Black, and white students who participated in a race relations class that required a seven-day residential visit in a home of another race and a visit to a predominantly black college were interviewed 20 years later about the course's significance. The former students recalled that the course was profound, meaningful, and life-changing. (TD)

Presents theories of motivation classified as those dealing either with exogenous causes or with endogenous processes. The following strategies for improving work motivation are discussed: (1) personal motives; (2) incentives and rewards; (3) reinforcement; (4) goal-setting techniques; (5) personal and material resources; (6) social and group…

Surveys participants in the 1985 Columbia University divestment protest to develop a perspective on recruitment and commitment to social movements, emphasizing the importance of political solidarity. Group processes such as consciousness raising, collective empowerment, polarization, and collective decision making influence movement participants…

Examines the connection between the classroom as an organizational and social system and the learning outcomes of a class of students. Makes hypotheses concerning lateral communication. Finds that interaction among students is particularly valuable in heterogenous classrooms in which many children have difficulty understanding the teacher's…

Studied the effect of content knowledge on learners' participation in interactions between nonnative speakers. Measures of participation included amount of talk, conversational fillers, back channels, topic moves, clarification questions, and confirmation and comprehension checks. Findings support the relationship between knowledge and…

College and university advancement managers offer these keys to motivating employees: open communication, acknowledgement of management style, team building, encouragement of innovation, spreading opportunities broadly, promoting personal growth, creating reward systems, evaluating fairly, and strong leadership. (MSE)

Classroom discourse is evaluated for the contribution it can make to students' learning in groups. Data recorded from primary age children working at computers are categorized as exploratory, cumulative, and disputational talk. The teacher's role in making explicit strategies that optimize exploratory talk is discussed. (Contains 31 references.)…

In Israeli school culture, the school class is a social group in which "gibush" or cohesion is cultivated. A highly cohesive class has clearly demarcated boundaries, has high integration, is internally undifferentiated, and presupposes particular conditions for formation. The gibush model reflects an ideal of communal participation and…

Describes early Indian activism at the University of California, Berkeley, and the role of Indian student organizations in the occupation of Alcatraz Island. Examines the planning of the occupation, unity and contention among the group of participants, leadership, celebrities who visited the island, and the role of the media in activism. (SV)

Describes a study that used quantitative and qualitative inquiry to determine how collaborative learning relates to the achievement and persistence of first-year community college students. Examines the experiences of students enrolled in Seattle Central Community College's Coordinated Studies Program, an interdisciplinary, team-taught set of…

A high school English teacher inquired into how small writing groups could best be used in the classroom to promote good writing. His students designed the inquiry, generating and selecting 12 questions for a final survey. Students asked cogent questions and gave provocative answers that greatly enhanced their writing. (SM)

Using a custom-designed hypercard program, 26 University of Iowa students collaborated to create an interpreter's annotated edition of "Paradise Lost." Successful use of these technical resources required teachers to consider student computer skills, specific learning tasks, social dynamics of collaborative, creative work, and ways to…

Describes the environment and cultural at Columbia Academy, a private international high school in Kobe, Japan. Emphasizes the role of language and how second-language skills represent learned cultural competencies. Considers the influence of language use on group behaviors. Addresses the issue of transnationalism or transculturalism. (DMM)

Several college teachers formed a writing circle to talk about their writing, improve writing skills, and develop articles for publication. An unanticipated outcome was improvement of instruction through adoption of new teaching methods, increased empathy with students as writers, and ability to reach students at different stages of intellectual…

Discusses cooperative learning as a means of teaching geography. Urges production of a positive classroom climate by using group builders and cooperative projects. Suggests projects involving maps, community study, and bulletin boards. Argues that students in cooperative learning become more involved in the subject and more motivated to learn…