A study of 18 diverse adult students in a Web-based interactive course resulted in the following recommendations: identify differing expectations of culturally diverse teachers and students, balance learning styles with a variety of online and face-to-face methods, form learning groups after students have had time to communicate, and support the…

Argues that the computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) community should adopt a stronger orientation to other social science disciplines, particularly psychology. Greater attention to psychological literature provides three benefits: well-validated principles about human behavior in group and organizational contexts relevant to CSCW research;…

Based on a five-year ethnographic study of the activity of an online, international academic community of practice supported by ListServer technology, this article covers selective findings pertaining to patterns of communication deemed crucial to community building. Implications of learning and collegial support are discussed. (Author/AEF)

Describes a five-year project in which British Columbia secondary teachers and university educators met regularly to discuss teaching and learning. Analyzes substantive features of group deliberations, group dynamics, and participant communication. Discusses "community of inquiry" features: sharing of knowledge, support in knowledge…

Describes how Internet-based group communication was used as the major strategy to promote the societal values of understanding, equality, tolerance, and peace between Jewish and Bedouin Arab high school students in Israel. Discusses changes in student attitudes and considers the prognosis for long-term change and cooperation between the two…

Shares a participant-observer's close look at small group experiences in a course called "American Experience" taught at an urban university. Considers the issue of how race can be discussed in the classroom when even collaborative approaches with emphasis on student contributions can be undone by the power of the dominant discourse. (TB)

Three studies investigated the determination of social discrimination by the valence of stimuli that are allocated between groups. The studies were based on either the minimal group paradigm or a more reality-based laboratory intergroup setting, with stimulus valence, group status, and group size as factors and with pull scores on Tajfel matrices…

Combining childhood roles and interpersonal theory produces a schematic model that includes all adult children of alcoholics, enhances understanding of the group dynamic, and suggests specific group treatment strategies. (Author)

Undergraduates enrolled in a field video production class at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington completed a low ropes challenge course as a team-building activity. Found that the ropes course contributed to group processes and getting students to trust one another, although its contribution to building intragroup cohesiveness was…

Discusses the fact that despite a decade of changing ideas about student learning and instruction based on learner-centered education, most faculty still rely on lectures. Identifies individual and group dynamics that impede collaborative learning, considers the moral base of collaborative learning, and offers some guiding principles of…

Reports on a study that focused on Australian students' cognitive and social skills in group decision-making activities conducted in the classroom. Finds that students were motivated to participate in group decision-making and that students' decision-making strategies are destructive when students assert their own ideas at the expense of others.…

Explains that one way to overcome free riding (when some members of a group shirk their responsibilities, leaving others to complete the work) is the "Knickrehm Method", in which the professor grades the group project and students can gain or lose points based upon peer evaluations. Describes two trials of the Knickrehm Method. (CMK)

Examines the contradictions of inclusion and exclusion of group members, the state and market, growing wealth and impoverishment, networks and the self, global and local levels, economy and environment, modernity and postmodernity, citizen as a national and global citizen, and globalization from above and below. Illustrates each contradiction by…

Anecdotal accounts of work with two families illustrate how adventure family therapy focuses both on individual client needs and on the power and influence of the family and other interacting systems on behaviors. Sidebar explains why adventure experiences are useful in therapy. Contains 19 references. (TD)

Social support, a key factor in determining physical and mental health, strongly predicted changes in outdoor adventure participants' psychological resilience. The support received from the least supportive person best predicted gains in resilience. Outdoor education programs should provide a learning environment that is both challenging and…