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Lecture-based pedagogical approaches cannot adequately prepare students in professional and technical occupational therapy programs. Faculty members in other disciplines are turning to a well-known and well-researched teaching approach called cooperative learning, which is more carefully structured and defined than most other forms of small group learning. Cooperative learning includes several key principles: positive interdependence, individual responsibility, appropriate grouping, group maintenance, cooperative skills, and promotive (interaction) time. This article provides ideas for managing the classroom with cooperative learning activities and describes eight of them: Three-Step Interview, Roundtable, Think-Pair-Share, Structured Problem Solving, Send/Pass-a-Problem, Generic Question Stems, Double Entry Journal, and Dyadic Essay Confrontation. Each activity is applied to content embedded in professional and technical occupational therapy curricula. A cooperative learning approach to evaluating learning is also presented.

Faculty development efforts are vitally needed in higher education today. Changes in expectations about the quality and assessment of undergraduate education, societal needs, technology, the student populations, and paradigms about teaching and learning argue for viable, credible, and creative programs. The author explores the nature and need for faculty development, discusses some faculty development options, and provides a selected number of resources.

Peer classroom observations-if conducted systematically, professionally, and collegially---can provide significant documentation of what occurs in a university classroom. Most important, the collegial dialogues they engender also serve as catalysts for teaching enhancement. This article discusses some of the issues and options associated with classroom observations and provides experience-based guidelines for conducting them.Classroom observations can serve both summative and formative purposes. Ideally, of course, well-conducted observations will lead to reflective changes in teaching. Unless the observations are part of a carefully conceived, systematic process, however, there are a number of potential barriers that can prevent their success. A rna jor barrier to peer observations, as Seldin ( 1980) notes, is that faculty are sometimes reluctant to open their classrooms to visitors. In addition, Eison (1988) suggests that some faculty question the reliability of observations because of: I) vague, general impressions growing from imprecise definitions of good teaching; 2) the disruptive influence of the observation itself; 3) biases, prompted by observers' own teaching behavior or values; and 4) observer leniency or, conversely, observer negativity. He notes that faculty also raise concerns about the effect of peer ratings on departmental productivity and about their value when matched with the day-to-day observations of students. To this list of concerns, one could also add Centra's (1979) comment that "Little improvement comes from occasional class observation by colleagues or administrators who do not know what to look for or who may not be particularly effective teachers themselves" (p. 84).Despite these reservations, observations remain a powerful way to

A highly flexible fOcus group protocol captures eJJiciently and economically usefid datafOr immediate and longitudinal course andprogram assessment. Specialfiatures include an index card activity that deals with satisfizctions levels and a Roundtable/Ranking activity that allows participant-generatedjudgments about the most positive and the most negativefiatures ofa course orprogram. Time latter activities, with data displayed in an Excel histogram and in a colored-coded WOrd table, can be usedfOr whatiscalled a "Quick Course Diagnosis" (QCD).