Shlomo Sharan

Shlomo Sharan passed away in July at age 90. Here are some comments about Shlomo by several leaders of CL.

David Johnson: "Shlomo is a great loss for our group. ."

Nancy Madden: "Much good work and good memories were initiated by Shlomo's creativity and energy."

Yael Sharan: "Shlomo will be remembered for his contribution to CL and for founding the IASCE. I owe my involvement in CL to his encouragement, for which I'm eternally grateful."

Richard Schmuck:

"To commemorate Shlomo Sharan: Shlomo was the skillful organizer of the IASCE and its heart and soul for 15 years as it developed. Whenever I ventured to give IASCE my intellectual perspective, and my social-emotional guidance and support, Shlomo acted as my enthusiastic booster and unambiguous cheerleader. I have missed him for a while; now, I will miss him more. I send my warm regards to all who remember him lovingly as I do."

 Sheldon Singer emigrated from the United States to begin a new life in Israel in 1965. He took his Hebrew name, Shlomo, and Singer became Sharan (“shar” means sings). Shlomo served on the faculty of the School of Education at Tel Aviv University for many years.

Shlomo made major contributions to empirical research,
theory, classroom practice, and professional development
of cooperative learning. He pursued extensive research and development of the Group Investigation model of CL, based on the ideas of Dewey and Thelen.

Shlomo conceived of and convened the First International
Convention on Cooperation in Education in 1979, in Israel. At that meeting, we formed the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education (IASCE). Shlomo was the second President of the IASCE, following Richard Schmuck.

On the personal level, Shlomo was sometimes willful and obstinate, yet also caring and generous. At various IASCE conferences, he showed his ability as a pianist and also as a storytelling raconteur. He did a hilarious monologue about the silliness of grown adults chasing balls around the field. And he told a story of his own mischievous behavior as a student with an elderly professor, who turned out to be my Uncle Ralph.

Shlomo produced a large number of publications on cooperative learning and school change. Among his many co-authors were Yael Sharan, Rachel Hertz-Lazarowitz, and his students.

A last chapter by Yael Sharan and Shlomo Sharan appeared in my edited book, Pioneering perspectives in cooperative learning (2021). I had hoped to write that book with Shlomo as a new edition of his magnificent Handbook of cooperative learning methods. Sadly, he was too ill to even consider such a major task.

Through his research, writing, presentations, and leadership, Shlomo inspired numerous scholars and practitioners to carry on the study and practice of CL in their own way.