High-risk behavior in youths related to HIV transmission continues to occur despite large-scale efforts to disseminate information about safe sexual practices through education. Our study examined the relationships among knowledge, decision-making strategies, and risk assessment about HIV by youths during peer group focused discussions. Two focus…

During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 1995, personnel from the University of Memphis continued to be on-site evaluating the Synergy Foundation's project funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Through observation of the program, interviewing participants (N=173) and personnel, administering qualitative instruments, and analyzing records, it…

By reviewing this analysis of the behavior of both groups and individuals in groups, human resources managers can learn to tell whether committees, task forces, and departments may be encouraging or inhibiting the work they set out to do. (Author)

There is a growing interest among organizations in identifying and nurturing Communities of Practice. Delineating what is and what is not a Community of Practice (CoP) is not a clear-cut task. One specific area of difficulty is distinguishing between a team and a CoP. Because there are strong similarities between the two, it is often helpful to…

Outlines current ideas about the use of focus groups in library and information science and considers advantages and disadvantages of different types of focus group discussions. Discusses reasons for choosing this research method. (AEF)

Presents a guide, derived from the Situational Leadership model, which describes the process that should be used in facilitating a group discussion. The process includes preparation, assessment, diagnosis, prescription, development, reinforcement, and follow-up. Three figures depict the Situational Leadership model, the facilitation process, and…

Explores the benefits of a hermeneutic orientation to technical writing instruction. Examines the historical and philosophical sources that have influenced technical writing pedagogy, and describes the usefulness of hermeneutic inquiry and its potential for technical writing teachers. (SG)

This article reports on a reading comprehension instructional technique which uses reciprocal-like teaching formats in groups and semantic mapping to make text structures apparent. The procedure significantly affected recall of expository ideas and knowledge of comprehension strategies with 28 intermediate grade students with learning…

Introductory exploration of two usenet newsgroups focused on political discussions. The goal is to answer questions regarding issues such as who is participating in these online discussions and whether the online groups resemble more traditional discussion networks. (Author)

This article explores the use of multiple digital tools for mediating communications, drawing on two recent empirical studies in which students and researchers in UK higher education worked on collaborative activities: how different tools were used and the quality of the communications and their contributions to collaborative working and knowledge…

In recent years in Spain there has been a growing popular concern as well as research interest in the study of social relations pertaining to coexistence at school, including a desire to know the real incidence and nature of conflicts involved. Thus, a great variety of school interventions have been underway, with the aim of reducing the…

In this article, the author examines the character of the conversations generated in an elementary teacher group as they worked on mathematical problems together and analyzed their students' work. Two distinct forms of talk--"exploratory" and "expository"--were found. The first type of talk occurred most prominently when discussions centered on…

This study involved fourth grade children as co-researchers of their engaged, aesthetic reading experience. As members of the "Readers as Researchers Club," they documented their engagement with text--how they create, enter, and sustain the story world. The children, who self-identified as avid readers, explored the activities central to their…

This exploratory analysis examined the nature of asynchronous, text-based communication in peer-directed educational discussions. The nature of communication changed over time and women exhibited greater tendency for epistolary communication than men. Initial posts, which were expository in nature, focused on disseminating information whereas…

Faculty committees wrote educational objectives for all 23 courses in their undergraduate medical school curriculum. The objectives were used for evaluation of curriculum, student knowledge, and attitudes. (CP)