Sixty-one elementary school students who had never participated in cooperative learning lessons before were included in this study. Students were randomly assigned to the conditions of cooperative learning with and without group processing and participated to 5 instructional sessions during a period of approximately 15 instructional days. Results…

The authors examined the nature of dominant students in Grades 3-5 in a midwestern school system in the United States. Previous research has indicated 2 ways a student may gain dominance--through bullying and prosocial behaviors. A cluster analysis for dominant children was conducted using social interdependence attitude scores, children's…

Examined the effects of positive interdependence versus no interdependence on college students' academic achievement. Students took weekly electronic quizzes where they could interact with groupmates in a chat room. Achievement was measured via biweekly examinations. Students in the positive interdependence condition engaged in significantly more…

A review of studies of conflict and conflict resolution training in schools finds evidence suggesting that untrained students often use strategies with destructive outcomes. After training, outcomes of conflict are more likely to be constructive and students are more able to resolve their own conflicts. (SLD)

This study examined the effectiveness of an urban peer mediation program. Third- and fourth-grade students were trained as conflict managers to mediate schoolmates' conflicts. They mediated 323 conflicts during the school year; most successfully. Most conflicts involved physical and verbal attacks. Mediation usually resulted in agreements to avoid…

Research indicates that classroom controversy facilitates student problem solving, creativity, perspective taking, epistemic curiosity, conceptual conflict, and transition in stages of cognitive and moral reasoning. Thus, creating controversy is an important teaching strategy for increasing learning and intellectual development. Conditions…

A review is presented of the research on the use of cooperative, competitive and individualistic goal structures on learning processes and outcomes. (Author)

Intergroup cooperation and competition were compared to determine if they promoted systematic differences in interaction between majority and minority students. Results indicated that the intergroup cooperation condition produced increased numbers of cross-ethnic relationships. (Author/DF)

The effects of two types of structured academic conflict, controversy and debate, were compared with individual study on a number of dependent variables. Sixth graders (n=72) were assigned conditions on a stratified random basis controlling for sex, reading ability, and handicapping conditions. Results indicated that controversy promoted the most…

A theoretical model is presented with a review of supportive literature to establish the conditions under which desegregation and mainstreaming will result in constructive or destructive outcomes. Meta-analysis procedures examine all the available research relevant to the model, and point toward practical intergroup procedures based on the…

The effects of interpersonal cooperation, competition, and individualistic efforts were compared on a categorization and retrieval, a spatial-reasoning, and a verbal problem-solving task. Forty-five first-grade children were stratified on the basis of sex and ability. Students in the cooperative condition achieved best. (Author/CTM)

Effects of cooperative and individualistic instruction on interpersonal attraction between handicapped and nonhandicapped students were compared. Results indicated cooperative learning experiences promote more cross-handicapped interaction during instruction, more cross-handicap friendships, and more cross-handicap interaction during…

A peer mediation program in a suburban elementary school was studied to determine the types of conflicts, the strategies used in conflict resolution, and the types of resolutions at school and at home. Comparisons of 144 program students with 83 untrained students revealed significant impact of peer mediation. (SLD)