Three staples of management and organizational behavior classes are units on creativity, problem solving, and group decision making. This article presents an experiential exercise in creative problem solving in which the participants attempt to create a cartoon caption both individually and in small groups. The cartoons all come from "The New…

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) identifies five core, interrelated social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies that children need to be successful in school, at home, and in their community: (1) self-awareness; (2) self-management; (3) responsible decision-making; (4) relationship skills; and (5) social…

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is a 21st-century skill essential for learning gains, workplace success, and tackling increasingly complicated global problems. Group diversity plays a vital role during collaborative activities, especially in a digital space. Although CPS involves dynamic communication behaviors, few studies have considered the…

Learning democratic participation as future citizens is an important goal for science education for all students. To take part in debates and decision-making involving socioscientific issues, such as sustainability, students need to become aware of different positions and dilemmas regarding such issues. This study seeks to understand how…

This teaching note outlines an innovative simulation game realized in response to post-pandemic experiential learning needs. The game introduces a fictional African country experiencing a series of political and financial shocks. Students are assigned membership in social groups and must implement the national policies that would improve outcomes…

This article discusses how the key players' multilayered collaboration may be enacted by the Change Laboratory methodology in the footsteps of Virkkunen and Newnham (2013) to address a complex issue for the benefit of adolescents. It can be defined as a group processing approach used by a group to solve a problem of its own defining. Over six…

In this study the effects of different learning environments on the promotion of decision-making competence for the socioscientific issue of genetically modified crops is investigated. The comparison focuses on direct vs. indirect instructions. Therefore on the one hand a sophisticated decision-making strategy was presented to the directly…

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…

A study examined the different degrees of satisfaction with the nominal group technique (NGT) felt by policymakers and change agents with differing professional backgrounds and responsibilities who participated in nominal groups. A total of 206 participants at four conferences at Texas A&M University (international food and water policy, Texas…

SYNCON is a tool to examine future options; it is a process that begins with small groups, merges to larger composite groups, and finally one total group so that all members of a group can contribute towards the solution of a complex problem. (Author)

This book is a guide is for school practitioners who want to know more about planning and conducting focus groups as an aid to decision-making. It emphasizes practical and cost-effective ways to ensure accurate results. After defining the focus group, chapter 1 offers ways focus groups can be used in schools and reasons for using them. Chapter 2…

This study examines the viability of time limit as an independent variable for investigating the decision-making process. Three major aspects of time and decision making are investigated: (1) time and accuracy of group decision, (2) time and member satisfaction with the group decision, and (3) time and perceived accuracy of group decision. A pilot…

The author trained confederates to exhibit either opinionated, moderately opinionated, or unopinionated styles of leadership, then assigned them to discussion groups. Each group was assigned a specific topic and instructed to decide on a specific policy toward the topic. They were also asked to make ratings that measured four other attitudes: the…

This human relations program consists of a series of weekly classroom discussions and activities in the fifth through seventh grades, which give each student an opportunity to: (1) express, openly, opinions on matters of importance to him; (2) recognize and accept the feelings and concerns he shares with his peers; (3) consider how his feelings…

Designed to help people engage in constructive dialogue on whether the plight of the people of Bosnia calls for military intervention, the package provides the basis for three distinct and self-contained discussions that move conversation from general questions about what justifies the use of military force to specific questions about what to do…