1.      Refer to recommended active/cooperative learning resources.
 

There are numerous resources on active and cooperative learning—from books and journal articles to Web sites and workshops.  Starting with recommended print and online resources is often the best place to start.  The faculty and expert contributors of this project have named some of the print resources they found most useful.  Take the time to view the compiled list of Recommended Readings or ask some colleagues who currently use active/cooperative techniques in the classroom to recommend other books or articles.  Online resources, too, are very plentiful.  Below is just a small sampling of sites available on the Internet that are related to active/cooperative learning.  One of the great things about finding and viewing web sources on the subject is that you can see how widespread these practices are becoming and how instructors/faculty of many different disciplines and teaching levels are using it.   

Faculty/Expert Commentaries:

 Ron Roedel

“I would say that there are plenty of resources today to learn… there is information on the Web, there are textbooks; there’s [an] immense amount of literature on this.  You can read until you get dizzy on this issue.” 

 Eric Guilbeau

“Read some books that discuss the overall philosophy; then decide what works best within your class.”

 Karl Smith

“…. recently, there have been some really interesting studies done.  A large chemistry class at the University of Wisconsin, for example: two different sections, random assignment of students to sections.  One, a pretty much straight lecture format, the other a cooperative learning format.  Very little difference in performance on individual exams, which is very common. You have highly motivated, quite talented students; it’s hard to find differences on factual exams.  But they did a series of personal interviews, where they didn’t know which section students were coming from, with very probing questions.  And the students who spent their class time explaining these ideas with one another did much better with depth of understanding.”