Explores organizational trust through psychological/sociological avenues. Argues that trust is a critical factor in overcoming communication barriers that are context-related (communication environment or setting) and content-related (the message itself or the participants). Suggests that trust can be improved by applying identified strategies.…

Assessed client and counselor satisfaction with counseling services at university counseling center. Clients (N=38) and counselors (N=5) rated themselves and other member of counseling dyad on Counselor Rating Form-Short. Findings suggest that perception of characteristics possessed by other member of dyad may be a more dominant factor than…

Analysis of 47 case studies of tutoring relationships between college tutors and elementary students suggests that three tutoring patterns can be distinguished. Each of these three tutoring patterns--professional, comradeship, and informal--combines personal trust and social contract in different ways. Implications are drawn for implementation of…

Culls the opinions of reform thinkers, school executives, and teacher union officials to provide an inside look at what teacher empowerment means for the schools. A sidebar summarizes the 1986 Carnegie report's key recommendations and union-led reform initiatives. Another sidebar provides trust-building tips. (MLH)

Study of the role of personality factors in health and disease suggests that motivational variables are related to and influence physiological systems. Affiliative trust and a greater sense of agency are associated with better health, while affiliative cynicism and a sense of helplessness are associated with more illness. (AF)

Examines mock jurors processing testimony under impression-set and memory-set conditions to determine under which condition they rate a witness to be more deceptive. Finds that under impression-set objectives subjects formed stronger judgments of the witness's deceptiveness, while the pattern was reversed under memory-set conditions. (MS)

As a beginning teacher, the author did not recognize that knowing her students was as important as knowing her subject. Teachers should personalize assignments and ask students to write a letter about themselves, write notes explaining tardiness or late homework, create learning logs, and help solve classroom problems. (MLH)

Suggests that control be seen as a compensatory process where people are most likely to control their partners when control over the environment is challenged, as it is when relationships exhibit low mastery, low trust, or high conflict. Controlling one's partner serves to compensate for a perceived lack of control. (RJM)

At a Suburban New Jersey elementary school, the principal learned to let go and provide the means for staff to solve their own problems. Some lessons include learning to listen, establishing patterns of communication, understanding individual styles, promoting open communication, working to build trust, thinking with new perspectives, promoting…

Teachers can gradually develop the emotional and interpersonal infrastructure of their classroom communities through a creative program encouraging youngsters to write all the time and read to each other what they have written. The writing process involves four steps: brainstorming ideas, writing the rough draft, polishing the final draft, and…

Outlines some ways in which teachers can maintain a sense of self in a negative and distrusting environment. Teachers should (1) know themselves; (2) follow their values; (3) maintain an internal locus of control; (4) talk to themselves; and (5) surround themselves with others who have similar feelings. (MDM)

A Weberian perspective suggests that increased perceptions of environmental risk are related to fears of recreancy (institutional failure to fulfill societal responsibilities) rather than to ignorance or irrationality. Regarding nuclear waste facilities, analyses of survey data find that the recreancy perspective explains three times more variance…

Aware of the invasive aspects of emancipatory research methods, the author constructed a classroom experience to expose her own use of power when conducting such projects. Her student participants had varied responses to a power definition/perception experiment: trapped, captured, and willing. (27 references) (MLH)

A four-part violence-prevention program can supplement new security measures inside schools by transforming school culture. Programs should include cooperative learning, invitational education activities (built on trust, respect, intentionality, and optimism), the Power of Positive Students (POPS) program, and an effective parenting-education…

Estimated collaborative supervision's effects on five teacher affective variables (commitment to teaching, commitment to school, trust in administration, trust in teachers, and desire for collaboration) and two personal-decision variables (efficacy expectations and outcome expectations). Teacher implementations favored collaboration and commitment…