A randomized control trial was conducted to evaluate the impact of the Rural Early Adolescent Learning Program (Project REAL) on teachers' awareness of peer groups at the beginning of the 1st year of middle school. Two schools were randomly assigned to the intervention condition and 2 to the control condition. Thirty-nine teachers and 466 students…

This case study explored the educational experiences of Canadian preservice teachers in a course designed to teach about online teaching. Students gained experience in course design and delivery, and safe and ethical behavior related to technology. Findings indicated that projects in which students actively applied their knowledge were more…

This article examines student teamwork in the academic field from a structural perspective. Student teams are often prearranged and then left to organize themselves and get on with their work, without any further structural support; this, however, can become a negative experience on teamwork. A varied contribution among team members often occurs…

Comments on the article by R. J. Hackman and R. Wageman (see record 2006-23492-007) which offered several research questions that should be productive for furthering leadership research. This comment summarizes some recent progress on one of those questions, "Not what are the traits of leaders, but how do leaders' personal attributes interact with…

Much of the research on collaborative work focuses on the quality of the group outcome as a measure of success. There is less research on the collaboration process itself, but an understanding of the process should help to improve both the process and the outcomes of collaboration. Understanding and analyzing collaborative learning processes…

Although literacy coaching means many different things, all coaching initiatives have one common commitment: the goal of building teacher expertise. In the authors' work as coaches and with coaches, they have relied on teacher study groups as a main strategy for accomplishing this task. Their understanding of the potential for study groups has…

In this article, a qualitative, collaborative study on two students' preparation of public performances of guitar duos is presented. A cultural-psychological perspective was used, and data were collected in natural settings. Participants' processes of finding interpretations are characterized by complex strategies, based on individual familiarity…

The current research extends three research areas in relational demography: considering deep-level dissimilarity in theory building, assessing dissimilarity perceptions directly in theory testing, and examining the antecedents of dissimilarity perceptions. The results, based on two field studies using diverse samples, demonstrate the effects of…

This study examined how message-response exchanges produced in the interactions between active learners only, reflective learners only, active-reflective learners and reflective-active learners affected how often active versus reflective learners posted rebuttals to arguments and challenges across four types of exchanges that believed to promote…

The authors investigated the effects of professional experience and group interaction on the information that information technology professionals and graduate accounting information system (AIS) students request when analyzing business cases related to information systems design and implementation. Understanding these effects can contribute to…

Most people picture "strategic planning" as endless meetings spent doing SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analyses, crafting vision and mission statements, and developing goals and action plans. Few look forward to the experience or reflect back on it with pleasure. In this article, the author describes how he…

Countless theoretical texts have been written regarding the centrality of hatred as a force that motivates intergroup conflicts. However, surprisingly, at present, almost no empirical study has been conducted either on the nature and character of group-based hatred or on its implications for conflicts. Therefore, the goal of the current work has…

The violence prevention group component of the Rutgers-Somerset Counseling Program, a prevention program for multi-problem youth based in a local junior high school, was established in response to appeals made by school staff for help addressing surges in school and community violence and the rising incidence of aggression among female students.…

Representative democracy relies on the informed trust of the citizens. School board members serve their communities at a crucial place, governing large sums of money and the future of the community's children. Without the informed trust of the citizens, this enterprise will fail. Trust may be lost directly, or through inattention to detail. One of…

In this article, we propose a framework for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) employing dynamic groups, where at different stages students work independently, interact with each other in pairs, and conduct joint work in larger groups with varying numbers of participants. A Dynamic Group Environment for Collaborative Learning…