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The aim was to prove the efficacy of the five cooperative learning elements applied in English classrooms and to demonstrate how effective they were to develop social skills in students.

The qualitative approach allowed to analyse the data in order to determine the benefits of using these elements which help students to create a good rapport among them and do more productive activities to retain the knowledge. The instruments were Cooperative Learning Activity Planning Template that included 20 major steps in designing and assessing a cooperative learning activity designed by Susan Johnston. Additionally, rubrics that included the cooperative learning elements: face-to-face (promotive) interaction, positive interdependence, individual accountability, group processing and collaborative skills were necessary to assess students' accomplished tasks.

Furthermore, when students played different roles, they attained their goal and did cooperative tasks more productively. All mentioned above enables Ecuadorian educational institutions to include better teaching methods and provokes consciousness of students' accomplishment towards their goals.

In the beginning, some constraints were presented; students did not have a clear idea about the main difference between group work and cooperative work. However, once they were aware of cooperative learning elements, they did incorporate them appropriately in each assigned activity which allowed them to obtain better results. Another limitation referred to master students who did not always provide learners with constant monitoring when they were working on cooperative activities; they simply believed that strong students could help the rest in the group if there was any inconvenience with the task, taking this situation for granted.

The originality of this study is reflected in the results obtained in the final product students presented since they used the elements in a more effective way to build social skills and achieve higher grades.

The chapter illustrates why blended learning should be the minimum threshold that teachers of higher education should meet to address the students' dynamic needs, demands, and preferences. It shows how COVID-19 disrupted the status quo of the global education system, warranting schools to transition to online education fully. The chapter starts by addressing the pre-COVID-19 learning strategies. Schools mainly adhered to traditional face-to-face teaching in classrooms. Nevertheless, the COVID-19-related restrictions (lockdowns) coerced them into introducing e-learning, which was a new experience for most teachers and students. This situation made educators realize they can successfully incorporate virtual learning into their pedagogy, allowing them to implement a blended system. Moreover, the section identifies the main blended learning models that teachers can use depending on their choices, students' preferences, and institutions' resources and capabilities. These frameworks are face-to-face driver, rotation, flex, online lab, and self-blend methods. They have different approaches as well as merits and limitations. The chapter contributes to active and transformative learning by introducing more attractive, relevant, and flexible teaching methods. Owing to the flexibility of the models, the number of students enrolling in diverse programs in the post-COVID-19 era has increased. The chapter highlights various strategies that educators can apply to ensure that learners achieve optimal outcomes from blended learning. Moreover, the segment highlights the prerequisites and compatibility of blended learning for economics classes. Before unveiling blended learning, professors should ensure that students can access digital devices and the internet and understand the operating software. Thus, educators should at least consider using this model in the post-COVID-19 era.

Business expects far more from employees than technical and generic skills. There is a growing emphasis on employees to not just do their job but to contribute to business success. As the emphasis is placed on individuals contributing to the effective, positive perpetuation of the business through the development of professional and work related skills; the team culture of business today places additional emphasis on the ability to work effectively within a team environment. Specifically, this paper will discuss the importance of social interdependence and teamwork and the implications for business success and team success

Strategies for teaching engineering in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been evolving over the past decades due to innovations in technology, as well as the development of educational methodologies. In the recent past, the focus for engineering faculty has been not only on promoting the skills needed to raise the level of employability of Emirati graduates, but increasingly on new educational methodologies, e-learning and wireless networked laptop technology. Students in the UAE exhibit certain characteristics emerging from a variety of cultural and historical traditions, as well as from methodologies of education used at the pre-tertiary levels. These characteristics include expecting to be passive recipients of taught information, and lack of independence in their approach to problem solving. In this paper I discuss the development of strategies to facilitate the transition of students from passive to active learning; examine the role of technology-driven educational methodologies in promoting independent and group-centered learning skills; and use a case study to explore the instruction of Engineering Design and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and to examine how classroom management techniques have changed as a result of the growing use of technology.

The Honors College program prepares leaders for the 21^st century to become forces for positive change through problem-solving, scholarship, service, teamwork, and leadership. Its structure involves nine sequenced courses familiarizing students with challenges facing communities. Courses are team-taught by professors in different disciplines to highlight the diversity in applying concepts across contexts. This paper offers an examination of the connections for cultivating self-awareness through team-teaching in the classroom and experiential learning.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the new collaborative learning methods and tools used by elite FIFA referee technical instructors, referees and assistant referees to master the Laws of the Game. These tools allow instructors to learn through practical exercises off the field of play, while they carry out activities in a participative context in which they can share and improve their knowledge regarding the Laws of the Game and consequently the interpretations and the considerations soccer referees throughout the world use to make decisions on the field of play.

