The possibility of promoting community development as well-being through a community learning ethos was examined to determine whether learning can be used to develop a framework for conceptualizing community well-being in order to contribute to Australia's regional sustainability. The examination focused on the following: the relationship between…

This article demonstrates the evaluation of a German Computer and Law (C&L) seminar, which has been conducted in an experimental, distributed manner with five institutes co-operating. The evaluation was dedicated to the question, in which way the course supported cooperative learning among the students of the different participating…

This study of student-facilitated study groups at Brooks Community College explores how students structured the study group experience and what type of interaction occurred during the group sessions. The study groups were created for high content introductory courses in which high percentages of students had been unsuccessful. Student leaders were…

Traditionally, group research has focused on outcome rather than process. In order to provide an efficient means of data collection and analysis in group process, the Automatic Vocal Transaction Analyzer (AVTA) system was developed to generate an objective chronography of conversation vocalizations, pauses, turntaking, switching, and…

The author presents a model for inservice teacher training entitled the Process Oriented In-Service Experience (POISE) and attempts to identify changes occurring in the process movement and dynamics of interaction as reflected in attitudes and behaviors of teachers participating in this modified, small-group, process learning experience under…

In this paper a broad perspective on the phenomenon of teaching and learning is presented. The complex dynamics of interaction between teacher, student, and educational researcher are explored. Conventional research in education is characterized as relying heavily on methods adopted from other types of research in such fields as agriculture and…

Qualitative methods were used to analyze the social environments--or webs of interaction--in reading groups of varying ability levels. Ethnographic observations were conducted for 15 to 30 hours in each of eight first and second grade classrooms with ability-divided reading groups. A code scheme was developed to categorize the quantity and quality…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: factors affecting group decisions regarding attributions of responsibility; a model of message-attitude-behavior relations; effects of the communicative process on perceived source…

Classroom interaction may be described in terms of communication events, i.e., sequences of teacher-pupil communicative behaviors separated from preceding and succeeding sequences of behaviors by natural boundaries. Communication events may be institutional (related to managing the classroom and meeting the expectations of the institution), task…

The literature on sex-related differences in leadership behavior was reviewed in order to explore underlying factors. Currently there exist several models of male leadership in small groups, but no models of human leadership which represent the experiences of women in same sex and mixed sex groups. Key considerations for constructing such a model…

This paper examines some of the conversational skills manifested by children within a nursery group as they organize their own activities among themselves and cope with social and didactic demands of adults. Among the features examined are the number of active and passive participants within conversing groups, the intentions and pragmatic…

While the Hill Interaction Matrix was developed as a research instrument to assess interview process, it is also generally useful in any undertaking requiring the evaluation of verbal interaction and, hence, can be used as an aid in modifying communication in order to increase its therapeutic effect. The Hill Interaction Matrix with accompanying…

The purpose of this study was to develop an observation system which would describe some of the important phenomena in groups that have the task of making a decision about a controversial issue involving value conflicts. The basic design to develop the observation system involved the analysis of transcriptions of group discussions of controversial…

The social, behavioral, and physiological effects of episodic crowding on children and elderly adults are reported in this paper. Children ranging in ages from 9 to 16 and elderly adults ranging in ages from 60 to 90 were grouped by age into small and large rooms. Each group sat silently for 30 minutes in the rooms while skin conductance equipment…

In the Multi-Disciplinary Graduate Program in Educational Research, graduate students at the doctoral level were participants. This program required exposure to other disciplines, to various approaches to problem definition, to various methodologies, concepts, and research techniques. It was expected that the students had gained experiences and…