Small group discussions can implement learning in courses comprised of very large numbers of students. Six significant components of a learning group are listed along with training suggestions for implementing a format for a free discussion type of group. (DS)

The Riverside Center in New York offers a persuasive argument that group infant care is an important step for sound child development and parental involvement. (CS)

The subjects using either the consensus model or the participative decisionmaking model had more correct decisions on the assigned task than did the same individuals deciding alone. (Author)

Through a comparative analysis of nine urban school improvement projects, it illustrates the association between patterns of constituent collaboration in the design of intervention projects and problem solving strategies and the degree of mutual adaptation, incorporation, and sustained project effectiveness. Many of the barriers to school…

This paper defines a personality construct, the "others-concept," as "a person's general expectancies or perceptions about other people along a positive-negative continuum." This construct helps conceptualize how predictions and assumptions about possible social interactions are made when the amount of information concerning…

This is a report on a study of two junior high schools in a small Midwestern city called "Avon". This industrial community serves an agricultural region. This study was undertaken as a complement to a study of two other junior high schools in a much less ordinary community and school system ("Canton") which had been previously studied. This report…

This training packet is intended to aid educators in planning and effecting positive change within the learning environment through a group problem-solving intervention process. It primarily addresses the concept of "change agentry" and how it can be used to improve the climate for learning, focusing on the role of the change agent and the…

The first part of this four-part dissertation reviews conceptual and operational approaches to human communication systems. A new conceptual model for studying communication, General Algorithm for Studying Structuring in Complex Systems (GASSICS), is developed in the second part, and an operational method for applying GASSICS is presented in part…

Seventy-nine members of several types of groups responded to questionnaires which detailed their goals and self-perceptions, and their expectations and perceptions of group leadership, norms, methods, and atmosphere. The questionnaires were administered near the beginning and again at the end (posttest N=69) of the group experience. The groups…

Post-experimental seating patterns of two coacting, cooperating, or competing laboratory groups were factorially manipulated such that groups sat near, far, or randomly with respect to each other. A propinquity-attraction model predicted intergroup evaluations only to the extent that previously determined territorial preferences were not violated.…

The use of the supervisor as a source of information for subordinate decision makers was investigated using 72 eligibility workers in a county welfare agency. Results showed work group supportiveness to be highly associated with the frequency of use and the value attached by subordinates to the supervisor as an information source, but…

This paper discusses the application of a transactional philosophy to the problems of classroom communication. Four aspects of teacher/student interaction are discussed in detail: the choice between a bilateral relationship in which students are seen as unique persons and a unilateral relationship in which students are treated as objects or…

Two programmes, both of which were aimed at more effective performance in small group discussion, were compared. The first approach consisted of skill training while the second approach combined the skill training with a programmed notebook. Results indicated that the training groups did not differ significantly. (Author)

The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore the psychodynamics at work in the Marriage Encounter experience. The conclusions of the author are that there are powerful dynamics operating in the Marriage Encounter, and that they can cause definite movement and change in individuals and their marital relationships. (Author)

Two discussion papers, commenting on the main article, are included: (1) "The Person and the Bureaucracy by R. Oliver Gibson, and (2) "Campus Strategies Extended by Goodwin Watson.