Instructional Cohorts and Learning: Ironic Uses of a Social System

This research explored the organizational nature of cohorts with particular focus on the relation between structural factors, including conventions, culture, power, and unintended learning. An in-depth case study of a cohort project team of educational leadership students led to identification of four major themes. Students employed a "product-centered orientation" that blurred distinctions between learning and performance. This orientation was a consequence of "recipes for action" appropriated by students from other institutions, "conditions of action" (including deadlines imposed by instructors), and "structural rules" the team constructed to guide its work. Implications for instructional practice are identified.