The use of a cooperative learning approach in the classroom is supported by findings from the effective schools research. On their return, they were asked to make a presentation to the rest of the school faculty. These three then became the core of a growing group of teachers applying the principles and approaches of cooperative learning in high school classrooms. Groups are selected by the teacher to be diverse in terms of student performance level, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and sometimes grade level. There is a focus on establishing positive interdependence among members of the group, a reason for their working together, e.g., a single grade given to all members of the group based on the success of their cooperatively completing assigned work.
Individual accountability is established.
While there is a responsibility to the group, there is also an individual responsibility to learn the material. If all were to complete assignments together and receive the same grade for the group's work, for example, each might also be given an additional grade based on individual performance on a final test. There is emphasis on the process of cooperative learning itself. The teacher announces the steps in the process at the beginning of the lesson and monitors the process in groups, intervening as necessary to keep students working in a cooperative fashion, and debriefs the process at the end of the cooperative learning activity. The teacher uses cooperative learning lessons approximately once every two weeks.