Compared to more complex personality assessments, Wired That Way by Marita Littauer, presents four personality types that students find easy to understand and internalize: Popular Sanguine, Powerful Choleric, Perfect Melancholy, and Peaceful Phlegmatic. Students' awareness of their own and their peers' classification in this comprehensive…

In a small-group communication course, students participate in a semester-long project to observe an organization while applying many group communication principles, including conflict resolution, group dynamics, teambuilding, leadership, and diversity. In groups of five, the students select any organization, agency, or department on campus or in…

Students routinely take part in group assignments, but many faculty fail to provide a supportive work environment. The author argues the value of team building and introduces a conceptual framework for developing multipart group assignments. The author's purpose is to provide management faculty a framework for an interactive group assignment in an…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the transdisciplinary case study (TCS) as a learning framework based on what we call functional socio-cultural constructivism and project-based learning (PBL). In doing so, the paper attempts to illustrate the applicability of TCS to learn competencies and skills necessary to research problems of…

Experience with student teams working on policy analysis projects indicates the need for faculty supervision of teams in the process of addressing complex issues. The problem-solving approach adopted in one policy analysis course is described, including assignments and tasks, issues and sponsors, team dynamics, conflict management, and the…

Weekly projects designed for an introductory psychology telecourse encourage student involvement in psychology. Each project consists of a set of instructions for a psychological study using family, friends, and other telecourse students as subjects, discussion partners, or coresearchers. All collaboration is done over the telephone. Examples of…

Group cohesiveness is a topic addressed in most small group communication texts and courses and is often defined as the degree of attraction members feel towards one another, the degree of loyalty within a group, or the "groupness" felt among members. Further, groups which are cohesive tend to be happier and more productive. When working on…

College faculty can minimize problems in grading students' cooperative projects by carefully structuring the five basic elements of formal cooperative learning groups: positive interdependence; individual and group accountability; face-to-face promotive interaction; teamwork skills; and group processing. There must also be sufficient reason for…

Reports on a collaborative learning project in which college-level counseling students designed and presented workshops on therapeutic intervention. Finds workshops stimulated more personal involvement with the topic and individual written papers ensured that all shared the workload. Concludes that workshops prepare students for collaborative…

Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy that promotes the positive interaction of children in small, heterogeneous groups. Each group contain three or four students of varying achievement levels, backgrounds, socio-economic status, and sex. Cooperative learning processes promote student motivation, build group skills, foster social and…

Many cooperative learning programs are merely exhibitions of the willingness to work with others. They apply teams of people to do work that could be accomplished just as well by individuals. Successful programs focus on collaborative learning that fosters working together to solve problems beyond the capacity of any individual. A cooperative…

Discusses cooperative learning as a means of teaching geography. Urges production of a positive classroom climate by using group builders and cooperative projects. Suggests projects involving maps, community study, and bulletin boards. Argues that students in cooperative learning become more involved in the subject and more motivated to learn…

Provides a series of guidelines for overcoming resistance and problems with cooperative projects in an introductory sociology course. These include coordinating common interests and common free time between team members, requiring allocation of various roles (presider, scribe, coordinator), and ongoing monitoring of the research teams. (MJP)

Maintains that cooperative learning produces higher achievement, more positive relationships among students, and healthier psychological adjustment than do competitive or individualistic experiences. Describes a cooperative learning core module complete with course content and assessment strategies. Discusses advantages, disadvantages, and student…

This curriculum guide is intended for a high school senior seminar program in which students (gifted, talented, and of all abilities) progress through three main stages: (1) identifying a project; (2) identifying a mentor; and (3) completing the project. The guide includes lesson plans, suggested activities, organizational diagrams, suggested…