Although some literature reviews cited mixed results for group-based social competence interventions in schools, existing descriptions of intervention efficacy often lack attention on important factors that may moderate differential response. Some studies suggest that individual characteristics such as diagnosis (i.e., specific deficit clusters)…

Creativity makes life more enjoyable and successful, both for students and people generally. The complex elements of society require that people be creative in order to guide humanity forward. Thus, educators often strive to promote creativity among their students and themselves. The present paper offers a broad definition of creativity and then…

Elwood Murray (1897-1988) was a pioneer in communication education. Beginning in the 1930s, he applied nontraditional methods in the speech classroom to encourage students to internalize and apply what they learned, and to view knowledge holistically. Drawing on the work of Kunkel, Moreno, Lewin, and Korzybski, Murray focused on developing skills…

Inside every airline magazine is an ad in which Chester L. Karrass insists, "You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate." This suggests that the "art" of negotiation is more important than the substance of any issue under consideration. When it's time to negotiate at the author's college, the faculty union's "professional…

The most common form of direct communication between parents and teachers in schools worldwide is the parent-teacher conference. Purposeful parent-teacher conferences afford the teacher and the parent the opportunity to address a particular topic related to the child, such as academic progress and behaviour. However, teachers are seldom trained to…

The purpose of this paper is to support school professionals in their work with parents as they meet IDEA (2004) requirements during IEP meetings. The authors share tools to help recognize when IDEA principles are violated and provide alternative responses that school professionals and parents can offer. Definitions and brief explanations of the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of applying appreciative intelligence and appreciative inquiry concepts to design a possibly new model of ice-breaking, which is strengths-based and very often used in any training in general and team building training in particular. Design/methodology/approach: The design has…

Cooperative relationships are the foundation of a model of online learning based on communities. The development of a community depends on the interaction between community members. This study is based on the belief that the dynamics of exchange of thought, from a Piagetian perspective, are one possibility for understanding the process of…

This study used small group theory, quantitative and qualitative data collected from experienced practicing facilitators at three points of time, and a building block process of collection, analysis, further collection, and consolidation to develop a model of small group facilitator competencies. The proposed model has five components:…

Cooperative learning has been introduced into International Accounting, a second year subject at a major Australian university. The purpose was to provide students with a satisfying experience of learning within a social context and to develop their interpersonal, professional and written communication skills. The main data were collected during…

Intercultural maturity and the learning partnerships model are offered as frameworks for understanding the intersection of students' developmental levels and readiness for cross-racial interactions, and for assisting educators in promoting racial self-understanding. A case study is used to illustrate the usefulness of the model in supporting…

A study examined the ability of six children (ages 8-12) with specific language impairment to participate in a group negotiation task. Each child interacted with two peers to select toys that children their age would enjoy. Subjects produced significantly fewer utterances than peers chronologically similar in age and language ability. (Author/CR)

Examines the transition from a single conversation to two conversations in a group larger than three by focusing on three distinctive properties of the schisming-inducing turn (SIT): (1) the changes in recipiency structure; (2) the sequence-structural properties of the SIT and its uptake; and (3) the topical properties of the SIT. (61 references)…

A study of 94 intact autonomous work groups performing multi-part tasks revealed that group creative performance increased exponentially with the number of highly creative group members composing the group. However, this occurred only when Team Creativity-Relevant Processes within the group were relatively high. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Maintaining that good communication and sharp awareness of interpersonal dynamics can help facilitators of quality circles develop greater group synergy and thus more creative and productive results, this guide presents techniques and exercises for developing facilitators' interpersonal communication skills. A pretest and brief introduction are…