Successful team building depends on the presence of four fundamental concepts of group behavior: (1) shared knowledge, vocabulary, and level of sophistication; (2) shared territory; (3) similar status; and (4) shared access to communications networks. (SK)

Although researchers and educators agree that small group collaboration is an essential part of teacher education, not much attention had been paid to examining the dynamics, characteristics, and processes of online group collaboration involving teachers in a peer-led context. Yet, understanding how online teacher learning groups evolve and what…

Uses social systems theory to analyze the interaction of an informal group of family and friends formed around an individual in an intensive care unit. Discusses contributors to dissension including ambiguity of the task structure, fluidity of leadership and power, and failure of a utopian defense. (Author/JAC)

Uses a sociometric analysis to explore the differential organization of boys' and girls' peer groups. Finds that boys structure their peer groups by creating a large central cluster composed of smaller integrated clusters, whereas girls form small clusters unrelated to one another. Nevertheless, girls are aware of and sensitive to the status of…

This book describes how talk is used to build social organization within face-to-face interaction among a group of urban black children, an analysis providing the opportunity to study language, culture, and social organization from an integrated perspective. Children from a southwest Philadelphia neighborhood were tape-recorded during peer-group…

Examined the relation between perceived dissimilarity to peers and several peer-reported characteristics in 478 students from 26 fourth- through sixth-grade classrooms. Found that perceived dissimilarity was related positively to perceptions that a student was odd, socially excluded and withdrawn, bullying, and inattentive; dissimilarity related…

Relations among dominance, sociometric preference, and social behavior were examined in groups of unacquainted first and third grade boys meeting in play sessions. Younger groups with high aggression showed less coherent organization than did others. Dominance was associated with social preference in younger groups, and with leadership in older…

Both social ability and social disability models of delinquent peer relations have been developed to explain the social relations of delinquents. A key difference between these models is the assumption of normal social relations among delinquents in the social ability model, contrasted to the social ineptitude and lack of social skills attributed…

This study is an attempt to apply ethological tools of observation and analysis to the social behavior of 25 communally-reared children, ages 6 months to 4 years. The focus of this analysis is aggression and dominance relations. Findings indicate that: (1) agonistic behavior reveals stable and linear dominance hierarchies for children from 6…

Presents a network-assessment technique and examples showing how group experiences affect children's behavior. Compares classical sociometry and the use of composite social maps. Discusses quantifying peer-network information, using peer-network profiles as context descriptors, and identifying change in children and networks. Shows that peer-group…

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…

Social interactions in Head Start mainstreamed classrooms were studied using as Ss 20 mildly and moderately retarded preschool children and 20 nonretarded children. Data analyzed consisted of the following social interactions: initiations, responses, mode of communication, and affective tone of behavior. Findings showed that retarded Ss generally…

Maintains that the study of peer relations has focused heavily on children's dyadic experiences. Argues that an analysis of children's experiences at the network or group level provides an equally compelling perspective on their relations within their peer system. Shows how the dynamics of peer networks determine social experiences and influence…

In this study, the status ordering of a four-man group working on a task requiring discussion and decision was predicted on the basis of status characteristic theory. Two of the group members were white; two were black. They were matched as to age, height, and also on a combined index of socioeconomic status and attitude toward school. The…