In this work, we assess a collaborative learning experience that took place during the annual FIFA FUTURO III courses that FIFA provided to FIFA referee technical instructors from its six confederations between 2013 and 2015, where 48 referee technical instructors selected from 211 national associations participated. These instructors constitute the elite of FIFA’s professional training and development chain. They teach other referee technical instructors who will then instruct international referees and assistant referees all over the world with the aim of achieving uniformity when applying the Laws of the Game.

The course participants showed a high degree of satisfaction with respect to these materials and methods, especially regarding the possibilities they offer for organizing group discussions and for “learning by doing,” and a lack of skills in ICT management has been detected for some participants, who have shown a willingness and interest to improve their skills in this field.

The training and education of soccer referees is one of the most heterogeneous training processes in the world. This complex task is even more difficult because of the growing demand for video technology in referee decision making where successful teamwork requires a high level of communication and agreement among its members.

With 211 associations, FIFA is one of the largest organizations in the world. In international competitions such as the FIFA World Cup, the referees’ decisions are analyzed by media, thousands of fans and millions of viewers. Preparing new professionals for match analysis, interpretation of Laws of the Game and working in a team is a priority for FIFA and the world of soccer.

It is the first time that collaborative learning methods are used with interactive multimedia tools that facilitate collaborative work in the training environment of soccer referee instructors, international soccer referees and assistant referees. This paper establishes a basis and a reference for future research on the effectiveness of the new collaborative technologies used by FIFA for the training of international referees and assistant referees in general.

Today, many companies don’t want employees who merely “do their jobs.” Instead, they want people who will make them profitable. And because profit‐generation is increasingly in the hand of “teams” of co‐workers who collaborate on short‐ or long‐term projects, or even permanently, companies are looking for people who can fit this type of work structure. This article discusses how a high performance team is much like a wolf pack, and gives a background on the purpose of teams, and describes the many reasons for failure of teams, discussing the qualities needed for successful teams in the 21st century.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent that cooperative group members' levels of library anxiety, operationalized as barriers with staff, affective barriers, comfort with the library, knowledge of the library and mechanical barriers, predict: group performance, namely, the quality of an article critique assignment and research proposal assignment; and the degree that heterogeneity (namely, variability of the five library anxiety dimensions) is related to this outcome variable.

Participants were 107 postgraduate students enrolled in a research methodology course at a mid‐southern university in the USA. Groups (n = 1) formed the unit of analysis. An all possible subsets multiple regression analysis was used to identify an optimal combination of library anxiety variables that predicted the group performance score.

It was found that cooperative learning groups attaining the lowest scores on the article critique and research proposal assignments combined tended to report the least variation with respect to barriers with staff and knowledge of the library, and the greatest variation with respect to affective barriers. These variables explained 41.8 per cent of the variance in performance, suggesting that library anxiety plays a role in the cooperative learning group process.

This study is based on a relatively small sample of postgraduate students from one university. Replications of this study with larger samples from different universities are needed to help validate the findings.

The findings may help academic librarians and educators who work with postgraduate or adult students better understand the debilitating effects of library anxiety on these students' academic performance.

To date, no research has investigated levels of library anxiety on the performance of cooperative learning groups.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the validity of extended technology acceptance model (TAM) in explaining pre-service teachers’ Edmodo acceptance and the variation of variables related to TAM among pre-service teachers having different cognitive styles.

Structural equation modeling approach was used to analyze an extended TAM that represents the relationship between the eight constructs and cognitive style. Group Embedded Figures Test and technology acceptance measure were used as data collection tools. The study was conducted with 129 pre-service teachers.

The results indicate that perceived ease of use (PEU) influences behavioral intention (BI) to use Edmodo indirectly through attitude toward Edmodo use and perceived usefulness (PU). Technological complexity and facilitating conditions influence BI to use indirectly through PU and PEU, respectively. Thus, the extended TAM is a parsimonious model explaining 75, 72, and 82 percent of the endogenous variable (BI) for the whole sample, for the field dependent sample, and for the field independent sample, respectively.

This paper addresses to determine the BI of pre-service teachers regarding Edmodo, which is an innovative tool, based on cognitive styles.