📙 In the 21st century educators in the field of medical education will face a pedagogic paradigm shift to empower students to develop critical thinking skills and embrace collaborative learning. There is a lack of research in the field of medical education that validates that cooperative learning can successfully faciliate the acquisition of a content heavy curriculum with equal efficacy than tradition lecture. This educational monograph provides both the historical context and a practical application to incorporate cooperative learning into a medical education curriculum. The theoretical context is paired with some statistical analysis that provides validity that a new paradigm can be incorporated into the traditional teacher centered approach that predominates in nursing, allied health and medical education in higher education.