Facilitating successful focus groups requires both science and art. One element that can fully challenge focus group facilitators includes how to handle the unfocused focus group. This article describes "unfocus" and the benefits and disadvantages of unfocus in focus groups. Lessons learned from and approaches taken on this journey are shared to…

This article presents an interview with Richard Chait, Research Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, regarding the three major challenges that face college and university governing boards today--in the areas of board structure, planning, and trustee selection. In the interview, Chait shares his concern about the state of…

Formal organizations share a common set of characteristics that include identifiable operating principles and coordinating mechanisms as well as lines of authority and communication. However, some organizations--especially those on the margins of institutional fields--creatively combine institutional and anti-institutional characteristics. This…

Education is characterised by marked and damaging schisms among its specialties, especially between classroom practitioners and academic members of the profession. While many or most commentators accept this rift as arising from real and significant differences between the groups, this article argues that the schism can be seen as the consequence…

Addresses the following question: Do one-session meetings remain "aggregates" or can they develop some "group" forms? Considers the literature on phases of group development, one-session meetings, and the role of the worker in one-session meetings. Concluded that the one-session meeting can develop specific group forms.…

Background/Context: The type of professional development provided for teachers has been undergoing change from a one-time workshop approach to a more embedded, long-term, reflective, and collaborative structure. Although findings on the impact of new forms of professional development (PD) are beginning to emerge in the literature, there is little…

This monograph will examine group work along a continuum of content, process, and technique, based upon a philosophy that recognizes and places its stress upon the responsibility, integrity, and decision making ability of the individual. The first chapter, titled "Group Guidance," will contain a general discussion of the content to which this…

The significance/importance of relationships and connection of women in working through emotional distress and building personal empowerment is illustrated in the process model. The group process model of empowerment draws from both the current theories of women's psychological development and social interaction theory in illustrating the process…

Reviews Bale's view on relations between instrumental and expressive structures and ensuing work on legitimacy of instrumental structure. Conceptualizes this legitimacy in terms of integration of distribution of members' skills and instrumental structure. Discusses Bale's conception of primary and secondary differentiation and inequality…

Describes a practical conceptualization of group process and management, titled the TRAC model (tasking, relating, acquiring, contacting), which takes into consideration the changing nature of group life. (Author)

Presents problems associated with process analysis with a specific focus on definitional and methodological concerns. Discusses the need for a comprehensive system that will help researchers to separate and comprehend the individual parts of a group and their relationship to the whole group. (Author/LLL)

Investigated the role of a group structuring technique on the amount and depth of process involvement in two counseling training groups. The results partly supported the conclusion that early structure significantly affects process involvement among group members. Additionally, both groups showed strong gains in depth of process involvement over…

The fact that a group may subdivide into smaller subgroups is examined in the light of probability theory. (Author)

The objective of the exercise described here is to teach students about group formation using group concepts and theory. It also provides a unique way to form work groups for class projects. Students will become more aware of the reasons people join groups, the benefits groups provide for them, and an understanding of how groups are formed. The…