Cooperative Learning for Cohesion, Inclusion, and Equity at School and in the Classroom

Abstract

This chapter presents a proposal on how cooperative learning can contribute to the development of cohesion, equity, and inclusion. The proposal has been developed in Spain, from the 1990s up to the present day, with the “Cooperating to Learn, Learning to Cooperate” program and the “Helping to Teach to Cooperate” strategy. In the first part, we will deal with the main scientific references that underlie this proposal, paying special attention to some reviews that analyse the links between cooperative learning and inclusion. In the second part, we will present the Program and the three areas of intervention that it proposes: group cohesion to create cooperative teams, learning in cooperative teams and learning to cooperate in a team, detailing its references, its objectives, the general criteria for its implementation and some advantages and difficulties often pointed out by teachers. In the third part, we will explain the main characteristics of the “Helping to teach to Cooperate” strategy, focussing on how to support teachers in improving cooperative, inclusive educational practices; we will explain the four stages in which the strategy is developed and some thoughts that teachers have had about this process.KeywordsCooperative learningSpainStudent participationInclusionSchool supportEquityCohesion