Focuses on recognizing key indicators for developing teamwork and collaboration among child care staff. Addresses communicating clearly, interacting respectfully, demonstrating trust, negotiating different perspectives, building on each other's strengths, and promoting reliability and responsibility. Identifies strategies to cultivate growth in…

This study used surveys, observations, and interviews to document the experiences of 10 public school teachers whose classes spent two months in a high tech facility made available at a local university. Topics include technological literacy; the need for technical support; changes in class dynamics; cooperative learning; instructional…

Current views on leadership and leadership competencies overlook nonrational and unconscious aspects of human functioning. Six perspectives on group work leadership are presented, with suggestions for competencies derived from the fields of systems thinking and psychodynamic psychology. Outdoor leaders could benefit from developing their intuition…

Moshing (intense crowd dancing) and other physical activities common at youth and rock concerts are discussed from the perspectives of safety and of the responsibility of sponsoring organizations, especially colleges and universities. Considerations in creating a safe environment at student events, planning the logistics of such an event, and…

This article addresses effective techniques for teaching students with emotional disturbances and/or behavior disorders in group settings. Three stages of group development are described with specific teaching strategies for each stage identified and related to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, including needs for safety and trust, belonging and…

For 72 new workers in a British automotive corporation, self-confidence was enhanced by participation in a ropes course. While general debriefing (addressing a wide variety of human behaviors) and specific debriefing (centered solely on self-confidence) contributed to these improvements, the benefits that accrued from specific debriefing were…

Presents observations of 15-member literature discussion group in a fifth-grade classroom. Shows that even in such groups, intended to create a more democratic forum where students' voices are heard and valued, factors like gender, cultural background, and status play a role in whose ideas get expressed and are actually listened to. (SR)

Observed four fifth-graders who collaboratively solved problems integrating concepts related to fractions and area. Compared features of learning through peer collaboration with teacher-directed learning, including whole solution versus component parts, appropriation versus scaffolding, analysis versus synthesis, conflict versus errorless…

Discusses the need for college graduates who are prepared for employment and skilled in teamwork, outlines a rationale for the development of groupwork in higher education, and describes a program sponsored by British Petroleum in 10 institutions in England and Scotland to provide academics with professional development in teaching groupwork…

Employers want employees who can communicate effectively, work as part of a team, and think on their feet. To help students acquire these qualities, the faculty of health sciences and counseling at Vancouver Community College integrated a sociocultural training model into their human relations programs. Evaluations indicate that students'…

In a sample of ninth-grade Jewish and Arab students who participated in planned binational encounters, investigates in-group biases as a function of (1) their perceptions of the encounter between the groups as interpersonal or intergroup contact and (2) their views of the status of their respective national groups in Israel as legitimate and…

Discusses group problem solving processes, how status can harm group problem solving, and how the politeness of students' criticisms reflects status. Reports on analyses of the determinants of group solutions, perceived leadership, and biased evaluations during collaborative problem solving in which students attempted to solve an algebra problem.…

Evaluated a peer assessment procedure to factor in the contributions of individual group members engaged in an integrated group project. Findings demonstrated that the method resulted in a substantially wider spread of marks being given to individual students; about one-third received a grade different from the grade the project as a whole would…

Examines the effectiveness of "social presence" as a predictor of learner satisfaction in a text-based medium based on the GlobalEd inter-university computer conference. Results suggested social presence as a strong predictor of satisfaction, and participants felt a higher sense of social presence by using emoticons (i.e. icons that express…

Describes three physics-related structured discussion tasks developed in cooperation with high school physics teachers. Presents the reactions of teachers and students to classroom use of the tasks. (Contains 23 references.) (Author/WRM)