Presents an analysis of undergraduate students' experiences in and attitudes toward small group learning in chemistry. Finds that small group learning activities provide a mechanism for students to build a feeling of community in the classroom. (Contains 21 references.) (WRM)

Explores how the universal stages of graphic language development manifest themselves in children living in the Amish community and how the uniqueness of this subculture is reflected in their drawings. Explains that Amish children focus on an agrarian environment and use copying as a means to finding an accepted place in the community. (CMK)

Defines emotional crises in an adventure education context. Discusses crisis intervention from a mental-health perspective and presents nonviolent intervention techniques for anxiety, disruptive behavior, and harmful behavior. Describes two techniques--critical incident stress debriefing and traumatic stress defusing--aimed at managing traumatic…

In Manitoba, the Literacy Groups Project provides evidence that struggling second-graders can attain average grade-cohort reading levels through a small-group pull-out program if certain criteria are met: assigning students to groups according to a narrow range of reading levels, and finding materials to support teacher efforts in the small-group…

Enhancing the attitude of camp staff involves hiring staff that already have good attitudes, training staff in small groups that then train the rest, using the power of story, removing structural barriers, helping people understand how their actions influence organizational outcomes, identifying "termites," and placing a weak counselor…

Special education policy requires schools to make disciplinary decisions concerning students with disabilities within a multidisciplinary team. In order to respond to this mandate, teacher educators must ensure that teachers have group collaboration and decision making skills. This article describes a multimedia problem-based learning module…

Good manners and false protests of ignorance about American history cloak underlying anti-American sentiments among students. Behind the facade, a jumbled set of emotions inform their discomforted imaginations. They are offended by the patronizing and condescending attitudes of Americans when the latter comment on, or intrude into, the outer…

This qualitative cross-case study explored the experiences that learners describe within online collaborative groups. The study context was a fully online graduate course on adult learning. The findings suggest that the small online groups demonstrated dynamics and process that are characteristic of individual growth and development and group…

The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee originated as an ad hoc committee and evolved to a broad-based movement for legal justice on behalf of seventeen youth convicted of murder and assault charges in connection with the Sleepy Lagoon case in Los Angeles in January 1943. This essay chronicles the multidimensional organizing to shift public opinion in…

Effective teaching is not intuitive. Whether new teachers come to the classroom as a second career or directly from a teacher education program, they all share the need for support and belonging. Establishing a learning community that values the ideas and experiences of all its members will sustain new teachers through their early years. Without a…

This account draws on the experience of five final-year students of human communication and one tutor from the Manchester Metropolitan University who conducted collaborative research into life stages. The research was personally developmental for all those involved and resulted in an increased sense of personal power. The authors discuss the use…

This study focuses on collaboration between student musicians in a wind quartet, saxophone quartet and string quartet. Devised as an explorative investigation using observation and interview methods, the roles of student musicians are defined within and across quartet rehearsals over a period of four weeks. The data indicate that there are common…

In 2004, a group of high school students at a private American school in Mexico City started the first gay-straight alliance in Mexico. A small group of conservative parents and a Mormon principal organized in opposition. This paper details the students' struggle to keep their club and offers lessons learned about student activism, school change,…

This study focused on the nature of interpersonal understanding in 4- and 5-year-olds. Early childhood constitutes a critical transition period during which children become able to understand their own and others' "inner world" as it relates to actions. A neo-Piagetian theoretical and analytic framework was used to study children's understandings…

Collaborative peer learning environments have received increasing attention in classrooms due to the potential for improving learning and achievement. Yet previous research shows that not all students benefit from the collaborative experience. This paper explores the nature of helping behavior within peer-directed small groups that may be most…