A future of cooperative learning and non-competitive assessment

I absolutely loved art class today. So many ideas and possible lesson plans/ideas were shared. I truly felt like I was in a cooperative and non-competitive learning environment. How wonderful it would be if all of our learning were like that...I think we would enter the teaching world better prepared to meet the call for new culturally relevant pedagogy and be better able to teach in Canada's cultural mosaic. I know that sometimes I am guilty of focusing on grades and outcomes but I feel the tide turning - teacher training programs are better preparing student-teachers to focus on life-long learning and self-improvement, rather than on straight A's. That said, I think there is still lots of room for improvement - especially in the area of communication.