Small Group Communications

Catalog Description This course approaches small group communication through a combination of theory and practice. Theories related to group development and leadership, collaborative communication, dialogue and rhetorical sensitivity, and principled negotiation and consensus, are explored through group discussions, research, case studies and presentations. Students have the opportunity to: strengthen their critical thinking and listening skills; confidently voice their identity within a greater community; increase their ability in writing and presenting their thoughts; and develop communication competence by facilitating civility within small group settings. Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, and clinical practice. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus. Canvas Website Copies of the course syllabus, lecture material, and major assignments may be found on the class Canvas site at https://canvas.du.edu/. You are responsible for regularly checking class materials and messages sent via Canvas. The announcement page will be used for updates and other important alerts about the class.

In colleges or universities, groupwork remains one of the experiences that all
students have to go through, often to collaborate for a presentation, a project or
an assignment. The teaching and learning that happens within groups usually
depends on the group dynamics that is shared amongst all the members of the
group. Taking a qualitative approach, this paper explores the group dynamics that
Shahid (pseudonym), an Indian postgraduate student in Architecture experienced
in two of his groups, one at undergraduate level in Delhi and the other at
postgraduate level in UK. One salient finding of this study revealed that often in
higher education contexts especially in one year masters degree in a foreign
country, groups do not have enough time to go through the development phases
properly as they have to start performing quickly and this leads to poor group
dynamics which subsequently results in poor output.
Keywords: group work, Group dynamics, Group development phases, Groups in
Higher Education.
*For correspondences and reprints

У навчально-методичному комплексі спецкурсу представлено практичні методи оптимізації соціально-психологічного клімату в малих групах освітнього середовища. Комплекс розроблено з урахуванням сучасних теоретичних знань та практичних здобутків соціальної психології. Особливу увагу приділено проблемам групової взаємодії, групових конфліктів, ціннісно-рольових феноменів, розвитку групи та особистості в групі. Серед завдань спецкурсу – оволодіння технологіями та практичними навичками роботи з групами: методами дії, арт-терапевтичними методами, рольовими іграми, методами роботи з груповою динамікою тощо. Запропоновані в спецкурсі завдання, зокрема практичні вправи, сприятимуть підвищенню соціально-психологічної компетентності практиків у роботі з групами.
Призначений для практичних психологів системи освіти, педагогів і керівників системи освіти та всіх, хто цікавиться проблемами малих груп і соціально-психологічного клімату.

Under pressure of the continuing need to modernize, Vietnam is rapidly reforming its education system. Cooperative Learning (CL) with a Western-based model is being enthusiastically applied. This paper suggests that an authentic form of CL has long existed in the foundations of Vietnamese education. The reasons why Western-based CL is encouraged can be attributed to false universalism (the belief that a practice that originated from elsewhere can be “cloned” with similar results) and neo-colonialism
(the perpetuation of a colonial mindset under the pressure of financial loans). While an adjusted form of CL has been suggested by previous studies to make CL culturally appropriate, this paper argues that a true hybrid form of CL which takes into account the authentic CL will have more potential to make this method not only culturally but institutionally appropriate. The paper indicates a strong need to identify and incorporate indigenous practice in the process of educational reform.

This paper presents a study of WhatsApp group communication through a case study which is not searched scholarly yet, thus plans to contribute to this recent area of WhatsApp studies. WhatsApp is a widespread mobile messaging application, which changes the way that people communicate with each other. The instant messaging tool allows users to send messages not only in text forms but also in the video, audio and picture forms. Particularly it has become quite common to create groups for informal purposes among friends or for more formal purposes among colleagues. Recently WhatsApp parent groups have turned out to be a popular subject but yet only been discussed widely in popular media environments such as daily newspapers or in some blogs or online forums. This kind of group can be considered as an informal group where the determination of coming together is a mutual interest.
This research aims to widen the academic study area of WhatsApp by analyzing the dynamics of group communication through this application. To this end, firstly the development of WhatsApp groups and its characteristics and the differences between offline informal groups and online informal groups in terms of effective communication, peer relation and decision making will be interrogated. Then taking into account the social presence theory and the idea of being aware of communicating with somebody; WhatsApp parent group will be analyzed from the point of view of establishing a personal connection. As the research part of this study collected 6578 messages from a WhatsApp parent group will be evaluated by using content analysis. The results will be stimulating to understand and to explore the dynamics of WhatsApp parent group with regard to group communication and information sharing.

