This study focuses on teachers' group decision making during Dutch allocation meetings. A previous interview study showed that teachers question the objectivity of decisions due to negative interaction experiences and a lack of structure during these meetings. To characterize the structure and interaction of these meetings, 33 student allocations…

The focus of this article is on digital literacy and students' use of digital sources. We are examining how students choose digital video sources when doing group work with tablets in a social studies project. The analysis centers on how students collaboratively negotiate and reason around their choice of video sources during an assignment about…

The current study examines the impact of pretask modelling on the collaborative learning opportunities that occurred when Korean learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) carried out three tasks: dictogloss, decision-making, and information-gap. Forty-four adolescents who were enrolled in a required English course at a middle school in Korea…

A study of a variation on brain-storming problem solving techniques. (CH)

Article describes management training through playing a game which involves the creation and operation of a business organization devoted to manufacturing and sales. Precise details on setting up the game are given. (Author/PD)

Discussion of small-group interaction and communication focuses on a study of professional librarians that tested Hirokawa's Vigilant Interaction Theory which maintains that group interaction affects decision-making performance by directly shaping the quality of vigilance that leads to a final choice. (Author/LRW)

Drawing from data generated in more than 100 hours of interaction within 15 leaderless groups, a study investigated the interaction characteristics of emergent leadership--leadership that is earned through face-to-face encounters in a group. Each group was instructed to reach consensus decisions on two tasks, both of which provided the possibility…

A study investigated whether the interaction patterns of high consensus groups differed significantly from the patterns of low consensus groups in the final stage of a decision-making task. Eighty-four college students placed into 19 groups were told to select a social problem, investigate it, and develop a solution. At the end of the three-week…

The term "risky shift" is used to describe the tendency of groups to make a collective decision that is less conservative than the members might make as individuals. Previous research on this subject has been based on three analytical categories: demographic makeup of groups, group familiarity with the task and information, or individual…

Analyses of the children's communication patterns revealed that LD children were less likely to disagree with classmates, less likely to try to argue for their choices, and more likely to agree with their peers. (Author)

A comprehensive faculty development program is concerned not only with the faculty member as a person and as a professional but also as a member or a complex interdependent social system. (JD)

Effective learning in management education can be enhanced by reproducing the real-world need to solve problems under pressure of time, inadequate information, and group interaction. An interactive classroom communication system involving problems in decision making and continuous improvement is one method for bridging theory and practice. (SK)

A study was conducted to examine the relationship between the amount of conflict in a group decision-making process and the achievement of a quality decision. A task problem given to 33 college students completing a group symposium assignment in a basic public speaking and discussion course called for subjects to choose three possible topics for a…

Examines and explains relational control interaction patterns in two decision-making groups and two women's consciousness-raising groups. Analyzes the interaction data using a Markov model and tracking the control dimension of relationships over time. (JMF)

Consensus is important in the making of a policy decision. If a decision is reached without consensus, morale and unit satisfaction may both suffer. With genuine consensus, a unit tends to willingly support and implement the new policy. After analyzing how observed small groups had actually reached consensus, the following ten techniques were…