This handbook presents a collection of over 35 experiential and adventure-based activities using only a single item of equipment--a 15-foot long section of 1-inch tubular climbing webbing, called a raccoon circle. Some of the activities are quiet, some are loud, and they range from low to high challenge levels. Different-sized groups can be…

Insights from quantum physics and chaos theory help create new metaphors about ethical frameworks and moral practices in outdoor education. The seemingly straightforward concept of values is analogous to the initial simple nonlinear equation of a fractal. The value claims of outdoor education--trust, cooperation, environmental awareness,…

This paper focuses on group dynamics and introduces the use of initiative activities as a means of facilitating a more cohesive group experience in outdoor programs. Specific topics addressed and defined include: (1) curative factors of groups (universality, didactic learning, altruism, socialization, peer learning, group cohesiveness); (2) stages…

A description of a group leadership course for nurses concentrating on the use, formation, and dynamics of groups within the context of clinical public health nursing in the community includes objectives and content areas (identifying needs, and considering self-concepts and interpersonal relationships). (AG)

The credibility of personal information selected by members of small groups to describe each other's characteristics and delivered to the members by the group leader without naming the source was studied. Positive feedback was rated by recipients as more credible, desirable, and as having more impact than negative feedback. (Author)

This article proposes the establishment of a curriculum that will engage students in a study of the future. This learning process of exploring the future should be an inherent function of counselors, in their role as persons who help students make plans and decisions for their futures. (Author)

The authors relate their experience in working with a model that is designed to have children, through experiencing group processes and change, assess and evaluate their feelings and behaviors as (1) members of a group, and (2) members welcoming new members into their group, and (3) new members entering an ongoing, previously established group.…

Many urban residents do not have the emotional support of an adequate network of kin, friends, or neighbors. It is proposed that such persons join together into artificial extended families or family clusters. Experiences in the formation and operation of a cluster are described on the basis of participant observation. (Author)

Suggestions for improving the method of group work in classroom situations are helpful in introducing teacher education students to committee research techniques. (Author/KM)

When their child is diagnosed with leukemia, parents begin a process of anticipatory mourning. Group meetings with other such parents provide help in living through the process. (Author)

Study reports a validation exercise of Fiedler's theory of leadership conducted during a school practice period in a women's specialist college of physical education. (Authors/CB)

This study describes how a graduate student in counseling and guidance worked with a team of teachers in implementing a group-contingent reinforcement system with first graders. The group contingencies proved highly effective in increasing the percentage of work completed and reducing disruptive responses. (Author)

The research reported in this article examines the accuracy of outside observers in perceiving emergent leadership in small groups. The level of precision reflected in the average of all subjects, indicated that the observers were generally accurate in knowing how group members were rated by their group. (Author/KM)

An experiment to test an encounter group assumption that touching increases interpersonal attraction was conducted. College women were randomly assigned to a touch or no-touch condition. A comparison of total evaluation scores verified the hypothesis: subjects who touched the accomplice perceived her as a more attractive person than those who did…

Is ethnic education the key to resolving intergroup conflicts? (Editors)