At their worst, meetings can waste time, lack focus, foster a combative spirit, or be just plain boring. At their best, meetings can be a positive, dynamic experience that nurtures individual strengths while inspiring teamwork to successfully accomplish an established task. The fate of a meeting lies in the skill of the facilitator, and this…

Recent research in group behavior and organizational development is centered around increasing the individual's self-esteem and on developing individual participation in group success. Effective groups depend on a variety of individual contributions and shared decision making, while in turn satisfying human needs for security, achievement, and…

Social Conflict and Negotiative Problem Solving is an instructional system currently under development by the Improving Teaching Competencies Program (ITCP) of Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL). In accordance with the Resource Allocation Management Plan (RAMP, 1975) of ITCP, this report presents a plan of evaluation activities for…

Recent investigations of the effects on group output of competitive contingencies, reward deliveries to group members contingent upon achieving a higher or lower task rate than another group, have suggested that competitive contingencies are a positive function of group output. When rewards are contingent upon a higher comparison outcome, group…

Student activities programs are usually dependent on teams of students and advisers. Theory, potential outcomes, basic steps, and resources for team-building are introduced, and improving output potential, basic steps in team-building, and giving and receiving feedback are discussed. (MLW)

The effectiveness of a set of curricular activities and differing group experience in facilitating interdependent task structuring by seventh graders were examined. No significant differences were found among the experimental groups, but they structured the task and behaved more cooperatively than the control group. (Author/MH)

Discusses the goals of team building, scope of team-building interventions, and specific contributions of both experiential (corporate adventure training) and nonexperiential (traditional) methods for increasing work-group effectiveness. A model for effectively combining the two approaches involves establishing goals, clarifying team members'…

Group work is increasingly being used in a variety of college courses. A number of strengths have driven the increase in the use of this form of collaborative learning. Still, a number of problems potentially limit the use of group projects. In this study, we report on research in which we examined how students recommended changing group projects.…

One of the biggest problems students face in team projects is social loafing, a situation in which students may view team projects as a free ride. Social loafers let others do the work, knowing that the professor will only grade the completed project. This research examined the performance of students grading other student team members on a group…

Forty male and forty female high school students engaged in a group decision making task in both mixed-and single-sex 4-person groups of strangers. Those subjects who participated in a mixed group were also together in a microteaching class. The study addressed three questions: (1) What are the leadership behaviors of females, and do they differ…

The purpose of this study, completed with personnel who work in local disaster services, was to obtain data to test Etzioni's model of consensus and effectiveness. The data indicate that both early socialization and communication with elites are associated with consensus formation. Consensus formation and communication have direct and significant…

This report provides information about Employability Development (E.D.) Team member interaction and its effect on enrollees based on a national sample of 31 sites. Findings indicated satisfaction with the E.D. Team approach by both enrollees and team members. Differences among job roles were found in operating philosophy, level of training, and…

Critical Friends Groups (CFGs) are vehicles for creating collective intentionality that reaches a shared end: increased opportunity for the disadvantaged to create equality of opportunity. Not that participating in CFGs is the only action educators can take to create moral schools; rather, moral schools reflect the beliefs, ends, and practices…

Many project teams in organizations are highly structured, members have clearly defined roles, and they possess knowledge about how to effectively manage their projects and meetings. On the other hand, students in educational environments lack significant experience working in teams. Therefore, student teams are often poorly structured, members…

Presents the Two-Level Cooperative Group Learning Model, a small-group instruction technique, developed at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, and based on the Jigsaw II approach. Outlines a sample unit, showing how student expert groups teach their home teams. Demonstrates the technique's benefits: greater student motivation and interaction,…