In her forward to Using Student Teams in the Classroom, education professor Mara Sapon-Shevin writes passionately about the changing pedagogical times of higher education, claiming that as we acknowledge our world as diverse and multicultural we must also acknowledge that our educational practices need to change to reflect and contend with this reality. Sapon-Shevin calls for a pedagogical practice that shapes the students of today to become the civic leaders of tomorrow and she believes that educators can engender this change by revising both the content and the context in which students learn: "If we want students to be prepared to work in a multicultural, diverse workplace, to live in neighborhoods that cross ethnic and racial boundaries, then we must make sure that not only what we teach but how we teach affirms the importance of learning to work together." Sapon-Shevin situates Stein and Hurd's Using Student Teams in the Classroom as the answer to this call for pedagogical activism, and in doing so makes a compelling case for the use of cooperative learning to enhance the social and intellectual lives of our students. In fact, Stein and Hurd argue throughout their text for the growing need to move away from content-centered classrooms to process-centered ones. In this way, Using Student Teams in the Classroom raises serious issues inherent in debates about the pedagogical practice of cooperative learning and the role of higher education in the twenty-first century.

However, the goal of Using Student Teams is not to engage in sustained debate, but to provide a manual for proceeding after the debate has been won. Thus, for the devotee of cooperative learning, Stein and Hurd's handbook offers a wealth of information on the theories behind the efficacy of group learning, a variety of useful assignment templates for implementing teamwork, and some concluding essays by contributing authors that consider the impact of "student teams" in a larger context. Part I provides a brief but comprehensive review of the theoretical research underlying teamwork and-most impressively-a discussion of how teamwork contributes to student retention. The references in this section would provide a faculty member with helpful citations when advocating for the use of cooperative learning on a larger scale. Part sII and III of Using Student Teams focus on the more pragmatic aspects of cooperative learning, with Part II providing excellent chapters on such topics as "Guidelines for Student Teams, "Group Exercises" for team-building and "Team Evaluation." The strengths of these chapters lie in their brevity, their adaptability to various disciplines and different types of group learning projects and in their detailed breakdown of how to effectively apply group learning to any classroom setting. Other chapters in section two such as "Managing Conflict" and "Top-Notch Tips for Team Learning" seem less useful, not because the topics themselves are irrelevant, but because the scope seems too ambitious. For instance, in Chapter Six, "Managing Conflict," the sentiment to teach students basic reflective listening skills is admirable, but unrealistic. Chapter Seven's methods for evaluation provide more pragmatic and concrete opportunities to manage conflict as it occurs within a team.

Part III offers a variety of discipline-specific templates of teamwork, some of which in their well thought out presentation do indeed advocate successfully for the benefits of cooperative learning, while others seem less convincingly effective. The most compelling teamwork activities in Part III are those that manage to integrate course content and cooperative learning in such a way that both seem central to students' experience in the discipline, such as in Fine Arts' "A Team Project to Perform an Artistic Happening" and Mathematics' "Cooperative Groups for Problem Solving." This reviewer was less convinced by the project offered in English and Textual Studies' "Small Group Technique for Writing/Reading Papers," as it seemed to require too much in-class time to allow for other kinds of process work. This seminar model seems better suited to a course focused solely on writing and critical thinking skills, or might be effectively adapted for student groups to use outside of class time. As a whole, Part III could be further enhanced by including a list of the "costs" as well as the "benefits" of cooperative learning in these disciplines, as well as a range of less full-blown cooperative learning projects.

What Using Student Teams does not provide is an assessment of the losses inherent in cooperative learning and therefore will not prove as useful to the novice or reluctant teacher who is looking for a handbook to guide in creating a cooperative learning experience. That said, the book is smartly laid out, with a fine balance of theoretical discussion and pragmatic application. Faculty who have tried and been dissatisfied with cooperative learning projects will find helpful suggestions and guidelines here.

Sheryl Sawin,
UNC Asheville