We sought to describe how prospective educators' choices of collaborative, cooperative, or individualistic interactions with group members and their willingness to apply unstructured effort into group functioning explained their levels of stress and self-evaluations of cooperative skills. Students (n=149) working in intact cooperative groups…

This case study was conducted in two high school classrooms that utilized collaborative project-based learning (PBL). Collaboration is an important instructional strategy, especially used in conjunction with PBL, and is an essential learning outcome for the twenty-first century. This study examined how collaboration can be achieved as a learning…

Many students cringe and groan when told that they will need to work in a group. However, group work has been found to be good for students and good for teachers. Employers want college graduates to have developed teamwork skills. Additionally, students who participate in collaborative learning get better grades, are more satisfied with their…

Successful team outcomes frequently--if not always--rely upon proven techniques for managing diverse styles and strengths. In this article, the authors describe the Diversity Card Game and the benefits it offers for students and instructors. Building teams using Diversity gives students the knowledge to manage clashes that might otherwise create…

The aim of this article is to analyze how a facilitator of a conflict resolution course can encourage productive active participation and interaction between rival groups during the workshops and how does s/he cope with situations where the group does not cooperate. One successful approach is make some outlandish statements as a systematic and…

This study examines how young girls construct emotional themes in their peer-culture play routines and rituals in the daily life of a preschool classroom. This research is part of a larger eight-month ethnographic study of one preschool classroom. The data selected and analysed in this article are taken from a focused six-week theoretical sampling…

Expert facilitators combine both diagnostic and intervention skills in eight domains: group development, goals, roles, communication, meeting management, decision making, problem solving, and conflict management. Most people can develop group facilitation skills. (SK)

The "management of crisis," as opposed to crisis management," requires prior planning. Boards of education that habitually practice courtesy and have some knowledge of group dynamics do not create controversy by their own actions and will have fewer controversial meetings to manage. Policymakers should know ahead of time what issues are likely to…

A New York camp program builds campers' social skills through use of "request power,""deny power," and conflict resolution. The steps of conflict resolution are position of strength, exchange of wants, proposals for win-win resolution, and acceptance or nonacceptance of proposal. Campers learn to identify what they want, listen…

Describes a multimedia resource developed for camps by the American Camping Association and Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul, and Mary, to help children express and manage their emotions, cooperate and appreciate the individual strengths that each child brings to a group, celebrate diversity, and practice negotiating and resolving conflict creatively.…

Using the example of a Navajo student teacher late for the first day of mentoring, steps are presented that enable parties with divergent perspectives to prevent or resolve conflicts by gaining second-person perspective, establishing a calm reflective ambiance, and seeking points of convergence. Presents 10 elements for reaching higher ground in…

Open meetings are regularly scheduled times when all class members and the teacher sit together in a closed circle to discuss important topics, such as name-calling. Such meetings are structured, moving from reviewing ground rules to posing a warmup question, encouraging numerous perspectives, personalizing the topic, and challenging students to…

Camp, with its community living focus, presents a constant source of potential conflicts and offers an ideal environment to help campers develop their problem-solving skills. Steps in social problem solving are listed, and an example of problem-solving skills in action is offered. Counselors can discuss conflicts with campers and ask for group…

A technique used in college instruction to improve the contribution of individual members to a small working group of students is described. The approach addresses two common problems: (1) resolution of conflicts and (2) dealing with nonperforming group members. Students interview prospective partners and form their own groups, then report on the…