This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: factors affecting group decisions regarding attributions of responsibility; a model of message-attitude-behavior relations; effects of the communicative process on perceived source…

The principles and organization of a group learning scheme involving 100 members of the Universite du Troisieme Age are described. The particular group of interest here was involved in a conversational course in English. The average age of the group was 59 and generally the educational level was the baccalaureate. In this form of learning, the…

The purpose of this study was to measure the degree of behavioral change in terms of some aspects of the psychological self resulting from participation training of groups from two churches. Attempt is made to describe and measure the process of growth in terms of a process model categorized into awareness, acceptance, and affirmation. Content…

A study was made in Wisconsin of knowledge gains by participants in two Cooperative Extension Service educational activities (soil management and cooking for many) organized and presented by the in-depth teaching approach, and of selected factors thought to have an effect on the amount of knowledge gained. Gains were categorized as low (1%-49%…

Classroom interaction may be described in terms of communication events, i.e., sequences of teacher-pupil communicative behaviors separated from preceding and succeeding sequences of behaviors by natural boundaries. Communication events may be institutional (related to managing the classroom and meeting the expectations of the institution), task…

The implementation in a school district of the Research Utilization and Problem Solving (RUPS) System is demonstrated. RUPS is an instructional system for an inservice program designed to provide the needed competencies for an entire staff to engage in systems analysis and systems synthesis procedures prior to assessing educational needs and…

Emphasis is placed on the need for and techniques in the development of critical reading at the primary level. The following steps for teaching reading as thinking and as acquiring ideas are presented: (1) developing purposes for reading, (2) developing habits of reasoning, and (3) developing habits of testing predictions. Underlying principles…

Espousing an interdisciplinary approach, the book contains selected writings, lectures, and speeches concerning clinical work with disturbed children and adolescents in institutional settings. Editorial comment introduces each of the following sections: a survey of the current status of the children's field both clinically and educationally; a…

The literature on sex-related differences in leadership behavior was reviewed in order to explore underlying factors. Currently there exist several models of male leadership in small groups, but no models of human leadership which represent the experiences of women in same sex and mixed sex groups. Key considerations for constructing such a model…

This paper examines some of the conversational skills manifested by children within a nursery group as they organize their own activities among themselves and cope with social and didactic demands of adults. Among the features examined are the number of active and passive participants within conversing groups, the intentions and pragmatic…

An argument is made against the use of school averages as composition measures by documenting the non-random nature of peer associations and by presenting evidence that different students are influenced by different reference groups. The structure of friendship associations among some 20,000 students in the McDill Twenty High School Sample is…

This manual for parents provides guidelines for administering parent cooperative preschools (coops) and orienting coopmembers to their multiple roles within the school. It deals with the organizational structure of parent cooperative groups, the roles of parents and teachers, the mechanics of leadership, purposes and methods of parent education,…

This book presents a sequence of learning activities that have been used with success in the foreign language classrooms of Kenston High School, near Cleveland, Ohio. The activities, based on group dynamics principles, are designed to facilitate relevant oral communication in the target language and, through this communication, to help the…

This book presents a sequence of learning activities that have been used with success in the foreign language classrooms of Kenston High School near Cleveland, Ohio. The activities, based on group dynamics principles, are designed to facilitate relevant oral communication in the target language and, through this communication, to help the students…

The purpose of this report was to evaluate the more common small group methods in terms of their effectiveness in teaching adults. A rationale for small group instruction was presented, followed by descriptions of the principal methods, and an assessment based on existing research findings. It was concluded that small group methods can be…