Although most people acknowledge the importance of interactions in class, it is commonly seen some students still rarely actively participate in face-to-face interactions, especially those from a Confucian cultural background. Previous research focused on many factors to understand this phenomenon, yet social anxiousness has not been given enough…

An attempt was made in the present study to identify mothers' and caregivers' teaching (mediation) behaviour in relation to toddlers' social behaviour. Participants were 103 toddlers, two- to four-year olds, their mothers, and 28 caregivers at 16 public daycare centres in Israel. Two observations were carried out, one in toddlers' homes and the…

In this paper I focus on sequences of interaction among youth where the participants engage in classroom related activities (such as spelling, discussion of essays, etc.). My paper is based on interactional and ethnographic data collected among youth in two different leisure contexts. I discuss how the participants by employment of various…

This article explores the construction of parent-teacher conferences in the Swedish preschool and focuses on processes that construct and maintain these meetings. The analysis draws upon an ethnographic study in two preschools and the empirical material consists of 11 audiotaped parent-teacher conferences and observations of everyday activities…

The social interaction and social organization patterns of 408 Israeli kindergarten children and first graders engaged in outdoor free play were observed for 40 minutes each day for three continuous weeks. (Author/CM)

The notion of symmetrical communication and its application in course teams at Deakin University, Australia, are considered. Symmetry in communications is evident in groups characterized by mutual recognition by members of one another as persons accepted and appreciated in their common striving for mutual understanding and consensus. The technique…

Based on an examination of the organizational features of editing during collaborative computer writing in a combined first and second grade classroom in a Catholic school during the 1985-86 school year, this paper argues that there is a fundamental difference between collaborative and solo computer writing, and that collaboration during computer…

This study focused on explaining the social character of text-based computer mediated communication (CMC), focusing on the outcomes of self esteem and "self reference." Subjects were 200 undergraduate students of a German university. Three perspectives of CMC were compared in this study: CMC as an impersonal situation, via mediated small…

This study focused on the problem-solving of family groups including an adolescent diabetic. The study sought to: compare three methods used to identify and analyze phases in family problem-solving interactions, establish criteria to evaluate the methods, utilize the criteria to evaluate the three methods, and select a method. The three methods…

This research summary reports on a 4-month long study of 30 children, ages 10-13, who live at the elementary boarding school on the island of 'Ua Pou, Marquesas Island, French Polynesia. Of the sample of 15 boys and 15 girls, 20 of the children are from a single small valley. Follow-up studies also were done of the families of these children. The…

A cognitive theory about the representation and processing of ethnic attitudes is presented, and strategies people use to express ethnic attitudes in conversations are discussed. Recent developments in cognitive and social psychology and in microsociology have shown that ethnic prejudices or attitudes are both cognitive and social results of…