ABSTRACT
Educating students with special needs in general classrooms requires instructional approaches that promote student achievement and positive social psychological outcomes. Inclusionary education implies that all students will participate in the academic and social life of the classroom. The challenge of inclusion is to balance the diverse learning needs of all students while maintaining a smoothly operating classroom that teachers can reasonably manage. When properly implemented, cooperative learning has shown positive benefits for students of diverse abilities and backgrounds, and is considered by many educational researchers and practitioners to be one of the most important educational interventions for successful inclusion (Johnson and Johnson, 1989; Kagan et al., 2004; Slavin, 1995).
