Most people picture "strategic planning" as endless meetings spent doing SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analyses, crafting vision and mission statements, and developing goals and action plans. Few look forward to the experience or reflect back on it with pleasure. In this article, the author describes how he…

Countless theoretical texts have been written regarding the centrality of hatred as a force that motivates intergroup conflicts. However, surprisingly, at present, almost no empirical study has been conducted either on the nature and character of group-based hatred or on its implications for conflicts. Therefore, the goal of the current work has…

This article examines student teamwork in the academic field from a structural perspective. Student teams are often prearranged and then left to organize themselves and get on with their work, without any further structural support; this, however, can become a negative experience on teamwork. A varied contribution among team members often occurs…

Comments on the article by R. J. Hackman and R. Wageman (see record 2006-23492-007) which offered several research questions that should be productive for furthering leadership research. This comment summarizes some recent progress on one of those questions, "Not what are the traits of leaders, but how do leaders' personal attributes interact with…

Much of the research on collaborative work focuses on the quality of the group outcome as a measure of success. There is less research on the collaboration process itself, but an understanding of the process should help to improve both the process and the outcomes of collaboration. Understanding and analyzing collaborative learning processes…

The violence prevention group component of the Rutgers-Somerset Counseling Program, a prevention program for multi-problem youth based in a local junior high school, was established in response to appeals made by school staff for help addressing surges in school and community violence and the rising incidence of aggression among female students.…

Representative democracy relies on the informed trust of the citizens. School board members serve their communities at a crucial place, governing large sums of money and the future of the community's children. Without the informed trust of the citizens, this enterprise will fail. Trust may be lost directly, or through inattention to detail. One of…

In this article, we propose a framework for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) employing dynamic groups, where at different stages students work independently, interact with each other in pairs, and conduct joint work in larger groups with varying numbers of participants. A Dynamic Group Environment for Collaborative Learning…

This study investigated the extent that cooperative group members' levels of hopefulness, operationalized as a combination of pathways to meet desired goals and the agentic thinking that motivates an individual to use those pathways, predict (a) group performance, namely, the quality of an article critique assignment and research proposal…

This study examines the relationship between body image and obesity, among 4367 indigenous and Anglo-European adolescents in Australia in 2006. It shows that indigenous adolescents, male and female, were more likely than their non-indigenous counterparts to desire and pursue weight gain. Indigenous males showed the greatest tendencies to gain…

The Social Cognitive Mapping procedure was used to identify peer social groups in 26 fifth-grade classrooms from six elementary schools in a northeastern urban school district. Four group structural features were examined: size, the number of subcliques, cohesion, and salience hierarchy. Ethnic diversity index was calculated for each group. An…

This article discusses approaches to collaborative practice amongst primary school headteachers in the implementation of inter-school networks. "Learning networks" and "learning communities" have been subject to increasing educational attention in England as part of a broader policy shift in favour of collaborative approaches…

School-based learning depends on teachers' capacity to engage with each other around central issues of teaching and learning. While such collaboration is readily welcomed by some educators, others remain wedded to an "independent contractor" concept of teaching. Supporting teachers to view themselves as team members and to perform effectively as a…

Many recent intercultural studies have shown that people cooperate with each other differently across cultures. We argue that cooperative learning (CL), an educational method originating in the USA and with fundamental psychological assumptions based on Western values, should be adjusted to be culturally appropriate for any non-Western cultures in…

Authentic discussions about writing are the sorts of conversations that professional or experienced writers might have, where writers explore purpose, effect, clarity, and interpretation. These discussions help students develop "writing skills and strategies because students are able to work at progressively higher levels with the guidance and…