Cooperative Learning in Special Education Teacher Preparation Programs

The purpose of this article is to provide education professors with guidelines for designing and incor-porating cooperative group learning siraiegies into their courses. The student satisfaction results of a pilot project in one graduate course are proesented. Cooperative group learning is a teaching strategy that many general and special educators have found to be effective with school-age learners. (Schniede-wind & Salend, 1987). In cooperative groups, learners collaborate with their peers to achieve a shared academic goal or outcome. For an activity to qualify as a cooperative group learning activity, several basic criteria must be met. There must be face-to-face interaction, positive interdependence among group members, individual accountability, a focus on the development and performance of social and small group skills, and the processing of group functioning (Johnson & Johnson, 1975). Cooperative group learning structures have been successful in teaching a wide range of academi