Cooperative Learning and Intergroup Relations: Contact Theory in the Classroom

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses contact theory in the classroom. Cooperative learning methods explicitly use the presence of students of different races or ethnicities, which is the strength of the desegregated school, to enhance intergroup relations. Cooperation between students is also emphasized by the teacher. These characteristics of cooperative learning contrast sharply with the inter-student competition for grades and teacher approval, the characteristic of the traditional classroom. Cooperative learning methods are designed to make profound changes in classroom organization rather than temporary or cosmetic treatments. They provide daily opportunities for intense interpersonal contact between students of different races and ethnicities. When the teacher assigns students of different backgrounds to work together, unequivocal support for officially sanctioned interracial or interethnic interaction is communicated to students. Most of the cooperative learning methods contain mechanisms to diminish the salience or effects of ability differences within cooperative activities. Cooperative learning provides each student with a peer group that is not based on racial or sexual identity but on shared goals. The mere announcement of group assignments may begin to break down racial barriers to friendship as students perceive their shared identity as cooperative group members.