Dr.
Helen Oliver
Director
M.ED
Program
Lincoln University
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to LASER Programs
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Teacher Attitudes Toward Cooperative
Learning and Its Effects on High Achieving Students
in Middle and High School Heterogeneous Groups
For
the past five years, classrooms across the country have
grappled with problems associated with mainstreaming
students (Elbaum, Moody, & Watson, 2001). In the
inclusion model, students who are and are not eligible
for special education programs are placed in the same
classroom. Though much instruction is conducted in whole-class
settings, teachers often have goals that cannot be met
in large groups where less confident students’ need
for individual attention goes unnoticed. The challenge
for educators is to vary instructional practices to ensure
that all students achieve. Cooperative instruction has
been proffered as a tool for capitalizing on classroom
academic diversity. This study will investigate teacher
attitudes toward cooperative learning as a teaching strategy
and determine the effectiveness of cooperative learning
on high achieving middle and high school students in
heterogeneous groups. The results will inform policy
makers in instructional decision making.
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