Individuals are always in interaction with other individuals outside, as well as in the group and with the group itself. This is why the social sciences emphasize the importance of group dynamics. After the 1990's, with the globalization, digitalization, changing political systems, goal or result-oriented approaches in many western countries, new…

The notion of the Deaf community as a linguistic-cultural minority has been increasingly recognized and studied over the last two decades. However, significant differences of opinion and perspective within that population typically have been neglected in the literature. Social dominance orientation (SDO), a theoretical construct, typically…

Responding to the growing diversity of students within North American schools today, educators have recognized the value of social inclusion as an important goal, supporting both social-emotional and academic success for all students. This special issue explores how teachers play a significant role in promoting inclusive classes by understanding…

The private/personal sphere is perceived to be a channel of empowerment that fosters processes of acknowledgment and recognition during encounters between participants from different cultural groups. Drawing on ethnographic research at an inter-cultural program that offered a space for engagement for Palestinian and Jewish educational trainees',…

Proposes a quantitative conceptual scheme to describe the features of intergroup and intragroup relations. The article examines, both qualitatively and in formal equations, the tautologies that govern contract rates and network densities for any population that can be divided into two categories. (Author/RM)

Investigates seven task-oriented groups which examine consistency of social choice across a range of behavioral criteria (friendship, leadership, followship, and evaluation criteria of social interaction). Results suggest that some criteria of interpersonal relations are interdependent: acceptance and rejection choices are not opposite ends of…

Group members tend to like other members of their own group more than members of groups to which they do not belong. This paper focuses on some of the initial determinants of this own-group preference and on the isolation of factors which increase or decrease it. The major finding appears to be that the mere anticipation of cooperation or…

By challenging the traditional view of the teacher's authority, collaborative learning helps prepare students for effective interdependence in an increasingly collaborative world. Collaborative learning calls on levels of ingenuity and inventiveness that many students never knew they had. (MLW)

With the continuing shift toward more decentralized, team-based work structures, efforts to improve quality are often linked to efforts to improve productivity. This ongoing restructuring of the workplace has important implications for technical education. Educators need to have an understanding of how and why organizations are pursuing these…

In recent years, interest in teamwork in the workplace has increased noticeably. For technical educators, the implications of this emphasis on employee involvement and cooperation are clear: they should begin developing the requisite skills in their students before they enter the work force. The skill sets that are needed--in effective…

Study supported by grants from The National Institute of Mental Health (4 F1 MH-23, 327-02;1 RO3 MH 13029-01) and The National Science Foundation (GS-790).

Those who wish to bring about positive communication between two groups with strongly polarized attitudes cannot do so merely by bringing the groups together for interaction. A study of inmates and officers at a women's prison revealed the potential of perception training for changing initially polarized conceptions. Analyses of subjects'…

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…

In successfully establishing and having students complete group tasks within a cooperative learning framework, 14 essential elements must be present. The elements necessary for cooperative learning are: (1) a clear set of specific student learning outcome objectives; (2) all students in the group accept the targeted outcome; (3) clear and complete…