Conference Call

Cooperative Learning: Connecting Research, Building Collaboration
NICLEE Conference 2027

Call for Contributions
13–15 May 2027 | Pécs, Hungary

The NICLEE 2027 Conference invites researchers, developers, and educators to explore cooperative learning through scientific exchange, extended dialogue, and sustained international collaboration.
Designed as a human-scale, dialogue-oriented event, the conference will connect research findings, theoretical perspectives, and development practices within the cooperative learning paradigm. Extended section discussions and daily network workshops will support meaningful professional connections, intergenerational exchange, and concrete collaborative initiatives.

Who should participate?

We welcome experienced cooperative learning scholars and practitioners, emerging researchers, and colleagues beginning to apply or investigate cooperative learning. Contributors working with related approaches, including collaborative and peer learning, the Flipped Classroom, Design Thinking, EduScrum, and drama pedagogy, are also encouraged to participate.

NICLEE membership is not required. Participant numbers will be limited to support personal interaction and in-depth dialogue.
Conference Themes and Strands

• Equity and Equal Opportunities
• Social and Emotional Intelligence
• Academic, Critical-Reflective, and Problem-Solving Knowledge
• System-Level Applications
• Schools and Models of Cooperative Learning
• Cooperative Learning and Process Models
• Cooperative Learning and Other Discourses
• Renewed Emphasis on Cooperative Learning in the Era of AI
• Cooperative Learning Across Contexts

Contributors may select multiple strands and contexts that meaningfully relate to their research or development work.
 

Types of Contributions
 

Individual papers and symposia: Empirical research, theoretical or conceptual contributions grounded in empirical research, and systematic reviews.
Posters: Research designs, work-in-progress reports, and development or implementation models. The poster session will follow a cooperative, dialogue-based format, with each poster receiving at least three structured feedback responses.

Organizers

• NICLEE (Network of International Cooperative Learning Educators and Enthusiasts) 
• Future Teachers’ Society, University of Pécs, Hungary

Partners 

• Diverse Youth Network
• Autonomy and Responsibility Journal of Education Sciences 
• Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Pécs, Hungary

Supporters

• Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Pécs, Hungary
• Students Service Center, University of Pécs, Hungary

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Detailed Conference Call

Cooperative Learning: Connecting Research, Building Collaboration

NICLEE Conference 2027

About the Conference

The discourse of cooperative learning has introduced a paradigmatically new approach to everyday practice in education by placing learners’ cooperation at the center of teaching and learning processes. Instead of traditional learning–teaching structures and competitive dynamics, cooperative learning emphasizes reflective personal interaction, dialogue, and positively interdependent individual and group goals. Through structured cooperation, learners acquire knowledge while actively engaging with one another in meaningful conversations.
Over the past five decades, extensive international research has demonstrated that cooperative learning is more effective, more efficient, and more equitable than individualistic or competitive learning approaches. Beyond improved academic achievement, cooperative learning fosters stronger autonomous, responsible, self-regulated, critical-reflective, and problem-solving competencies. At the same time, it significantly contributes to the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies, including mental well-being, grounded self-confidence, empathy, and the ability to collaborate constructively in heterogeneous groups.
The discourse of cooperative learning has been shaped and sustained by an international research and development community. Between 1979 and 2019, this community was connected through IASCE, providing a shared space for scientific exchange and methodological innovation. In 2021, the pioneers of the field summarized their scientific contributions, methodological models, and historical trajectories in the milestone volume Pioneering…. In 2020, former IASCE presidents and board members (Neil Davidson, Laurie Stevahn, Richard Schmuck, Spencer Kagan, Robyn Gillies, Lalita Agashe) initiated NICLEE as a more informal, open, and globally oriented network, extending collaboration to emerging researchers, developers, and educators. Today, NICLEE brings together multiple generations of cooperative learning scholars, including further leading pioneers such as Elliot Aronson, Yael Sharan, Rachel Lotan, Spencer Kagan, and David Johnson. 
NICLEE aims to strengthen global connections among researchers, developers, and educators who interpret educational practices through the paradigm of cooperative learning. The conference serves as a dialogic space where diverse theoretical approaches, research results, and development practices can meet, be critically examined, and be further developed through sustained discussion and collaboration.
Cooperative learning, understood as a structural paradigm, is applicable across age groups and educational contexts and can enhance a wide range of interaction-based and learner-centered approaches. These include Socratic Dialogue, ModeratorSchule, drama pedagogy, constructivist interactive models such as Reciprocal Teaching, cognitive frameworks such as Kolb’s learning cycle and Bloom’s cognitive domains, as well as process-oriented approaches including project-based learning, collaborative learning, peer learning, the Flipped Classroom, Design Thinking, and the educational application of Agile principles. This broad horizon allows participants to locate their own professional and research niches while remaining connected through shared paradigmatic foundations.
The NICLEE Conference is intentionally designed as a human-scale, dialogic, and network-oriented event. Extended discussion periods and structured network workshops are integral parts of the program, ensuring that collaboration goes beyond presentation and becomes an operational reality. Through this format, the conference seeks to foster meaningful professional relationships, support intergenerational knowledge exchange, and integrate new members and perspectives into the evolving global network of cooperative learning.

