This volume captures contemporary global developments in cooperative learning (CL) across varied educational contexts, levels, and disciplines. Cooperative learning is widely recognized as a pedagogical practice that promotes socialization and learning among students, from kindergarten to tertiary education and across different subject domains. With chapters from contributors throughout the Global North and South, this comprehensive volume offers a wide-ranging perspective and addresses a range of cooperative learning pedagogies including relational, online, and peer learning, STAD, the Jigsaw model, and dialogic talk. The chapters draw on novel empirical research and theory to highlight best practices in cooperative learning, whilst also considering the challenges, limitations, and factors which drive or inhibit learner engagement and success. Consistent attention is given to the pivotal role of the educator in implementing cooperative learning to maximum benefit to enhance students’ affective, social, cognitive, and metacognitive learning. Thus, this book will appeal to scholars and researchers across a variety of subjects; and will provide an additional benefit to in-service and pre-service educators who already practice cooperative learning in their classrooms, as well as those who are interested in implementing the model.

The 21st century has brought about changes in every aspect of life through ubiquitous technology and Internet-based social media. The distances between cultures and continents have narrowed, the world has become flat, and multicultural work-teams composed of members from different countries have become a daily reality in global businesses. However, in many ways these global changes in work practices have only just begun to have an impact on education. To better prepare students for the information age, researchers and policy makers largely agree about the skills needed for shared knowledge construction. Indeed, the education systems in several different countries have begun to integrate these skills into teaching and learning and are placing a strong emphasis on their implementation (Melamed et al, 2010; Resta et al, 2011). In 2015 the OECD PISA exam for the first time, included assessment of collaborative problem-solving in its country-by-country comparison. Collaborative learning is not a trivial challenge nor is it intuitive for all teachers and learners. One must acquire and practice the essential skills in order to successfully work in a team. Consequently it is essential to train teachers in collaborative teamwork, as they must serve as role models for students. In addition, new tools and practices become available at a rate that outpaces the abilities of many higher education institutions to adopt and implement. This book surveys the current state of the field and provides theoretical guidance and practical examples to help meet the gaps in research, development and practice.

​This Open Access book combines expertise in information literacy with expertise in education and teaching to share tips and tricks for the development of good information literacy teaching and training in universities and libraries. It draws on research, knowledge and pedagogical practice from academia, to teach students how to sift through information to be able to distinguish the important and correct from the unusable. It discusses basic concepts and models of information literacy, as well as strategies for accessing, locating and retrieving information and methods suitable for the assessment and management of information. The book explains many concepts connected to information literacy and discusses pedagogical issues with a view to supporting the practitioner. Each chapter examines one aspect of information literacy, discusses the pedagogical challenges involved and provides suggestions for best practice.

Collaborative learning has become an increasingly important part of education, but the research supporting it is distributed across a wide variety of fields including social, cognitive, developmental, and educational psychology, instructional design, the learning sciences, educational technology, socio-cultural studies, and computer-supported collaborative learning. The goal of this book is to integrate theory and research across these diverse fields of study and, thereby, to forward our understanding of collaborative learning and its instructional applications. The book is structured into the following 4 sections: 1) Theoretical Foundations 2) Research Methodologies 3) Instructional Approaches and Issues and 4) Technology. Key features include the following: Comprehensive and Global – This is the first book to provide a comprehensive review of the widely scattered research on collaborative learning including the contributions of many international authors. Cross disciplinary – The field of collaborative learning is highly interdisciplinary drawing scholars from psychology, computer science, mathematics education, science education, and educational technology. Within psychology, the book brings together perspectives from cognitive, social, and developmental psychology as well as from the cross-disciplinary field of the learning sciences. Chapter Structure – To ensure consistency across the book, authors have organized their chapters around integrative themes and issues. Each chapter author summarizes the accumulated literature related to their chapter topic and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the supporting evidence. Strong Methodology – Each chapter within the extensive methodology section describes a specific methodology, its underlying assumptions, and provide examples of its application. This book is appropriate for researchers and graduate level instructors in educational psychology, learning sciences, cognitive psychology, social psychology, computer science, educational technology, teacher education and the academic libraries serving them. It is also appropriate as a graduate level textbook in collaborative learning, computer-supported collaborative learning, cognition and instruction, educational technology, and learning sciences.

The widely used STEM education book, updated Teaching and Learning STEM: A Practical Guide covers teaching and learning issues unique to teaching in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. Secondary and postsecondary instructors in STEM areas need to master specific skills, such as teaching problem-solving, which are not regularly addressed in other teaching and learning books. This book fills the gap, addressing, topics like learning objectives, course design, choosing a text, effective instruction, active learning, teaching with technology, and assessment—all from a STEM perspective. You’ll also gain the knowledge to implement learner-centered instruction, which has been shown to improve learning outcomes across disciplines. For this edition, chapters have been updated to reflect recent cognitive science and empirical educational research findings that inform STEM pedagogy. You’ll also find a new section on actively engaging students in synchronous and asynchronous online courses, and content has been substantially revised to reflect recent developments in instructional technology and online course development and delivery. Plan and deliver lessons that actively engage students—in person or online Assess students’ progress and help ensure retention of all concepts learned Help students develop skills in problem-solving, self-directed learning, critical thinking, teamwork, and communication Meet the learning needs of STEM students with diverse backgrounds and identities The strategies presented in Teaching and Learning STEM don’t require revolutionary time-intensive changes in your teaching, but rather a gradual integration of traditional and new methods. The result will be a marked improvement in your teaching and your students’ learning.

Research has identified cooperative learning as one of the ten High Impact Practices that improve student learning. If you’ve been interested in cooperative learning, but wondered how it would work in your discipline, this book provides the necessary theory, and a wide range of concrete examples.Experienced users of cooperative learning demonstrate how they use it in settings as varied as a developmental mathematics course at a community college, and graduate courses in history and the sciences, and how it works in small and large classes, as well as in hybrid and online environments. The authors describe the application of cooperative learning in biology, economics, educational psychology, financial accounting, general chemistry, and literature at remedial, introductory, and graduate levels.The chapters showcase cooperative learning in action, at the same time introducing the reader to major principles such as individual accountability, positive interdependence, heterogeneous teams, group processing, and social or leadership skills.The authors build upon, and cross-reference, each others’ chapters, describing particular methods and activities in detail. They explain how and why they may differ about specific practices while exemplifying reflective approaches to teaching that never fail to address important assessment issues.

This book brings together a diverse range of international scholars to highlight recent developments in research on collaborative learning. The emphasis is on research that has a strong evidence base for the work that is presented and includes empirical studies, best evidence synthesis of the relevant research, case studies, and theoretical reports. It also highlights how different technologies have been used to facilitate group interaction, dialogue, and learning. There is much to be gained by sharing and learning about what happens in different disciplines and contexts and how different collaborative pedagogies can be implemented when needed to promote understanding and learning. This book will have strong appeal to pre-service and experienced teachers and researchers who are interested in how different collaborative pedagogies can be embedded in course curricula to promote student engagement and learning.