Courses: Small group communication or any courses with units on group/team work. Objective: In this single-class activity, students will use reality TV to identify Tuckman's five phases of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Students analyze how phases of group development manifest through group interaction…

The interest in aligning college graduates' skills, competencies, and experiences with what employers desire continues across academia. Employers seek higher levels of resilience than they see in most new employees. This article provides a review of the employee resilience literature and describes a team member change scenario focused on enhancing…

Organizations today often require collaboration in the form of work teams. Many tasks completed within organizations, whether in the workplace or in academia, however, can be beyond the capabilities of individuals alone. Productive teamwork and cooperative activities in business are expected and can begin very early in a person's career. The…

Becoming a champion of arts education means establishing a culture that embraces a team approach toward integrating the arts. This article offers some practical guidance for developing a creative leadership team--and cultivating creativity in the whole school.

A major purpose of courses in intercultural communication is often to improve students' ability to perform well in situations with the potential to be both highly enlightening and highly difficult--in multicultural teams. This article reports the results of exercises in which members of a dysfunctional multicultural class were assigned to teams…

Participation in youth sport generally begins to decline after the age of 12. Among the reasons for this are personal aspects such as lack of desire, and social aspects including negative experiences with coaches. One way that coaches can improve the sporting environment is through group activities that promote team building. The purpose of this…

School-based learning depends on teachers' capacity to engage with each other around central issues of teaching and learning. While such collaboration is readily welcomed by some educators, others remain wedded to an "independent contractor" concept of teaching. Supporting teachers to view themselves as team members and to perform effectively as a…

The authors pursue three aims in this article. The first is to underscore critical praxis as an especially valuable approach to understanding and enabling teamwork. The second is to offer four dimensions of teamwork--vision, roles, processes, and relationships--as salient areas to interrogate using critical praxis. The third aim is to consider the…

This article proposes a pedagogical framework to help students analyze their group and team interactions. Intersecting five fundamental group attributes (group size, group goal, group member interdependence, group structure, and group identity) with three overarching group processes (leadership, decision making, and conflict management) creates an…

Provides camp directors with ideas for building and maintaining a sense of community among their staff, including (1) establishing a vision statement; (2) conducting team-building activities during precamp training; (3) establishing a "full value-no discount" policy that encourages caring behaviors; and (4) reinforcing a sense of…

Team evaluation of beginning teachers is an effective way to improve the novice teacher's techniques. Organizing a team through a process of selection, postselection, and maintenance is helpful in achieving a collective goal. (DF)

This pyramid model of team development has four sides--awareness, behavior, communication, and direction--on a foundation of evaluation. The four equal sides of a pyramid represent the equal importance of the different roles, including leader, within a team. All team members are involved in evaluation and deciding what is important, which empowers…

The described learning module consists of directions and materials for setting up a workshop designed to develop team teaching skills for elementary and secondary school teachers. The scope and sequencing of topics is described as well as the activities and resources involved in using the module. Ordering information is provided, and a critique of…

The Electric Maze is an interactive learning device that promotes group learning skills among management teams. It provides a "practice field" where participants can explore and apply the principles of effective teamwork under realistic conditions of uncertainty, discomfort, and mistakes. This training aims to enable management teams to…

As downsizing of government and business organizations has become widespread, many managers are seeking to increase productivity by empowering the workforce. When effectively and appropriately implemented, empowered workforce structures can cut costs and improve quality and safety. Yet resistance to such changes arises from a patriarchal…