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…

Per definition, CSCL research deals with the data of individuals nested in groups, and the influence of a specific learning setting on the collaborative process of learning. Most well-established statistical methods are not able to analyze such nested data adequately. This article describes the problems which arise when standard methods are…

The film "Stagecoach," a 1939 Western epic, was used in a 200-level small-group communication course as an instructional resource to illustrate the emergence of group norms and roles, the treatment of deviance and conflict, and the influence of external threats, interdependent goals, and shared history on the development of cohesiveness…

A group leadership exercise that incorporates the elements of leadership and other aspects of interaction within small groups can be useful in a basic communication course. The exercise is designed around three basic leadership styles: laissez-faire, democratic, and authoritarian. The exercise is conducted in the following way: (1) the class…

Describing a game-playing concept called "Tangoes" which is also known as the ancient Chinese puzzle game of Tanagram, this paper offers a teaching method which enables students to better understand the roles played in groups as well as how groups function. The paper contains a list of materials, an explanation of the process, usage…

This document describes the struggles of a diverse group of 37 community leaders, called the Greensboro One Task Force, with the issues of race, class, and government in order to develop a bond package that could be supported by the majority of the voters of a North Carolina city. Through quotes from the participants, the document illustrates how…

This paper analyzes role transitions in small groups within the context of a more general model of group socialization that is based on the psychological processes of evaluation, commitment, and decision making. The major advantage of such an approach is that it specifies why role transitions in small groups occur. According to the model, groups…

Results of a case study designed to test the hypothesis that acting-out students would exhibit less disruptive behavior when grouped with "well-behaved" peers than when grouped with disruptive peers indicated that placement with well-behaved peers significantly reduced disruptive behavior, suggesting that grouping is an effective and nonintrusive…

Provides a review of the literature on human behavior in disasters and gives insights about what people do with and without training, organization, and control. It also points to the need for such preparations. The nature of the milieu in which emergency management must take place is examined. An emergency management model is included. (CT)

Describes a collaborative classroom process that helps build cohesion among group members by placing all students into the roles of writer, reader, editor, and evaluator. Presents six teaching tips for the process. (RS)

Analyzes the way task proceedings engender emotional reactions, the conditions under which these are expressed in positive and negative socioemotional behavior, and the effect of such behavior on the status hierarchy in informal task groups. Suggests that the expression of socioemotional behavior in task groups is deeply intertwined with the…

Female students in a graduate journalism program in Britain failed in a common attempt to counter sexist treatment during their training in this male-dominated profession resulting from the priorities of the school and demands of the program. (DM)

Peer groups matter more than we think. In this paper we assert that peer group commitments and affiliations are often the primary social reference in determining the way young people think about and practice risk. It is, we argue, inappropriate to impose adult constructions of risk-taking and anti-social behaviour when trying to assert influence…

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…

This paper describes the development of augmented group awareness tools that take mutual user ratings of their online discussion contributions as input, aggregate these data, and visually feed these data back to the members in real time, thereby informing participants about how the group as a whole perceives their contributions. A specific group…