Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate if team personality composition has any effect on group work performance of undergraduate students in China. Design/methodology/approach: Using a questionnaire based on the Big-Five framework to collect data on personality traits, this study investigated whether in the Chinese education setting…

Teaching strategic human resource management to postgraduate students is becoming a challenge in countries like Australia, particularly due to the students undertaking postgraduate studies without relevant professional work experience. To address this, we used flipped teaching and learning activities and attempted to develop a learning community…

Background: The social processes that operate in community groups need to be better understood if people with intellectual disability are to be included in such groups. This study aimed to identify the nature and impact of the group processes on the active participation of people with intellectual disability. Method: Extensive field notes were…

An emerging challenge for the Australian higher education sector is the delivery of authentic eLearning to support the collaborative construction of knowledge through the provision of real-life tasks in an online environment. This paper describes research conducted in a fourth-year university course where students from across the nation were…

This paper explores an innovative approach to evaluating the effectiveness of a writing group in an Australian research-intensive university. Traditional qualitative and quantitative methods typically applied in higher-education research may be effective in analysing the output of writing groups; however, they do not always address the affective…

In this qualitative case study, we explored students' peer interactions within their cohort and in the host countries during a short-term study abroad. Framed by Bronfenbrenner's (1993) ecological systems theory, findings revealed that students spent considerable energy reflecting on interactions with peers. The students considered themselves…

Writing groups for doctoral students are generally agreed to provide valuable learning spaces for Ph.D. candidates. Here an academic developer and the eight members of a writing group formed in a Discipline of Public Health provide an account of their experiences of collaborating in a multicultural, multidisciplinary thesis writing group. We…

This paper explores problem-based learning (PBL) as a vehicle for developing critical management skills and preparing students for their future careers. Using student reflections and facilitator observations the paper presents the nature of individuals' experiences with learning and teaching in a PBL setting in the management discipline. The study…

The origins of study circles can be traced back to the Chautauqua movement in the USA in the late nineteenth century. However, interest diminished in the USA and the Swedes discovered and enthusiastically imported the study circle idea as a remedy to their problems of poverty and illiteracy and to educate the broadest possible spectrum of society…

A facilitator is commonly defined as a substantively neutral person who manages the group process in order to help groups achieve identified goals or purposes. However, outdoor educators rarely experience the luxury of only managing the group process, because they are typically responsible for the provision of leadership, skill instruction, and…

Since independent study groups can be important in providing spaces for students in creative disciplines to develop a critically reflexive approach to their creative practice, tutors in an Australian university introduced independent group learning to students studying in creative disciplines. However, student responses to the experience of…

The study investigated the effects of structured and unstructured cooperating groups on students' behaviors, discourse and learning in junior high school. One hundred and sixty-four grade 9 students participated in the study. The students were videotaped as they worked in three to four person, mixed-gender and ability groups on a science-based…

After receiving negative feedback from students and tutors about their group work experiences in a health subject, strategies to resolve these collaborative learning issues were considered. The objectives were to facilitate student ability to resolve group work issues, highlight group work as an important graduate attribute and to improve…

Reports on a study that focused on Australian students' cognitive and social skills in group decision-making activities conducted in the classroom. Finds that students were motivated to participate in group decision-making and that students' decision-making strategies are destructive when students assert their own ideas at the expense of others.…

Although relational demographers have based their arguments on self-categorization theory, they have paid little attention to the underlying processes associated with this theory. The authors examined whether demographic dissimilarity affects individuals' identification with groups by affecting the group's prototype valence and clarity and the…