Section 1: Nature of the Research Problem
In an extensive review of the literature on increasing the academic success of at-risk learners, Johnson (1998) noted that diverse strategies were associated with high success levels. These included: maintaining high expectations, administering praise, using learning technologies, teaching learning strategies, accommodating learning styles, teaching vocabulary directly, establishing an experiential base for learning, teaching self-monitoring, providing creative opportunities, facilitating parental involvement, and cooperative teaching strategies and methods. This study tests three cooperative teaching strategies for effectiveness in increasing the academic achievement levels of autistic, children ages 10 to 13 years old.
Putnam (1998) defines cooperative learning as group activities that are carefully structured for collaborative participation in terms of the learning tasks. Regarding the conceptual or theoretical framework of cooperative learning, Vaughn, Bos and Schumm (2002) state that the two key features which distinguis
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