I BELIEVE I WILL GO OUT OF THIS CLASS ACTUALLY KNOWING SOMETHING - COOPERATIVE LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN PHYSICAL-CHEMISTRY

The purposes of this study were to describe the structure of events du ring cooperative learning activities-Friday discussion sessions-in a g raduate-level thermodynamics course and to understand what these activ ities meant to the students. First, we describe the structure of Frida y discussion sessions in our classroom, which were used to focus stude nt attention on conceptual issues rather than algorithmic problem solv ing. Second, we delineate findings which emerge from the perspective o f the students. We found that cooperative learning activities move stu dents away from rote learning strategies and toward more meaningful st rategies which allowed them to integrate concepts over the entire seme ster. In addition, we discovered that the sharing of insights and idea s between students leads to the development of interpersonal skills an d communication skills which the students perceive as an important com ponent of the Friday discussion sessions. Implications for further cla ssroom use, low-status versus high-status students, and assessment are discussed.