Briefly

What does the Cooperative Learning Center do?

The Cooperative Learning Center is a Reseach and Training Center focusing on how students should interact with each other as they learn and the skills needed to interact effectively. We have reviewed more than 800 studies dating back to the late 1800's and have contributed more than 80 research studies of our own to clarify the issue of student to student interaction and learning. Our training includes instructors from pre-school through college in all subject areas. The training has concentrated on North America, but interest is growing around the world.

Background

The Cooperative Learning Center has been a part of the College of Education at the University of Minnesota for over 20 years. The funding has come from a variety of sources including the Office of Special Education, Department of Education, Office of Naval Research, Department of Defense,and the National Science Foundation. Over the years the Center has focused on making classrooms more cooperative places and the teaching ofcooperative skills (i.e. leadership, communication, decision making, trust building, and conflict resolution.

Research and Training

The primary efforts of the Center are Research and Training. Over the twenty plus years we have conducted more than 80 research studies and a series of extensive reviews of the existing research on cooperation and learning, more than 800 studies dating back to the late l800's, (Cooperation and Competition: Theory and Research). Training for teachers and administrators has been conducted though out the U.S. and Canada, and also in Germany, Scandinavian Countries, England, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Turkey, Panama, Singapore, and Hungary.

Training Institutes

The Center sponsors a number of Training Institutes during the summer in various locations in North America including Colorado, Washington, Texas, Minnesota, Florida, South Carolina, and Montreal. Typically each site would offer a Foundations of Cooperative Learning, an Advanced Cooperative learning, Leading the Cooperative School, Creative Conflict Resolution, and in a few sites, a Leadership (Training of Trainers) Training.

Staff

The Staff at the Center includes David and Roger Johnson, and part time staff as the need arises or as grants provide. Adjunct faculty include Karl Smith (Professor of Engineering) and Edythe Johnson Holubec (Taylor, Texas). In addition from the thousands of teachers/administrators who have been trained in Cooperative Learning have come about five hundred people who have had Leadership Training and are teaching Cooperative Learning in their own areas. This network of carefully selected people allows us to refer people who are seeking help with cooperative learning to Leaders in their own community or close by.

Visitors

There is an on-going stream of people visiting the Center from the U.S. and outside stopping by for information or spending several months in study. Most recently we have had visitors from Australia, Russia, Singapore, New Guinea, Ireland and several parts of the U.S..

Future Directions

Recent work has concentrated on moving on from cooperative classrooms to cooperative schools and systems. Leading the Cooperative School is aimed at school administrators and teacher leaders and details this next step from a school where "some teachers use cooperative learning" to becoming a Cooperative School. Growing attention is being given to the book, Active Learning: Cooperation in the College classroom which examines the use of cooperative learning in adult settings. We have been working with the U.S. Navy and more than a dozen College Campuses. In the Cooperative Skills area, the Conflict Resolution material (in particular Teaching Students to be Peacemakers) has become the focus of preventing and dealing with violence in the schools. We are equally interested in the Creative Controversy material which focuses on stirring up more intellectual conflict in classrooms.

The current projects that may prove promising is our interest in assisting schools in Eastern Europe to promote cooperative learning as one way to help prepare a next generation for democracy and the free enterprise system. We are also working closely with Disney Corporation and Stetson University to design the school and teacher academy for the Celebration Community at DisneyWorld in Orlando

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