The purpose of this study was to explore higher education institutions practices of implementing rncooperative learning strategy as educational innovation. The study was conducted in three public rnuniversities in Ethiopia and the study sites were selected using maximum variation sampling technique. The rntheoretical framework used in this study was a composite of three theories: implementation, social learning rnand Constructivist theories. The Academic Vice Presidents, college/institute deans, department heads, rnuniversity reform directors and experts from Ethiopian ministry of education (EMoE) reform directorate rneducation strategic center were participated in the qualitative phase of this study while instructors and rnstudents were participated in the quantitative part. Semi-structured interview, document analysis and rnobservation were used to collect qualitative data. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data. It rnwas distributed to 36 randomly selected instructors and 120 randomly selected students. Out of these, rnresponses from 35 instructors and 117 students were used for analysis. Thematic analysis was used to rnanalyses the qualitative data. Descriptive, multiple regression, ANOVA, chi-square, t-test analyses were rnused to analyze the quantitative data. Seven categories/themes of CL implementation practices emerged rnfrom this study: Knowledge and Perception of cooperative learning, purposes of cooperative learning, rnblessings and opportunities of cooperative learning, attitude towards cooperative learning, cooperative rnlearning implementation practices, status of the implementation practices and challenges /curses/ in CL rnimplementation. Three major conclusions were drawn from this study: (1) One of the conclusions drawn rnfrom this study is that there were lack of necessary preparations including implementation planning, rntrainings for instructors, technical support and coordinated work among all parties that played the major rnrole was not satisfactory; (2) The respondents conceptualize CL as an accepted and preferred strategy rncomparing to individual or competitive approach but the actual implementation practices of the strategy rnwas poor. On the other hand, there were research participants who perceive CL as governments political rntool in academic institutions; (3) there was no adequate provision of resources and facilities which better rnfacilitates the implementation practices of the pedagogical innovation in the case universities