Cooperative Learning at the College Level.

If the United States is to be competitive in the global marketplace, we must first teach our students to be cooperative with one another. This irony must be addressed. The changing workplace of today is relying more and more on the interdependence of individuals in work teams for higher productivity. Employees, from factory line workers to CEOs, are being expected to work cooperatively in their own specialized areas as well as in the areas of creative problem-solving and decision making (Loewenwarter, 1988; Offerman and Gowing 1990; Sundstrom, DeMeuse, and Futrell, 1990; Ward and Pearce 1990). Students in cooperative and collaborative learning classes recognize that learning how to work with others will be extremely advantageous to their careers. Yet, according to Kohn (1986), such cooperation is contrary to the addictive socialized behavior of competition in the United States. Given such an obstacle, it becomes critical for our educational system to produce students who are able to work with others. With the increasing need for college degrees in preparation for the workforce, college professors become the last link between young people and the workplace.