Two education professors developed New Teacher Groups to offer a safe place where beginning teachers can voice their concerns, share their joys and frustrations, and help one another deal with problems. Interviews with participants revealed that nearly two-thirds attended for personal and professional support they could get nowhere else. (MLH)

Contributes to scholarship on communication in groups, and to scholarship on decision-making processes, by discussing five communicative challenges juries face in the course of their deliberations. Reports results of a content analysis reflecting the rules invoked for each of these situations by 97 citizens summoned for jury duty. (SR)

Several competing dynamic models were applied to adolescent substance abuse using a cohort of 3,580 participants in a longitudinal study beginning in grade five. Evidence was found for an intrinsic self-regulating mechanism in adolescent smoking and drinking. Support for a dampened linear oscillator model is discussed. (SLD)

Barriers to interdisciplinary teamwork in allied health education include loss of revenue, schedule conflicts, differences in degree level, identity and status protection, and content control issues. Ways to foster teamwork include all-inclusive cross-enrollment, web-based curricula, and hiring of faculty across disciplinary lines. (SK)

Describes four behavioral styles (relater, analyzer, director, and socializer) which often reflect the balance of individuals that make up effective administrative leadership teams. Each style has strengths and weaknesses, and each typically has a back-up style used in times of stress. This "style flex" can enable all parties to function in a…

Examines students' roles during a long-term collaborative task that required mastering complex sets of cognitive, regulatory, and social skills needed for building knowledge largely from their own and their peers' ideas and observations. Describes the eight prominent sociocognitive roles that emerged from the study. Contains 61 references.…

The diverse practitioners in adventure therapy need to be mindful of the assumptions they bring to the genre from their own fields, the interface between the different therapeutic schools and outdoor adventure, the extent to which "deep" psychotherapy will be practiced, how outdoor adventure changes the client-therapist relationship, and…

The literature reveals disagreement over the degree of intervention facilitators should make in problem-based learning (PBL). PBL requires a shift to a constructivist teaching philosophy. Instructors who serve as facilitators need training in PBL methods and group dynamics in order to be effective. (SK)

Preliminary analysis of data collected from trained expert facilitators of ad hoc creative teams (n=43) found that complex analytical techniques such as costed function modeling and decision criteria matrix may have far more impact upon a team's creative effectiveness than frequently researched measures such as idea quantity. (Contains…

Reviews the incorporation of interactivity in Web-based instruction. Discusses computer mediated learning; interactivity and learning, including instructional transaction theory and cognitive flexibility theory; advantages of Web-based instruction; content and social interactivity; asynchronous and synchronous communication; individual and group…

Responses from students after reading a story about a five-person group and their conflict behaviors indicate that the person in the story who engaged in compromise was rated as most successful both in accomplished goals and in establishing interpersonal relationships. States that relationship between attraction and conflict behaviors was found to…

Describes a process used for group assignments in a business communication course which holds all group members accountable by using a structure of rotating responsibility. Discusses selecting assignments and implementing the process, noting how this structure requires equivalent advance preparation from all members and provides opportunities for…

A study of group extension activities found differences in achievement of outcomes depending on group type. Interdependent, structured, and interpersonal interaction groups differed in terms of factors contributing to or hindering successful outcomes. (SK)

Describes a complex role play used in a high school English class in which students take on roles from a simulated society with three distinct ethnic groups with differing interests and demands. Describes how students learn the hard truths of group dynamics in this extended role-play, discussion, and negotiation. (SR)

Describes experiences of a South African rural women's organization focused on preventive health care, exchange of knowledge and skills, and empowerment. (SK)