Examines the cultural assumptions about what makes an effective team member. Argues that educators typically design collaborative projects and evaluate student participants by using a Western mode of how people should behave in groups. Suggests pedagogical strategies to prepare students for collaborating with students from many cultures. (RS)

Critiques Boshier's normative model for adult education futures, which has three components: learner motivation, level of need, and future centeredness. Finds that the first two components encourage unnecessary conflict between individual and societal needs; recommends replacing "needs" with broadly based educational goals and…

This review includes recent research that manipulated features of cooperative learning as well as studies of the relationship between interaction in small groups and outcomes. The analysis examines the kinds of discourse that are productive for different types of learning and moves toward studies of task and interaction. (SLD)

Client adherence to culture-of-origin values plays an important role in the provision of culturally relevant psychological services. Lack of instruments that measure ethnic cultural values has been a shortcoming of past research. Describes development of an Asian Values Scale (AVS) used to measure psychometric measures in four studies. Results…

Observed functioning of same-sex triads of middle grade children during an intimate discussion, a cooperative puzzle task, a competitive game, and free play. Found that triads of girls were more intimate, exchanged more information, and were less aggressive than triads of boys. Girls and boys expressed similar attitudes toward triadic interaction,…

This multilevel investigation examined the effect of group interaction and its influence on individual-level membership variables and group assimilation. The study is based on a model of group socialization developed by Moreland and Levine (1982) and was modified in this study to investigate the development and maintenance of highly interdependent…

A measure of collective efficacy was developed and administered to undergraduates working in project teams in engineering courses. Findings in each of two samples revealed that the measure contained a single factor and was related to ratings of team cohesion and personal efficacy. Collective efficacy was also found to relate to indicators of team…

The authors present activities that help students understand collective behavior in historical and contemporary settings. This topic is particularly appropriate for social studies content areas such as sociology, psychology, American history, and world history, yet it can also be included in the curriculum of other subject areas, such as language…

An ethnographic study explored how small groups of student readers interacted in a classroom over time to interpret short stories assigned by a teacher. For five weeks, eight sixth-grade volunteers met on consecutive Fridays in two separate face-to-face discussion groups to read, discuss, rewrite, and perform a short story as a play. Primary data…

The 76 tests in this bibliography include descriptions of measures examining the dynamics of functioning groups as a whole and other measures eliciting information concerned with group members on an individual basis. Although all ages are represented, the tests target primarily adults. This document is one in a series of topical bibliographies…

This study investigated the ways in which families operate as a unit while presenting a story to an interviewer, and the ways in which they interface with the outside world, as represented by the interviewer. A description of the study is preceded by an overview of relevant literature, including studies that concerned microsocial analyses, shared…

The concept of behavior settings--the environments shaping individual behavior--was originated by Roger Barker in 1950 in connection with his community surveys in a small Kansas town, code-named Midwest. This book seeks to provide rural social scientists with an understanding of Barker's eco-behavioral approach and proposed adaptations of it to…

Values can and should be a part of small group communication instruction. Discourse is value laden and to understand the communication process, the role of values must be understood. Many students come to the classroom not understanding values, and not being aware of the role of values in decision-making. Their lack of understanding requires that…

A study tested a model of bargaining rite by examining procedural rituals, organized fantasies, and ritualistic language in teachers' negotiations. Specifically, it sought to identify the communicative forms that create shared consciousness, to describe shared fantasies, to illustrate the role of group fantasy in forming rhetorical visions, and to…

A study examined the effect of assigned social decision rule (whether a jury is required to give a unanimous or less than unanimous verdict) on the process and product of mock jury deliberations. Subjects, 360 students from an eastern university, were randomly assigned to six-member juries under three decision rule conditions: (1) unanimity, (2)…