Cooperative Learning Methods

Cooperative learning is one of the most widespread and fruitful areas of theory, research,

and practice in education. Reviews of the research, however, have focused either on the

entire literature which includes research conducted in noneducational settings or have

included only a partial set of studies that may or may not validly represent the whole

literature. There has never been a comprehensive review of the research on the

effectiveness in increasing achievement of the methods of cooperative learning used in

schools. An extensive search found 164 studies investigating eight cooperative learning

methods. The studies yielded 194 independent effect sizes representing academic

achievement. All eight cooperative learning methods had a significant positive impact on

student achievement. When the impact of cooperative learning was compared with

competitive learning, Learning Together (LT) promoted the greatest effect, followed by

Academic Controversy (AC), Student-Team-Achievement-Divisions (STAD), Teams-

Games-Tournaments (TGT), Group Investigation (GI), Jigsaw, Teams-Assisted-

Individualization (TAI), and finally Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition

(CIRC). When the impact of cooperative lessons was compared with individualistic

learning, LT promotes the greatest effect, followed by AC, GI, TGT, TAI, STAD,

Jigsaw, and CIRC. The consistency of the results and the diversity of the cooperative

learning methods provide strong validation for its effectiveness.v