Case study 1 Once Upon a Group

Toni, a first-year teacher in an urban primary school, has just taken responsibility for a fourth-grade class whose students bring a wide range of experiences, languages, and learning profiles. The class includes multilingual learners at intermediate proficiency, several advanced readers who move quickly through tasks, and students with identified special educational needs. Motivated by the idea that differences are a resource for learning, Toni decides to introduce cooperative learning in a unit on fairy tales. His goals are twofold: 1) that students recognize common features of fairy tales and 2) that they practice working together so that everyone has an important task and a voice.

On the day of the lesson, Toni introduces the plan to the students, names group roles, and assigns students to mixed-ability groups. He launches with a Think-Pair-Share about what makes a fairy tale, but the prompt is broad, some pairs stall, and multilingual learners struggle to express ideas without language supports. Some students wander among groups, derailing conversations, while noise rises and transitions blur. Next, Toni moves into a jigsaw: each group receives a short fairy tale to analyze, prepare posters and then teach to others. Because the texts are not leveled, one group is handed the most complex story and bogs down. In another, the student with dyslexia is assigned to read aloud and becomes frustrated. In a third group, the advanced readers finish early and drift into off-task drawing. Toni offers targeted help for each group, leaving others to flounder. By the time Toni calls for a gallery walk, only two groups have produced posters, the rest are half-finished or blank, and the classroom circulation dissolves into jostling and side talk. The bell rings with little to show for the effort. Toni leaves deflated, wondering whether cooperative learning simply creates chaos.

This case illustrates that cooperative learning demands thoughtful planning and deliberate execution to secure the active participation of all students in shared learning.

In the case study, you will support the teacher in exploring how cooperative learning can be implemented in inclusive settings and which didactic approaches make it genuinely inclusive, ensuring that diverse learners can contribute, interact, and succeed together.

The presentation of the case study should include the following aspects:

• Brief introduction to the case (including a description of the initial situation and the guiding question);

• Theoretical foundations of cooperative learning in general (characteristics, prerequisites, methods, functions, effectiveness) and cooperative learning in inclusive learning environments in particular;

• Cause analysis: Possible reasons for the failure of the attempt to implement cooperative learning;

• (Didactic) approaches for inclusive cooperative learning;

• Recommendations for action for teachers (Guidebook for implementing and preparing cooperative learning in an inclusive classroom).