The authors examine how peer relationships influence students' academic success. After defining peer groups, the article considers the ways in which students' peer networks facilitate or inhibit access to academic resources. The authors argue that the composition and purpose of a peer group influences academic achievement and students' likelihood…

This paper investigates the effects that different patterns of similarity among group members have on a group's performance on a problem-solving task. I discuss and test hypotheses on the effects of similarity on group performance derived from two literatures: balance theory and research on homophily. In an experiment I found that the relative…

The purpose of this study was to determine to what degree collective efficacy judgments based on summative team performance capabilities exhibited different levels of prediction for three additive intervals of team performance in women's ice hockey. Collective efficacy beliefs of 12 teams were assessed prior to Friday's game and Saturday's game…

While many studies have sought to understand challenge courses and their benefits, less emphasis has been focused on understanding participants' perceptions of these programmes. In this study, 16 adults working at a dental office attended a one-day challenge course programme designed to teach lessons about co-operation. Data were collected via "in…

This article presents a classroom ethical decision-making exercise designed to help students make reasoned ethical decisions while gaining insight into their own and others' ethical decision-making strategies. During the exercise, students individually analyze an original mini-case, then meet in small groups to reach consensus on the advice and…

Intercultural maturity and the learning partnerships model are offered as frameworks for understanding the intersection of students' developmental levels and readiness for cross-racial interactions, and for assisting educators in promoting racial self-understanding. A case study is used to illustrate the usefulness of the model in supporting…

This study represents an effort to construct a learning framework for knowledge building and collective wisdom advancement in a virtual learning community (VLC) from the perspectives of system wholeness, intelligence wholeness and dynamics, learning models, and knowledge management. It also tries to construct the zone of proximal development (ZPD)…

Life-long learning is a key issue for our knowledge society. With social software systems new heterogeneous kinds of technology enhanced informal learning are now available to the life-long learner. Learners outside of learning institutions now have access to powerful social communities of experts and peers who are together forging a new web 2.0.…

More and more school districts are interested in school-based coaching as a method to directly influence student learning. However, school-based coaches face complex challenges. The shift to teaching adults from teaching children is dramatic. Coaches are no longer closely connected to a group of students, but instead are focused on adult learning…

Commonly accepted ideas, on the one hand, about how small groups in a writing class should work and, on the other hand, psychological research about what makes a small group work well are not consistent. Social psychologist Clovis Shepherd claims that the "popular notion that the democratic ideal is a group in which all members exert an equal…

This paper describes a classroom exercise used on the first day of class to help students meet each other and to help make them feel comfortable in the class. It also helps improve students' memory and interpersonal skills such as active listening, communication and trust. Originally designed for use by college students, the exercise can easily be…

An instructor teaching professional writing found that groups collaborating on the final project required for the course, the creation of a brochure, experienced considerable infighting and tension. In reexamining his course objectives, he confirmed his sense that indeed collaboration in one form or another is inevitable in American professional…

A study investigated the nature of the social construction of play events by a group of twelve 4- and 5-year-old children and the ways in which these play constructions are maintained over an extended period of time. The 5-month study was conducted in a nursery school classroom during the children's self-selected playtime. Data collection included…

Faculty members who want a voice in textbook selection but whose schedules are already overburdened with meetings can still participate in textbook selection. A 7-stage process for involving all faculty in the textbook selection process has been used effectively twice in a large communication fundamentals course program at a state university and…

This book is the first of three volumes on conflict resolution for school administrators. The introduction provides a context for the discussion by outlining seven human systems levels at which conflict can occur and suggesting that the approach to dealing effectively with conflict varies with the level of the system involved. Chapter 1 explores…