The cypher, a circle of MCs improvising rhymes in a collaborative jam session, is a relatively unexplored topic in hip hop. Through its focus on community and reciprocity, the cypher represents a crucial nexus of sociability that enables researchers to examine the shifting positionalities and communicative practices of audience members and…

Teamwork factors can facilitate team members, committing themselves to the purposes of maximizing their own and others' contributions and successes. It is important for online instructors to comprehend students' expectations on learning collaboratively. The aims of this study were to investigate online collaborative learning experiences and to…

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)

A study investigated ways that adult educators might introduce educational activity into a community problem-solving situation and attempted to determine the influence of this activity on growth of the community-problem-solving group. Adult educators by definition included cooperative extension agents, social workers, community mental health…

Introduces the nine articles which comprise this document. Describes the focus of the articles as the group aspect of student-student and student-teacher relationships in the classroom context. (Author/DB)

THE EFFECTS OF TWO POSTULATED COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS ON GROUPS OF RELATIVELY SLOW LEARNERS WERE EXAMINED DURING THE REPORTED RESEARCH. THE TWO COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS WERE--(1) HOMOGENEOUS GROUPING, AS OPPOSED TO HETEROGENEOUS GROUPING AND (2) PUBLIC DISPLAY OF THE PERFORMANCE OF ALL MEMBERS OF A GROUP, AS OPPOSED TO INDIVIDUALIZED FEEDBACK. FOUR…

Troop ideology as defined by the scoutmaster and other involved adults radically altered the learning experiences of boys in two Boy Scout troops, even though both adhered to the official program. Using observation and interviews, researchers studied all aspects of the troops over 7 months. One troop, whose scoutmaster was benevolent and…

This paper argues that collaborative learning is possible within graduate education and examines the process whereby a classroom can develop into a unified learning community of shared experiences. Using excerpts of student writings and dialogue, three aspects surrounding the creation of a learning community are explored: (1) the risk of trust,…

The Inquiry Role Approach (IRA) is a strategy for classroom learning in which students work as 4-member teams and assume roles as Team Coordinator, Process Advisor, Data Recorder, and Technical Advisor. Cognitive as well as affective objectives are identified which relate to optimum learning and personal growth in the classroom. The counselor's…