Four types of work organization--Taylorism, lean teamwork, sociotechnical teamwork, and professional work systems--were studied in a survey of 835 Dutch workers. Taylorism had detrimental effects on well-being, autonomy, stress, job satisfaction, and work commitment. Either type of teamwork or substantial professional autonomy had positive…

This pyramid model of team development has four sides--awareness, behavior, communication, and direction--on a foundation of evaluation. The four equal sides of a pyramid represent the equal importance of the different roles, including leader, within a team. All team members are involved in evaluation and deciding what is important, which empowers…

The Pasadena (California) Independent School District developed a four-pronged approach for responding to campus emergencies and improving communication channels: establishing a chain of command, developing an onsite crisis team, converting the superintendent's office to a crisis command center, and assembling a district crisis-management team.…

This article asks the question: "What can you get when you combine 100 students from three career technical programs, six student-created concepts, three highly-motivated instructors, and two leaders in automotive technology?" The answer can be found in this author's description of a program at the Elkhart Area Career Center (EACC) in…

This case study of a team-taught learning community that integrates American history and literature focuses on student team presentations. We argue for the need to train students to learn actively, and we describe strategies for teaching students how to prepare for and present interdisciplinary team presentations. One finding is that training…

Recent studies have demonstrated that the working alliance predicts treatment outcome for partner violent men. This study examined the influence of personality and interpersonal characteristics, motivational readiness to change, and demographic factors on working alliance formation among a sample of men (N = 107) participating in a…

This study examines the formation and change of collaborative learning social networks in a distributed learning community. A social network perspective is employed to understand how collaborative networks evolved over time when 31 distributed learners collaborated on a design project using a computer-mediated communication system during two…

This case study investigates the participant structure of leadership in online course environments and helps instructors design and facilitate high-quality lessons. Researchers used course experiences that were authentic, collaborative, and computer-based to collect student data: assignments, discussion transcripts, and interviews. Analysis of the…

The school library media center has an abundance of resources for teachers and students, but library media specialists are frequently isolated, sometimes invisible, members of the faculty. In addition, many teachers mistakenly think of library media specialists as "the copyright police" or "The Controllers of Content" instead of collaborators. It…

Now in its fourth decade, Supplemental Instruction (SI) is an internationally acclaimed academic support model. Communication and critical thinking skills developed through collaborative learning are the hallmarks of the program. SI has enjoyed thirty-some years of robust success in the world of the academy. It has proven itself to be an…

St. Louis University is one of a growing number of higher education institutions that are retooling their Doctor of Education, or Ed.D., programs to concentrate more on the practical skills required of district leaders. Such programs have emulated the structure of Ph.D. programs, despite the fact that they generally serve a different purpose. At…

This article discusses the Network of Performance-Based Schools, first developed in 1999, and how it answers a personal and professional desire shared to work together in multidisciplinary groups with the profit of learning. The development of the Network of Performance-Based Schools evolved out of a shared personal and professional desire for…

The paper develops a theory of costly communication in which the sender's and receiver's motivations and abilities endogenously determine the communication mode and the transfer of knowledge. Communication is modeled as a problem of moral hazard in teams, in which the sender and receiver select persuasion and message elaboration efforts. The model…

When writers plan a document together, they rely on gestures as well as speech and writing in constructing a common representation of their group document. This case study of a student technical writing group explores how group members used gestures to create a conversational interaction space that they then treated like a physical text that they…

In a time when nearly half the country's employees are currently working in self-directed work groups, successful team working within organizations is more important than ever. The Problem-Possibility-Pursuit-Presentation (PPPP) Portfolio Project is designed to give students an opportunity to experience teamwork in a meaningful fashion. This…