With increasing competition for postgraduate research scholarships, awarding processes demand attention and scrutiny. We examine inter-rater reliability for two prestigious New Zealand scholarships, the Shirtcliffe Fellowship and the Gordon Watson Scholarship. For each scholarship, five assessors (three academic; two non-academic) independently…

In business higher education, group project work plays an essential role. The purpose of the present study is to explore the relationship between the group heterogeneity of students' business project groups and their academic achievements at both group and individual levels. The sample consists of 536 freshmen from an International Business School…

Focusing on a sample of 382 African American (206 female) and 264 European American (132 female) students in diverse fourth and fifth grade classrooms, this study investigated three questions concerning the connections between peer groups and academic achievement during early adolescence: (a) How is group structure (i.e., hierarchy and cohesion)…

Four alternative structures of peer groups are compared in an empirical analysis of teenage dropouts and recent drug use. In general, individual-specific covariates remain robust regardless of group structure specification in dropout models, but lose significance in models of drug-use. Estimates of correlated school effects depend on the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which academic achievement in U.S. schools could be explained by several indicators of belongingness (i.e., close teacher-student relationships, peer acceptance, school liking, low levels of loneliness in school and positive perceptions of peers) and school engagement. For this study, data…

We investigated the effects of gender and group size on perceptions of group variability, using groups of students taking different majors that varied in the proportion of men and women (female-majority, parity, and male-majority). We found that both group size and gender had consistent effects on perceived out-group variability, even when…

Two-level data sets are frequently encountered in social and behavioral science research. They arise when observations are drawn from a known hierarchical structure, as when individuals are randomly drawn from groups that are randomly drawn from a target population. When the covariance structures in the group level and the individual level are the…

In measuring the characteristics of mass-communication audiences, three dimensions are frequently used: demographics, social class, and psychological characteristics. The author proposes a fourth, "life style," which offers reliable data, is more colorful than demographics and more useful than psychological characteristics. This dimension is…

Summarizes research comparing boundaries around larger and smaller groups. Finds that the perception of group boundary permatbility varies with group size. Reports a greater perceived distinction between the group and the individual passerby as group size increases. Describes the effects of varying group member proximity. Discusses implications…