This paper focuses on group dynamics and introduces the use of initiative activities as a means of facilitating a more cohesive group experience in outdoor programs. Specific topics addressed and defined include: (1) curative factors of groups (universality, didactic learning, altruism, socialization, peer learning, group cohesiveness); (2) stages…

Describes a learning activity that allows participants to role play both dysfunctional and constructive roles during a group task, illustrating how group success depends on the attitudes and actions of its members. Includes instructions for the learning activity, questions for debriefing, and follow-up activities. (LP)

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…

The teacher interns participating in the Pittsburgh Teacher Corps Pre-Service Program are divided into groups for training. This questionnaire was designed to elicit responses from their trainers regarding group atmosphere, relationships, interactions, activities, and progress during each separate session attended by each group. Trainers also…

Social traps, such as the overgrazing of pasturelands, overpopulation, and the extinction of species, are situations where individuals in a group respond for their own advantage in a manner damaging to the group. Alaboratory analog was devised to simulate conditions that produce social traps. The intent was to cause an immediate positive…

Twenty groups of 9-11 year old boys and girls from an Arab village played a game which required interaction among them to obtain prizes. Boys were more cooperative than girls. (DM)

The paper considers some of the problems involved in the interpretation of participants' evaluations of management development programs. In particular, it argues that, in the case of participative "open evaluation" sessions, it is important to recognize that participants' attitudes and feelings toward the learning group may influence the…

Group Adventure Initiative Tasks require the successful completion of a group task or objective and then provide debriefing and reflection on group processes and individual behaviors. A model of responsible action provides a framework for debriefing by charting behaviors and outcomes of choosing to respond to a situation as "victim"…

Explains how social studies teachers can teach cooperative behavior to junior high students. Three critical factors are length of time student groups have worked together, interdependence of goals attached to the tasks, and interdependence of means to accomplish the tasks. (Author/AV)

Five-to nine-year-olds engage in an after school program designed to develop their cognitive skills. (AJ)

A "traffic light" model provides youth groups with a means to evaluate the risk level of specific behaviors and agree upon the management of such behaviors. Designed for outdoor pursuits, the model may be used in other environments. Suggestions for ways to discuss red-light, yellow-light, and green-light behaviors are included. (SV)

Most asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments can be characterized as "functional" environments because they focus on functional, task-specific support, often disregarding explicit support for the social (emotional) aspects of learning in groups which are acknowledged by many educational researchers to…

This research, developed by the Ford Training and Placement Program, observed a cadre or work group as a miniature replication of the social system of a school. The interim report presents the conceptual framework of group development and recording techniques used for analysis. The conceptual framework emphasized three phases of group development:…

The purpose of this paper was to (1) identify the Pioneer of the Group Encounter Movement, and (2) expose and clarify some of the ambiguities, contradictions and backbiting evident in the Group Encounter Field. The origins of the group encounter movement are examined with a particularly strong emphasis on J. L. Moreno and his introduction of…