Aims of the NICLEE 2027 Conference

#1 Creating Dialogues

Beyond the presentation of scientific research and development results, the primary aim of the conference is to create opportunities for dialogue among researchers, developers, and educators working in the field of cooperative learning.
Therefore, following the traditional presentations, sufficient time for discussion will be provided in each section, and each day will conclude with a NICLEE network workshop designed to generate collaboration. These workshops will be organized based on the issues, research, and developments raised in the sections.

#2 Clarifying Cooperative Learning

Another aim of the conference is, through the paradigmatic approach of cooperative learning, to clarify how, in the various practices examined, it is possible to achieve those outcomes—such as improving the quality of acquired knowledge or advancing social and emotional learning and nonviolent conflict resolution—that the discourse of cooperative learning has demonstrated over the past five decades.
The extended discussion periods are intended to enable in-depth debate on the interpretation and analysis of results, fundamentally within the broad horizon of the cooperative learning discourse outlined above, while remaining faithful to its paradigmatic characteristics.

#3 Personal and Human-scale Connection

The conference aims to remain human-scale, while at the same time being sufficiently diverse to allow everyone to recharge and to get to know colleagues working in similar niches.
For this reason, the sections will not be organized in the ad hoc manner typical of large conferences, but with particular care, so that they truly provide opportunities for presentation to interconnected research–development communities and foster dialogue among participants.

#4 NICLEE networking and actions

Finally, the conference aims to integrate new members and new approaches into the NICLEE network and to establish closer relationships among different generations of cooperative learning scholars.
To this end, the discussions and network workshops will be organized under the coordination of active NICLEE members, ensuring that cooperation does not remain merely a plan, but is also supported in its concrete, operational realization.

Who is the Conference for?

In order to strengthen the interpersonal and dialogic character of the event, the number of participants at the conference will be limited. Participation, however, is not conditional on NICLEE membership. Whom do we therefore envision as participants in the conference?
If you have been working for years, or even decades, on the adaptation and research-based implementation of cooperative learning, this conference is for you. It offers the opportunity to engage personally with colleagues who are leading similar research and development projects and to discuss your work within a shared paradigmatic framework.
If you are at an earlier stage of your journey with cooperative learning, have only recently begun to read about it, or have just started—or are planning—to apply or research it, this conference is also for you. You will have the opportunity to meet experienced researchers and developers from the NICLEE network first-hand, as well as colleagues who, like you, are considered junior within the field. The conference is designed to support learning across generations of cooperative learning scholarship.
If you do not primarily identify with cooperative learning, but work in other collaboration-based approaches, such as collaborative learning, peer teaching, the Flipped Classroom, Design Thinking, EduScrum, or drama pedagogy, this conference is likewise for you. The cooperative learning paradigm offers relevant perspectives and structural principles that can enrich these approaches, while your own distinctive work and perspective can, in turn, contribute to and expand the discourse of cooperative learning.

Conference Themes and Strands

Within the discourse of cooperative learning, a wide range of schools and approaches have emerged. What they all share is a central focus on restructuring learning processes to foster learning-oriented cooperation. The conference is organized around the following interconnected themes and strands, which together shape and interweave the living discourse of cooperative learning.

• Equity and Equal Opportunities

One central theme of cooperative learning is equity, that is, supporting the effective, successful, and fair development of every learner through the comprehensive restructuring of classroom communication, learning processes, and interactional dynamics. Within this strand, particular attention is given to competence expectations, discriminatory and exclusionary interpersonal dynamics, as well as power and status relations. Through cooperatively structured processes, cooperative learning offers concrete pathways toward greater educational equity.

• Social and Emotional Intelligence

Another key theme focuses on social and emotional intelligence. The cooperative learning paradigm, by establishing goal systems that explicitly promote collaboration, highlights the necessity of consciously developing intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences, that is, personal and social competencies. Within cooperatively structured processes and dynamics, learners strengthen these competencies and gradually become more capable of meaningful collaboration, while simultaneously experiencing greater well-being and engagement in learning situations.

• Academic, Critical-Reflective, and Problem-Solving Knowledge

A further central strand addresses academic, critical-reflective, and problem-solving knowledge. One of the most significant insights of cooperative learning is the recognition that learner interactions themselves must be intentionally designed and structured. Cooperative learning mobilizes and develops the competencies required for knowledge construction through interaction. Research has consistently shown that, alongside social and emotional learning, students engaged in cooperative learning also outperform peers in individualistic or competitive settings in terms of academic achievement, critical-reflective thinking, and problem-solving capacities.

