TO TEST THE APPLICATION OF THE GENERAL SYSTEMS APPROACH IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT, A PROBLEM WAS PROPOSED IDENTIFYING THE PHENOMENA AND CONTINGENT VARIABLES OF THE CURRICULUM SYSTEM WITHIN THE INPUT-OUTPUT FRAMEWORK. WITH TEACHERS, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, AND GRADUATE STUDENTS OF EDUCATION AS VOLUNTEER PARTICIPANTS, TWO EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS GIVEN…

This speech presents a model of human communication which integrates the existential philosophy of Martin Buber with the communication views of Jonas Salk. In his book, "The Survival of the Wisest," Salk characterizes an "Epoch A" to describe the values and behaviors of the past and an "Epoch B" to describe the necessary values and behaviors for…

The application of small group interaction and decision making assessment methods has demonstrated many of the interpersonal preferences, understandings, and attitudes of the Supreme Court. Six terms of the Supreme Court, from October 1969 through October 1974 were chosen for evaluation. Only those cases in which the formal opinion of the Court…

A field experiment was used to investigate the effects, if any, of changing group size and racial composition on the attitudes, behaviors, and effectiveness of black and white leaders. Subjects were 288 naval recruits, half black and half white, performing two tasks which were watched by a pair of racially mixed observers through a one-way mirror.…

Concerned exclusively with what might be termed as "the human meaning of the current confrontation of the races in American cities," this preliminary report supplements and extends the findings of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders by dealing specifically with the attitudes, perceptions, experiences, and expectations of…

The environmental perceptions of 144 randomly selected freshman students at a southwestern junior college were measured using the College and University Environment Scales (CUES). The sample was equally divided between male and female students, and among three groups: city commuters, rural commuters, and campus residents. Differences between group…

Planning, funding and operating anti-poverty programs require skilled community organizers. Training organizers deals with problems of how to motivate others and what tactics should be used when difficulty is encountered. Two approaches to these problems determined by images of 20th Century Man have been employed: (1) rational economic man who…

This unit on discussion skills was designed for junior high school students who have elementary discussion skills. The two primary student objectives are: (1) to be able to express themselves openly, but without hurting the feelings of other people; and (2) to improve their discussion skills. The 12 lessons in the unit focus on freedom of…

The effect of nonverbal behavior on communication is apparent, but educators are left with the question of how an awareness of nonverbal behavior can fit into the classroom. In fact the average classroom offers a vast supply of information about nonverbal communication that remains relatively untouched in scientific studies. The processes of…

It was hypothesized that increases in the amount and specificity of information furnished to a discussion group would facilitate group decision making and improve other aspects of group and individual performance. Procedures in testing these assumptions included varying the amounts of statistics, examples, testimony, and augmented information…

Prevailing criticism of communication research in and out of university speech departments is justified and means that the quality of research must be improved. The last three years of speech communication research has not been noteworthy, dramatic, or significant. An initial remedial step might be the development of good, relevant, and sound…

The historical independence of expert power and opinion leadership research and theorizing is noted, with the major credit for the separateness being attributed to differences in methodological approach usually taken in the two areas of research. A theoretical attempt to relate the two areas is make by relating: (1) the general areas of social…

This is a final report, for administrative purposes, of studies to be published in the general category of mathematical theory of social groups, with emphasis on the large groups typical of educational communities. Since the study of the large and complicated structures of high school and college communities is difficult by purely empirical…

The performance of 144 pairs of college students on four successive concept attainment problems was assessed. A 3 x 2 x 2 x 4 factorial design with repeated measures on the last factor was used with the following variables: (a) type of interaction format (cooperation with discussion allowed during solution of the problems, cooperation with…

This study was an attempt fo document aspects of small group work in classrooms engaged in the process education curricula called "Materials and Activities for Teachers and Children" (MATCH). Data on student-student interaction was related to small group work and gathered by paper-and-pencil sociometric questionnaires and measures of group…