ABSTRACT
Little doubt exists in mainstream research about the value of "cooperative" learning or "cooperative" education. Typical findings involve claims that students learn more, interact more positively with their peers, gain better self images, and harbor more productive feelings about their schools. While problems undoubtedly exist, mainstream literature touts cooperative learning as a good way to modify the role of teacher as dispenser of information to sponge-like students. Student dialogue becomes as important as teacher monologue, and classroom situations where students share information and creative abilities take the place of individualized competition (Grossman and Grossman, 1994; Tozer, Violas, and Senese, 1993). With these modifications cooperative education begins to subvert the traditional social relations of the classroom.
