One of the most pressing issues in education is the importance of creating learning contexts and communities that are based on children's thinking in science and enhancing their understanding of pertinent concepts. In this research study, fifth grade students (N=20) were asked to design a game teaching younger students about the ocean environment.…

This book is designed to help businesspeople fill the fundamental communication gap that affects everyone who works in business, from employees to managers to executives. Its purposes are as follows: to provide a common language of work; to shape the common language into a model or paradigm of work that everyone can use to help meet workplace…

Group decision support systems (GDDS) represent a technological aid for the decision-making process, combining communication, computers, and decision technologies to support problem formulation and solution in group meetings. A study examined communicative influence strategies used in a GDDS meeting. Subjects, 201 high- and low-influence persons…

This 43-item selected, annotated bibliography on cohesiveness and interpersonal attraction includes books, journal articles and conference papers published between 1953 and 1990. The bibliography is in two parts. The first part consists of key sources, most of which have extensive bibliographies or lists of references. The second part consists of…

This study investigated manifestations of collaborative work with pairs of kindergarten children during counting tasks designed to promote early number development. The data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews with individual students, and teaching sessions with pairs of students. Ten students were paired to be compatible…

Asking questions is a salient event in group learning environments such as classrooms. Laboratory experimental results indicate that co-learner questions can affect judgments of comprehension. A study involving 94 male and 209 female students at a large midwestern university examined whether students would be aware of such alterations in…

A study explored what an outside-the-classroom, authentic literature discussion involved. Three book club discussions (involving a leaderless group consisting of members of varying professions meeting monthly to discuss fiction and nonfiction reading selections) were audiotaped, transcribed and coded. Results indicated that: (1) when allowed to…

Effective group leadership is not entirely about "good" or "bad" approaches, but rather the ability to choose an appropriate style for a particular situation. This paper examines three paradigms, or world views, that can influence the approach of a leader (facilitator, therapist, teacher) of adventure groups and gives examples…

This book explains how to use whole-faculty study groups to get the entire teaching staff working together on one set of organizational goals. Chapter 1 discusses the school reform environment and the potential of whole-faculty study groups to serve as a major change process for improving schools and student learning. Chapter 2 describes the…

Following a review of the literature of group counselor experiential training, this paper describes a rationale for an experiential growth group model to be used as an adjunct to a masters level group theories course. Such a course is a typical requirement within counselor training programs across the country. The current controversy which…

Support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, based on the 12 steps of recovery, have grown tremendously over the last several years. Personal narratives are an integral part of the recovery process because the signs that are used, and the semiotic webs that they form, are similar among people who belong to 12-step groups. In these groups,…

To help with the teaching of wilderness expeditionary leadership, this book contains knowledge regarded as essential for Wilderness Education Association (WEA) instructors. WEA courses are educational expeditions of 28-35 days designed to teach outdoor leadership in wilderness environments. Chapters focus on the "whys" behind fundamental…

To shed light on reciprocal social networks for adult literacy learners, an ethnographic study sought to understand the dynamics of social networks from a sociocultural perspective, that of the adult basic education learners themselves. Subjects were a diverse population of six adult learners at a suburban adult education center (five working to…

A professor of outdoor and experiential education reflects on the development of group relations and on lessons in outdoor ethics learned during a canoe trip in the Canadian Arctic. Written to celebrate a transforming experience, this paper illustrates the experiential learning and individual development that can result from intensive outdoor…

Using film making in the classroom can bring to life concepts that may seem abstract and offer thinking as well as decision making skills to the participants. To achieve this objective, a small group communication class was asked to make a movie about creativity. The 3-week project resulted in the writing, directing, filming, and editing of a…