The Structural Approach to Cooperative Learning.

T he structural approach to coop erative learning is based on the creation, analysis, and system atic application of structures, or con tent-free ways of organizing social in teraction in the classroom Structures usually involve a series of steps, with proscribed behavior at each step. An important cornerstone of the ap proach is the distinction between "structures" and "activities." To illustrate, teachers can design many excellent cooperative activities, such as making a team mural or a quilt Such activities almost always have a specific content-bound objective and, thus, cannot be used to deliver a range of academic content. In contrast, struc tures may be used repeatedly with almost any subject matter, at a wide range of grade levels, and at various points in a lesson plan. To illustrate further, if a teacher new to cooperative learning learns five activities, he or she might well report back after a week, "Those worked well, but what should I do next week?" If, instead, the teacher learns five structures, he or she could meaningfully include cooperative learning in lessons all year to further the academic progress of students in any subject matter Structures differ in their usefulness in the academic, cognitive, and social domains, as well as in their usefulness in different steps of a lesson plan.