Examined applicability of Bednar, Melnick, and Kaul's model of early group development to college student self-help groups using undergraduates (N=101) who met in high-structure or low-structure groups. Found amount of group structure was positively related to ownership of group functioning; importance of performing group behaviors was positively…

This article explores the dynamics of a creative problem solving meeting which frequently reaches impasse. Excerpts from the meeting transcript are presented to determine where and why the group gets off track in developing a method to evaluate sales training. Suggestions are offered for steering the group away from win/lose arguments and into…

Investigates the nature of small-group social interactions in the mediation of children's science learning. Reports that the teacher mediated the children's small-group science learning through discourse that negotiated children's status, actions, and meaning, as well as through discourse that established the normative structure of the small…

Discusses aspects of the field (or discipline) of mass communication: social science, behavioral science, community as behavior, the need to go beyond language skills, and prediction and synthesis. Calls for new methods for scholarship that respect the synthetic nature of problem-solving behavior. (SR)

Presents a frame of reference for viewing problematic behaviors of members in groups involving intellectually capable individuals. Presents an intervention process that suggests questions for leader self-monitoring, guidelines for deciding about when to intervene, and fundamental intervention objectives and principles. (Author/PVV)

Used group development stage theory to investigate team development patterns in an academic setting. Twenty-nine teams of undergraduate college students enrolled in a study skills improvement course met weekly for five weeks and completed the Team Development Rating Scale at the conclusion of the meeting. Found some support for three patterns of…

Study investigates the behaviors and interactions of children in structured and unstructured groups as they worked together on a six-week social-studies activity each term for three school terms. The results show that the children in the structured groups were consistently more cooperative and they provided more elaborated and nonelaborated help…

Describes the author's experience of and reflections concerning a group workshop facilitated by Michael Tlanusta Garrett of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. Provides information about the Native American teachings and traditions of the four winds, balance, and harmony, and discusses the use of self by group leaders as a powerful therapeutic and…

Goldstein and Gigerenzer (2002) [Models of ecological rationality: The recognition heuristic. "Psychological Review," 109 (1), 75-90] found evidence for the use of the recognition heuristic. For example, if an individual recognizes only one of two cities, they tend to infer that the recognized city has a larger population. A prediction…

There is paucity of original research that explains phenomena related to content organization and site design of educational Web sites. Educational Web sites are often used to provide Web-based instruction, which itself is a relatively recent phenomenon for business schools, and additional research is needed in this area. Educational Web sites are…

Gambling on college and professional sports and the influence of attending colleges with differing levels of "sports interest" were examined among athletes, sports fans, and other students (N = 10,559) at 119 colleges in the United States using multilevel statistical analysis. Athletes and fans reported more sports gambling compared to…

Considering recent claims that groups are important to teaching and learning, the authors examine the differences between groups and collections of people to see how one might create learning groups when designing learning and instruction. Based on literature in the fields of group dynamics and education, characteristics of groups are listed and…

After a brief review of integrative small group learning models that have appeared in the educational psychology literature, this article then looks into the group dynamics literature and describes one of that field's most well-documented findings: that interactions among group members change somewhat predictably over time. How theorists from…

Purpose: Most writings on Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) to date have focused on analysis at the individual level and paid less attention to other analytical frameworks at the group level (i.e., team, unit, or organization). This article approaches OCB from the less conventional perspective of group-level activities and uses it to…

Purpose: The success of schools fundamentally depends on teachers' willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty, namely, to exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Attempts to understand the causes of OCB frequently focus on individual characteristics; only recently have researchers begun to direct their attention to more…