The fourth in a set of five publications on the educational "ministry," this booklet focuses on Catholic parents sharing their religious faith with their children. This resource booklet offers tools to elementary school and parish leaders. An explanation of Christian Family Clusters (groups of four to six families formed at the grass-roots level…

This study explores aspects of the hypothesis that communication in cooperative learning groups mediates effects of cooperative learning. The study develops a taxonomy of the cooperative communications of groups of predominantly Anglo and Hispanic elementary school students attending a public school where teachers were being trained to implement…

Rhetorical ethos, or the character of the rhetor as she presents herself in discourse, is vital to the success of any student attempting to enter the universe of academic discourse. According to Aristotle, ethos is demonstrated by showing good sense, good character, and good will. However, in the modern university, with the diversity of…

Verbal and nonverbal dimensions of communication are a vital part of competitive group discussion. Specific nonverbal elements that have been found useful in competitive group discussion include environment, proxemics, kinesics, objectics, and chronemics. For example, equalizing arrangements for the discussion in the best area of a room enhances…

This publication includes two papers by John Hollifield, three ERIC Digests and two ERIC resource lists on group learning, and a reprint of an ERIC search on cooperative learning in elementary and middle schools. The two papers are titled: (1) "Cooperative Learning in Elementary Schools: From Supplemental Instructional Practice to Schoolwide…

This paper describes networking evaluation, an alternative to traditional evaluation, in which students work cooperatively in small groups to solve specific problems and are evaluated collectively by their teacher. Steps in the networking evaluation model are: (1) explaining the networking concept to students and preparing them for the evaluation;…

Aspects of the relationships between state college and university representatives and state coordinating councils, and forms of intragroup behavior are considered. It is suggested that within an interorganizational paradigm, knowledge of and ability in interagency coordination may be crucial to the future of higher education. Higher education is…

Four basic learning processes which occur within photography, film, radio, and television education at the university level are identified and discussed, and specific suggestions are made to improve teaching methods. The acquisition, selection, and retention of two kinds of information are first addressed. For direct information (specific to…

Studies have shown that, in small groups, two types of leaders generally emerge, i.e., a task specialist concerned with achieving the group's goals and a social-emotional specialist concerned with the morale and cohesiveness of the group. To determine if leadship style is related to sex role orientation, rather than to biological sex, to…

The benefits of a study group to help faculty develop their competencies and expand their awareness of professional issues are described. Specifically, the Fargo Study Group, which included seven physicians interested in improving their instructional capabilities, is considered. The participants were responsible for teaching medical students in…

This guide is intended to provide assistance in developing, organizing, and operating vocational instructional program (VIP) advisory committees. It is designed to be useful for secondary or postsecondary programs that offer training for an occupation or cluster of occupations. The guide is a compilation of suggestions, illustrations, and…

The Discussion Development Group (DDG) was established by the Scottish Education Department to facilitate research on process innovation in relation to the new curriculum. The DDG resource unit trained teachers to become associates through an inservice training program focused on the observation and analysis of discussion group processes. The…

The teaching activities presented in this paper focus on expanding children's language. The paper describes (1) a "community journal" activity in which students recorded observations about events occurring in various parts of the classroom, (2) a poetry assignment using Richard Wilbur's book of poetry, "Opposites," (3) an exercise to assemble…

Just as one has a different sense of a mountain from each approach to it, so each group theory gives differing and somewhat overlapping aspects of group functioning. Each approach can help explain part of what is going on. Jung focuses on the perceptual and evaluative aspects of the individual and the resulting group consequences. Schutz focuses…

Processes that integrate the logical and participative dimensions of group decision making and problem solving are increasingly important to those responsible for the organizational development of educational systems. This paper describes a model (The Optimal Combination of Processes for Creative Problem Solving) that was designed to deal with a…