Rebuttal. Accounting Classrooms: A Place for Realistic Learning, Market Realities, and Scientific Investigation.

This article presents views of the authors on the relative insignificance of cooperative learning in business education. Defined as the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning, cooperative learning, suggestively, is based on the social independence theories. Teamwork required in most business settings holds individuals accountable for end products and their own input. Teamwork does not require an individual to accept responsibility for the behavior and achievement level of others. Hence, it is argued that cooperative learning is an unrealistic framework for teaching teamwork because it does not prepare students to perform in the value systems of most businesses or to work in teams where the pressures from competition are harsh. The authors believe that only students have the knowledge to maximize their learning efficiency during constrained time over multiple classes. Mandated cooperative time, especially with the requirement to assume responsibility for others' learning, may reduce an individual student's total learning.