• System-Level Applications

This strand highlights system-level applications of cooperative learning. Due to its paradigmatic nature, cooperative learning can be applied not only at the classroom level but also systemically, at the level of entire schools or school districts. Teaching staffs can be conceptualized as cooperative “class structures,” while at the district level, groups and members of different schools collaborate with one another, supported by cooperatively structured micro-groups that involve professionals responsible for leadership, monitoring, and quality assurance. The cooperative learning paradigm can thus be extended to the level of entire educational systems and is particularly suitable for managing and implementing large-scale educational reforms.

• Schools and Models of Cooperative Learning

One important strand focuses on the diverse schools and models of cooperative learning. Cooperative learning is often interpreted through one of its established models or traditions, most frequently the Learning Together model developed by David and Roger Johnson, followed by the Jigsaw Classroom, Complex Instruction, and Kagan’s Structural Approach. The Group Investigation and Small Group Discovery models are also integral parts of the cooperative learning discourse, as articulated in the milestone volume Pioneering….

• Cooperative Learning and Process Models

The final strand connects cooperative learning with broader process models. These include cognitivist frameworks such as Kolb’s experiential learning cycle and Bloom’s cognitive domains, as well as constructivist approaches like Reciprocal Teaching, which are inherently built upon cooperative structures. Similarly, project-based, problem-based, and inquiry-based learning models tend to achieve their strongest outcomes when implemented in cooperatively structured forms, as exemplified by the 5E model. Cooperative learning is also increasingly connected to process models originating in other contexts, such as the Flipped Classroom, Design Thinking, and Agile or EduScrum approaches.

• Cooperative Learning and Other Discourses

From its very beginnings, cooperative learning has been closely connected to the constructivist discourse, providing both practical contexts and concrete models for its implementation. Similarly, cooperative learning is strongly linked to the discourses of intercultural and multicultural education, as it clearly demonstrates the benefits of diversity in both academic achievement and social and interethnic relations. Interactions and shared goals are not inherently conflict-free. For this reason, cooperative learning is also connected to the discourse of nonviolent conflict resolution and, through it, to the broader discourse of Peace Education. In recent decades, as critical perspectives have become increasingly prominent within these discourses, cooperative learning has offered concrete examples of how such critical approaches can be realized in everyday educational practice. Another major line of connection is the discourse of competence-based development. Beyond academic performance, this discourse examines the long-term retention of learning, the development of competencies required for critical-reflective and problem-solving thinking, as well as intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies. It also encompasses the competencies necessary for autonomous, self-regulated, and responsible learning, areas in which the cooperative learning paradigm provides a coherent and research-based framework.

• Renewed Emphasis on Cooperative Learning in the Era of AI

Within the current discourse of cooperative learning, it is increasingly clear that in the era of artificial intelligence, practices grounded in the CL paradigmatic approach are gaining renewed significance. The exponential growth of individualized learning pathways, AI-supported learning materials, practice opportunities, and assessment tools draws attention to a critical insight: authentic, observable, and performance-based knowledge acquisition can be ensured only through social learning that takes place in personal interactions. The integration of the cooperative learning paradigm with the possibilities offered by AI opens pathways toward inclusive, equitable, and high-quality learning for all. Such an integration supports equal access to learning and to the social goods that can be attained through knowledge, while preserving the central role of human interaction, collaboration, and shared responsibility in learning.

• Cooperative Learning Across Contexts

One particularly valuable focus of the NICLEE 2027 Conference will be to explore how far the adaptation of cooperative learning has progressed across different contexts around the world. It is especially interesting to compare developments across countries and continents, as well as across academic traditions, disciplines, subject areas, and educational settings. We therefore welcome contributions that examine the different pathways, stages, achievements, challenges, and barriers of cooperative learning adaptation, from classroom-level practices and particular disciplinary contexts to institutional development and system-level implementation. Such comparisons can help us understand not only where cooperative learning has taken root, but also what enables or constrains its development from isolated practices toward sustained, paradigmatic transformation of education.

Selecting Conference Themes and Strands

Presenters will be able to select more than one theme or context from the above list to situate their research or development work in relation to cooperative learning. Rather than choosing a single strand, contributors are encouraged to indicate all themes and contexts that are genuinely addressed by their research or development activities.

Types of Contributions

Contributions to the conference may be submitted as individual papers, symposia, or posters. The poster session will also be designed as a cooperative, dialogue-based format. Each poster will receive at least three structured feedback responses, potentially within a small group of colleagues engaging in focused discussion.
Paper and symposium submissions are expected to present results that are supported by empirical research. Theoretical or conceptual contributions grounded in such research, as well as systematic reviews, are also welcome in these formats.
The poster session is primarily intended for the presentation of research designs, work-in-progress reports, and models for development or implementation.

Save the Date – NICLEE 2027 Conference

📅 13–15 May 2027 | 📍 Pécs, Hungary
Join researchers, educators, developers, and practitioners from around the world to explore the future of cooperative learning through dialogue, collaboration, and international networking. Follow the NICLEE website and subscribe to our newsletter for the NICLEE conference, CL news, and the latest developments across the international cooperative learning community. 
We look forward to welcoming you to Pécs, Hungary, on 13–15 May 2027! 
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