Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom

by Elizabeth G. Cohen, Rachel A. Lotan, Na'ilah Suad Nasir (Foreword by)

Overview

"Designing Groupwork has earned its place in the library of anyone seeking to create high-achieving, equitable classrooms." —Horace (of second edition)

Learn how to use cooperative learning to build equitable classrooms.

As teachers today work in ever more challenging contexts, groupwork remains a particularly effective pedagogical strategy. Based on years of research and teaching experience, this popular book features significant updates on the successful use of cooperative learning to build equitable classrooms. Designing Groupwork, Third Edition incorporates current research findings with new material on what makes for a groupworthy task, and shows how groupwork contributes to growth and development in the language of instruction. Responding to new curriculum standards and assessments across all grade levels and subject areas, this edition shows teachers how to organize their classroom so that all students participate actively.

This valuable and sensible resource is essential reading for educators at both the elementary and secondary levels, for teachers in training, and for anyone working in the field of education.

Book Features:

• Easy-to-follow examples and research-based teaching strategies.
• The advantages and dilemmas of using groupwork in academically and linguistically diverse classrooms.
• Step-by-step approaches to successful planning, implementation, and evaluation of groupwork activities.
• Research findings from the work of the Program for Complex Instruction at Stanford University and other scholarly studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807769201
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	11/21/2025
Edition description:	4th ed.
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Elizabeth G. Cohen was a professor of education and sociology at the School of Education, Stanford University. Rachel A. Lotan is professor and director of the Stanford Teacher Education Program, Stanford University, Graduate School of Education.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In this updated version of the now-classic text, Rachel Lotan demonstrates, once again, her virtuosity at combining enormously practical guidance for effective pedagogy with solid theory and evidence. Hugely respectful, this book doesn’t simply tell educators what to do, but explains why and how their practice of groupwork can be both deeply educative and powerfully equitable.” —Jeannie Oakes, director, Educational Opportunity and Scholarship, Ford Foundation, and Presidential Professor Emerita, UCLA

“I have no doubt that this important book will be of enormous practical value.”
—From the Foreword by Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University

“The new edition updates a classic text for those who want both theory and practice.”
—Larry Cuban, professor emeritus, Stanford University

Editorial Reviews

" Designing Groupwork has earned its place in the library of anyone seeking to create high-achieving, equitable classrooms."

—Horace (of second edition)

From the Publisher