frequently during the activities in generating hypotheses, experimental design, and conclusion construction. Argumentation occurs less than expected, and is associated with the construction of conclusions, rather than generating hypotheses. Communicative activities co-occur with discovery activities most of the time, as we expected. Further research should concentrate on means to augment communicative and discovery activities that are related to positive learning outcomes.
   

Phuong-Mai, N., Terlouw, C., & Pilot, A. (2006). Culturally appropriate pedagogy: the case of group learning in a Confucian Heritage Culture context. International Education, 17(1), 1-19.

*        Cultural heritage preservation has become a much-debated topic in recent decades. This paper contributes to the call for educational approaches that take a society's cultural diversity into account. It also attempts to draw attention to non-Western societies, where educational theories and practices from elsewhere (the West) have been imported and sometimes applied without proper consideration for the host culture's heritage. To illustrate the intricacy of developing such a culturally appropriate pedagogy, a case study of using group learning strategies in a Confucian Heritage Cultural context is introduced, which closely examines both educational and cultural issues. The results of this examination reveal a complex of cultural conflicts and mismatches that are likely to happen when a Western educational methodology is applied in another context without rigorous adaptation to improve compatibility with the host culture.

(**** by Yael Sharan) This article is particularly instructive for those who wish to learn more about the potential conflicts between Western and Asian styles of learning. The authors describe many characteristics of Asian learning styles, but I believe could benefit from a broader view of CL principles. It would be interesting to learn what our colleagues in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan have to say about the adaptation of CL to a Confucian Heritage Cultural context.

One of the sources the above article draws on is Hofstede, G., & Hofstede, J. (2005), Cultures and organization-software of the mind. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hofstede and Hofstede have developed a model that suggests several dimensions along which cultures vary and have translated it into some classroom issues which require special consideration, such as:

• the effectiveness of group learning

• how to phrase questions to a group

• expectations from the teacher's role

• how structured a group task should be

• male vs. female status in groups.

* Abstract accompanied the article

** Abstract from ERIC - http://www.eric.ed.gov – or other database.

*** Abstract is the introduction to the article

**** Abstract written for this compilation