This seminar will be conducted by 3-hour online Zoom sessions for four days: Saturday, October 8, Sunday, October 9, Saturday, October 15 and Sunday, October 16 from 10:00 to 13:00 (JST).  Students taking this seminar for credit must attend all four days. Students can add/drop this seminar course by 14:00 on Saturday, October 8.

The pre sign-up (or course registration for those who are taking this seminar for credit) is required for anybody attending the public session on Saturday, October 8 from 10:00 to 13:00. The sign-up process must be completed through "Distinguished Lecturer Series Seminar Sign-Up Form" that is available on TUJ Grad Ed website. The sign-up deadline is Friday, October 7 at 12:00. The public session Zoom link will be provided to those people who completed the online sign-up (or course registration) process by 18:00 on Friday, October 7.

This seminar will focus on the why, how, and what next of cooperative learning (CL), a.k.a. collaborative learning. Many L2 teaching materials include group activities, including pair activities. CL can be thought of as Group Activities 2.0, as CL offers a wide range of principles, techniques, and tactics which promise to improve the cognitive and affective impact of group activities. CL links with many theories in Second Language Acquisition and General Education, as well as fitting with the Communicative Language Teaching paradigm in L2 and the Student Centered paradigm in General Education. The opening lecture will provide an overview of the reasons for using CL, as well as practical ideas and principles for implementing CL in second language education. During the opening lecture, as well as throughout the seminar, participants will be encouraged to take part in many CL activities. The seminar will provide participants with opportunities to look more closely at how their areas of interest relate to CL. The seminar will also provide opportunities to discuss potential research ideas and to consider how to design relevant studies. A variety of research methods will be encouraged.

Recommended Textbook:

Jacobs, G. M., & Kimura, H. (2013). Cooperative learning and teaching. TESOL.

Fushino, K., & Jacobs, G. M. (2016, February). Special issue on cooperative learning in language education. TESL-EJ. 19(4). http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume19/ej76/ New Tab

Jacobs, G. M., & Renandya, W. A. (2019). Student-centered cooperative learning: Linking concepts in education to promote student learning. Springer.

Jacobs, G. M., Lie, A., & Tamah, S. M. (in press). Cooperative learning through a reflective lens. Equinox.  (Participants to receive a soft copy of the final draft.)