The widespread and increasing use of cooperative learning is one of
the great success stories of social and educational psychology. Its
success largely rests on the relationships among theory, research, and
practice. Social interdependence theory provides a foundation on
which cooperative learning is built. More than 1,200 research studies
have been conducted in the past 11 decades on cooperative, competitive,
and individualistic efforts. Findings from these studies have
validated, modified, refined, and extended the theory. From the theory,
procedures for the teacher’s role in using formal and informal
cooperative learning and cooperative base groups have been operationalized.
Those procedures are widely used by educators throughout
the world. The applications have resulted in revisions of the
theory and the generation of new research.