This guide is written for beginning and advanced social work students, as well as battle-weary social workers. It instructs practitioners in how to do social work with groups and how to integrate small-group theory and therapeutic principles in such a way that is therapeutic and life enhancing. The wide-ranging concepts and skills presented here…

The qualities of sibling relationships and friendships of socially accepted and rejected children were compared in a study involving 392 male and 384 female second and third graders. The students completed a series of assessments and their teachers filled out rating scales. Results indicated that sibling status was associated with friendship…

Although the origins of self-help groups can be traced back to early history, the self-help movement as we know it today began almost 50 years ago. Approximately 15 million Americans currently belong to about 500,000 different self-help groups. Adults in transition are likely to seek both formal and informal sources of help when faced with…

Journal papers, dissertations and monographs on theory and research in sociometrics in education are cited. Forty references are examined in the areas of classroom socialization structure and skills, the stability of choices in friendship, attraction between individuals, and the relationship between learning styles and sociometry. Teacher roles in…

A study investigated ways that adult educators might introduce educational activity into a community problem-solving situation and attempted to determine the influence of this activity on growth of the community-problem-solving group. Adult educators by definition included cooperative extension agents, social workers, community mental health…

Developed by the Amity (Oregon) School District 4-J (a small, rural farming district consisting of two outlying feeder elementary schools, one elementary school in town, and the high school), the Citizens Advisory Committee Constitution consists of seven sections. Statements by the superintendent and school board chairman regarding the role of the…

This handbook offers guidelines to community colleges interested in the formation of advisory committees to the humanities. It begins by outlining the purposes and functions of such groups. It then emphasizes the importance of faculty and administrative support for advisory committees and suggests evidence that can be presented to promote this…

A historical and anthropological analysis of the nature of conventions held by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) is presented. The author, who is an anthropologist, plays the role of participant observer in studying the phenomenon of meetings of the AAA. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, AAA meetings were very small and…

Based on a survey of 200 members of the Industrial Communication Council, this script and slide presentation analyzes the career experiences of the 67 communication professionals, 51 men and 16 women, who responded. The script, accompanied by illustrations of appropriate slides, consists of five parts: demographics (the size and type of companies…

This paper reports on a study of the relationship between internal and external organizational variables and the adoption of a specific educational innovation--individually guided education and the multiunit school (IGE/MUS). The emphasis of the paper is on the independent variables of structure (internal organization) and linkage (external…

When one engages in organizational diagnosis, it has been suggested that greater understanding of the organization can come through: (1) an identification of all the channels conveying material and information, and (2) a description of the means by which this communication influences the behavior of the organization. A networks/system approach is…

The qualities of small group communication and interaction were tested in this study, which specifically measured group consensus and the quality of group decision making. Fifty groups of five members each were used. One member of each group was trained to exhibit either high or low "orientation," knowledge of the procedures the group…

Results indicate that students who blame the system for black disadvantages will be more likely to participate in collective behavior. Individuals who blame the system and are high in personal control are also more likely to participate in collective behavior. (Author/AM)

Using empirical evidence from 48 classrooms, argues that structural and organizational factors affect the stability and the formation of ability groups in an elementary classroom, which in turn affect growth in academic achievement. Holds that teachers are often impeded from forming the types of groups most conducive to student learning. (CMG)

Proposes a typology promoting a conceptual model that addresses the increased demand for use of group processes, continued effectiveness of leadership training programs, research issues regarding basic group dynamics, and generic models designed for the increased understanding of the myriad of group forms across the group spectrum. (Author)