Peer tutoring in Higher Education is being used with increasing frequency to aid in student learning, motivation, and empowerment. Although an extensive body of research documents the efficacy of such programs, it exhibits a surprising lack of awareness of the social dynamics involved. This study focuses on peer tutors and students as they…

A new paradigm for computer-supported cooperative work and a research agenda for developing and testing this paradigm are proposed. The book outlines a comprehensive model of collaboration that integrates the cognitive/conceptual and social dynamics of groups. The challenge faced by all groups engaged in intellectual work is to divide the task so…

This study is an initial report in a research program to examine the nature and influence of one set of structural variables--participation patterns--on patterns of interaction in sensitivity training groups. (Author)

The authors promote the position that the benefits tend to exceed the pitfalls of dual facilitation of intense small group experience and should become a more standard feature of laboratory training, for reasons of new trainer development, better learning experience for participants, and continuing skill development of experienced trainers. (AJ)

Differences on the Personal Orientation Inventory between 39 males and 40 females who participated in encounter groups and 40 males and 44 females who declined to participate in such groups were examined. (Author)

Periods of silence in counseling groups may be productive or nonproductive for individual members. Specific constructive counselor behaviors are presented for dealing with silence in counseling groups. (Author)

This study examines the impact of one important task characteristic for the process by which groups solve problems. The principal comparison is between a generative problem and a choice task, and whether or not the differences between these types of tasks affect the group's methods for arriving at a decision. Two types of analysis are conducted of…

This paper presents a new mathematical approach, fuzzy mathematics, for defining, classifying, and analyzing concepts within communications. Fuzzy mathematics is based on the premise that real world phenomena contain characteristics that overlap any artifically created category system or classification rules. Therefore, set membership is…

Fifty volunteer undergraduate students majoring in speech pathology and audiology at the University of North Dakota tested the following hypotheses: (1) leaders exhibit significantly more nonverbal cues than do nonleaders in task-oriented and informal small groups; (2) members of task-oriented small groups exhibit significantly more nonverbal cues…

An attempt was made to ascertain what type of verbal interaction behavior manifested by a group given a problem in curriculum development affects the quality of the product. Thirty ad hoc groups, selected randomly, were given curriculum development tasks to solve. Curriculum Guide Form (CGF) and Bales' Interaction Process Analysis (IPA) were used…

This study examined the public behavior between adults and children in 557 groups and evaluated the effects of group size, number of children (16 years of age and younger), and number of adults on the cross-age interactions. For a 10-second period, all social interactions between members of a group were recorded using an unobtrusive observational…

The four papers presented here include a study of group communication process among college students, a developmental analysis of social interaction, an analysis of environmental impact on interaction, and a methodological discussion of ways of studying interaction. These papers are followed by series of three discussion papers. (PS)