Research around learning community models often shows a structured and defined model to follow with the underlying assumption being if the steps are followed, the results will come. The model we offer in this paper is rather counter-cultural as it was not a specific process or practice we followed; rather, we found ourselves in a highly engaging,…

Researchers have shown the benefits of mentoring in both personal and professional growth. It would seem that group mentoring would only enhance those benefits. This work represents a literature review of peer-reviewed articles and dissertations that contribute to the theory and research of group mentoring. This work reviews the articles that…

Background/Context: The type of professional development provided for teachers has been undergoing change from a one-time workshop approach to a more embedded, long-term, reflective, and collaborative structure. Although findings on the impact of new forms of professional development (PD) are beginning to emerge in the literature, there is little…

Groups are a fundamental part of the business world. Yet, as companies continue to expand internationally, a major challenge lies in promoting effective communication among employees who work in varying time zones. Global expansion often requires group collaboration through computer systems. Computer-mediated groups lead to different communicative…

Commonly accepted ideas, on the one hand, about how small groups in a writing class should work and, on the other hand, psychological research about what makes a small group work well are not consistent. Social psychologist Clovis Shepherd claims that the "popular notion that the democratic ideal is a group in which all members exert an equal…

Points out the importance of effective group work in all aspects of education. Provides group members and leaders with 15 practical guidelines concerning member behavior in groups and task or structural characteristics of groups. Suggestions deal with issues such as communication styles, group maintenance, group size, and reaching consensus. (JHZ)

A review of the research literature concerning the effects of cooperation and competition on small-group productivity suggests that results have been conflicting and inconclusive. From a methodological standpoint, the inconsistent finings result from the use of experimental tasks which create systematic bias in favor of either the cooperative or…

Aspects of the relationships between state college and university representatives and state coordinating councils, and forms of intragroup behavior are considered. It is suggested that within an interorganizational paradigm, knowledge of and ability in interagency coordination may be crucial to the future of higher education. Higher education is…

This report, the third annual study of primary program implementation, outlines case study observations of learning groups and of teachers relations to groups. The learning atmosphere of a learning group is determined by presence of conducive or disruptive elements, input of children, and relation of the group to the teacher, in addition to good…

This study of student-facilitated study groups at Brooks Community College explores how students structured the study group experience and what type of interaction occurred during the group sessions. The study groups were created for high content introductory courses in which high percentages of students had been unsuccessful. Student leaders were…

The 26 papers in this collection from a British conference first provide an overview of group-based learning in higher education, offer a range of examples, and identify issues and trends. Chapters include: (1) "Introduction" (Roy Gregory and Lin Thorley); (2) "An Overview from Higher Education" (Diana M. R. Tribe); (3)…

For most distance education (DE) systems, distance, time, and/or opportunity isolate learners from their teacher and their fellow students. To facilitate interaction, most DE systems include different types of support groups. Modern technology allows groups to interact effectively even though individuals are far apart. Technology may appear to be…