Cultural and ethnic diversity, cooperative learning and the teacher's role

Abstract

No one could deny the evidence that we all live in an increasingly diverse and interdependent society. This diversity affects all fields of society. Education is certainly not an exception. To attain the best in their teaching (and, probably, also in their lives in general), teachers, and educators in general, have to be prepared to better understand this diversity, which can be displayed in a range of different languages or dialects, religious or ethical beliefs, ethnic groups, cultures, and so on. If teaching is a challenge, teaching for an intercultural understanding is even a greater one. The purpose of the paper is to show the utility of using cooperative (or collaborative) learning techniques in teaching. Within the paper we refer to a number of research projects and experiences which show that cooperative learning methods in multicultural settings are a highly recommendable tool for educators.