Explains a conceptual model by Chris Argyris dealing with organizational conflict. Applies the theory to college residence halls. Suggests that resident assistants need more responsibility and authority. Urges that they be allowed more input into housing policy in order to improve living conditions and student satisfaction. (Author/JAC)

The effectiveness of a set of curricular activities and differing group experience in facilitating interdependent task structuring by seventh graders were examined. No significant differences were found among the experimental groups, but they structured the task and behaved more cooperatively than the control group. (Author/MH)

Asserts that with observed and predicted growth in social and political activism among students, higher education and community leaders are challenged to rethink the impact of student activism on students' development and on institutional and community change processes. (KW)

Discusses the goals of team building, scope of team-building interventions, and specific contributions of both experiential (corporate adventure training) and nonexperiential (traditional) methods for increasing work-group effectiveness. A model for effectively combining the two approaches involves establishing goals, clarifying team members'…

Sketches the background of mobbing (bullying) in the workplace. Analyzes the school related debate on mobbing. Takes into account the structure and interaction related characteristics of the teaching profession. Asks whether these characteristics can lead to a higher potential for mobbing and how this potential should be assessed. (CAJ)

The hypothesis that student groups working under conditions of intergroup competition will adopt different motivational orientation than will groups not in competition was studied using 89 Israeli fourth graders (50 males and 39 females). The impact of prior socialization on group behaviors and implications for cooperative learning are discussed.…

Essay on Indian leadership stresses the importance of rebuilding community through ceremonies, a return to traditional values, teaching children about their Indian heritage as well as preparing them to be competitive in the world market, being caretakers of the community, and "thinking community" in terms of restoring and revitalizing…

Measures the degree to which group guidance and small group counseling generated positive change in the social acceptance and self-esteem of normal and socially inefficacious adolescents. Both methods enhanced the social acceptability of the adolescents, with partial gains recorded in self-esteem. Recommends a combination of both methods. (RJM)

Children between three and nine years of age were randomly assigned to so-called fast or slow teams and were asked to make self- and intergroup evaluations. Five year olds had high self-evaluations, strong in-group bias, and high group cohesion regardless of which group they were in. (BC)

Defines emotional crises in an adventure education context. Discusses crisis intervention from a mental-health perspective and presents nonviolent intervention techniques for anxiety, disruptive behavior, and harmful behavior. Describes two techniques--critical incident stress debriefing and traumatic stress defusing--aimed at managing traumatic…

The history of educational reform and innovation is replete with good ideas or policies that fail to get implemented or that are successful in one situation but not in another. A missing ingredient in most failed cases is appreciation and use of what is called change knowledge: understanding and insight about the process of change and the key…

Group work is increasingly being used in a variety of college courses. A number of strengths have driven the increase in the use of this form of collaborative learning. Still, a number of problems potentially limit the use of group projects. In this study, we report on research in which we examined how students recommended changing group projects.…

In this article, the author introduces the traditional Hmong culture and the background of the Hmong people and presents important aspects of collectivist cultures. The author discusses possible challenges in providing services to students living in the United States who are blind and visually impaired and from a Hmong background. She also…

The research issue in this study is how to structure collaborative learning so that it improves solving physics problems more than individual learning. Structured collaborative learning has been compared with individual learning environments with Schoenfeld's problem-solving episodes. Students took a pre-test and a post-test and had the…

Because the practice of humane and ethical behavior among faculty is crucial for a healthy and harmonious environment in a school, this research studied the conceptions of such behavior among a group of teachers through examination of personal narratives. The study identified situations and experiences where humane ethical behavior occurred…