| Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) has been recommended as a strategy to promote inclusion, equity, social skill development, cognitive learning and psychomotor learning (Barrett, 2000; Cohen, 1994; Dyson 2001; Siedentop & Tannehill, 2000). PAL occurs in small groups and in dyads, typically seen in forms such as tutoring and cooperative learning. As an instructional strategy, cooperative learning has a long, rich history in the general classroom and has recently been given serious attention in physical education. Whether the objective is to use cooperative learning as an instructional strategy to increase motoric skills of students, or to improve the development of social skills within (e.g., sense of self) and among (e.g., respect for others) students in the gymnasium, a number of strategies taken from the general classroom are demonstrating their effects in physical education. Moreover, within the framework of National Standards in Physical Education, cooperative learning may be an effective instructional strategy to achieve goals. In this presentation, PAL and cooperative learning will be discussed from a theoretical, methodological, strategic, and structural approach. As a socially constructed practice, issues of inclusion in the elementary physical education classroom will also be presented. |