| Rapid change, technology, diversity, global competition, and the learning deficit have created a major challenge to training practitioners to develop and deliver training programs that meet the needs of individual workers and the organization as a whole. In so doing, training professionals will be expected to move from traditional approaches to learning and instruction to a more innovative, creative, and participant-centered delivery system as they assume roles of coach, mentor, and facilitator, rather than instructor.;One approach training professionals can use to meet these extraordinary challenges is through cooperative learning, that is, the instructional use of small groups so that participants work together to maximize their own and each others' learning.;Research on cooperative learning began in the late 1800s, and over the past 100 years, over 575 experimental and 109 correlational studies have been conducted. Studies show that cooperative learning produces higher achievement, more positive relationships among participants, and healthier psychological adjustment than do individualistic experiences.;Although hundreds of studies have been conducted on cooperative learning, few have been done at the college level and even fewer in a corporate training setting. This study begins to address that gap.;This research is a multiple case study of participant reactions to three cooperative learning designs in a leadership development program in a corporate setting. The purpose of this pre-experimental study is to raise questions about the use of cooperative learning techniques, identify trends that may emerge as a result of participant reactions, and to provide a basis for further research.;Through questionnaires and interviews, thirty-two participants from three different corporate populations reported their degree of satisfaction and their perceived mastery of content. The study found that all participants responded favorably to the cooperative learning designs. Participants expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the cooperative learning experience and a high degree of confidence that they learned and understood the concepts of situational leadership and would be able to apply the knowledge to their work environment.;Although this study is a qualitative pre-experimental design, the results indicate that these training practices deserve future experimental and quasi-experimental research. |