Two experiments investigated the role of intragroup communication in intergroup conflict (de-)escalation. Experiment 1 examined the effects of intragroup communication (vs. individual thought) and anticipated face-to-face intergroup contact (vs. no anticipated face-to-face
intergroup contact). The group discussions of stigmatized group members who anticipated face-to-face intergroup contact revolved more around intergroup hostility. This boosted ingroup identification and increased social creativity but also led to steeling (a hardening of perceived intergroup relations). In Experiment 2, new participants listened to the taped group discussions. The discussions of groups anticipating face-to-face intergroup contact evoked more intergroup anxiety-related discomfort than discussions of groups not anticipating face-to-face intergroup encounters. Together, these results support the idea that steeling is a defensive reaction to prepare for an anxiety-arousing intergroup confrontation. Although steeling is also associated with positive consequences such as increased ingroup solidarity and social creativity, this hardened stance may be an obstacle to conflict de-escalation.

Asian countries with Confucian heritage culture (CHC) such as China,
Vietnam, Singapore, Korea and Japan have been proven to share characteristics of a collectivist society. Researchers agree that this collectivist mentality strongly supports cooperation that CHC’s learners/workers best perform in groups.

However, little is known about the other side of the coin. Whilst applying a method born in one culture to another, cultural differences have been forgotten. The so-called global application has led to a situation in which a Western model is forced to launch in a completely new and different context. This new context and the existing cultural values are not always incorporated into the implementation of a Western concept of cooperative learning. Consequently, it does not necessarily follow that all forms of cooperative learning will surely succeed within a CHC environment.

As a result of ignoring, stereotyping and underestimating cultural and educational characteristics, in CHC countries, the implementation of constructivism and one of its applications—cooperative learning—has ended up in failures, suspicion or resistance.

The authors would like to question (1) the fixed assumption that “groupwork
surely works in CHC countries” and (2) the domination of developmentalism
in education nowadays and its mismatch with cultural assets. With this paper, the authors contribute to the recent call for culturally appropriate pedagogy

Working in groups is an everyday activity in the classroom and in the business world where work teams determine success. The analysis and description of persons communicating in groups is based in a long scientific research tradition beginning with Robert F. Bales in the Department of Human Relations at Harvard University in 1950. Communi-cology, the science of human communication, applies to small group behavior and culture as an explanation of making decisions and forming social relationships with other people. Communicologists use a qualitative research methodology based on logic for scientific validity (necessary condition) and reliability (sufficient condition).

The user-centered design process among U.S. companies is commonly carried out by design teams. Groups of designers are commonly unable to create high quality work due to the need to first work out several issues. These issues include needing to get to know one another’s capabilities while also learning how to effectively communicate through the many difficult decisions and deadlines common to software and Web design projects. This chapter describes the communication research that illuminates the process that groups go through before they can achieve high quality results.

Aquesta tesi estudia la construcció de la identitat acadèmica a través de l'aprenentatge de l'escriptura acadèmica en anglès com a llengua estrangera, en base a un marc teòric que recull aportacions del socioconstructivisme, la teoria de gèneres, la lingüística sistèmica-funcional i la teoria de l'activitat històricocultural.

Aquesta tesi estudia la construcció de la identitat acadèmica a través de l'aprenentatge de l'escriptura acadèmica en anglès com a llengua estrangera, en base a un marc teòric que recull aportacions del socioconstructivisme, la teoria de gèneres, la lingüística sistèmica-funcional i la teoria de l'activitat històricocultural. Més específicament, s' estudia la relació entre l'adquisició de gèneres acadèmics i desenvolupament de la pròpia identitat en alumnes de primer any d'Humanitats, i fins a quin punt un enfocament basat en les teories ...

“Are You a Werewolf?” (AYAW?) is a deception based party game that forces a group of villagers to pick out a pair of werewolves from the group and eliminate them before the werewolves destroy the village. Andrew Plotkin created this game as a derivative of Dmitry Davidoff’s “Mafia” and is a favorite of gamers as a representation of a “social game” (Chittaranjan & Hung, 2010). The game is often played late at night with many of the popular gaming conventions in the United States (Origins, GenCon, San Diego Comic Con, Dragon Con, etc.) as a way for gamers to socialize, to “decompress” from the convention experience, and as a means to participate in the act of gaming in a more “adult” manner (language, alcohol consumption, and other adult behaviors that normally frown upon at a family-friendly event).

Along the same style of game, “The Resistance” was inspired by AYAW? with only 5 to 10 players needed to make the game work, as opposed to the 15 to 21 players needed for AYAW? This change in the player structure allows for, according to the manufacturer of the game, “increase the resources for informed decisions, intensify player interaction, and eliminate player elimination.” Both “The Resistance” & AYAW? fit the classic definition of a social deception game (SDG)

One of the strengths of SDG is the primary interactions are communication-based. It is not a traditional role playing game (RPG) that uses dice rolls and generated player stats as the primary mode of interaction, nor is it a traditional card/board game where the main mode of interactions being the elements present on a tabletop. Bluffing and perception are the tools that players use within a typical game of AYAW? It is these two elements that make a great platform to teach about small group communication, specifically the power roles within small groups and the structures within a small group (Verderber, Verderber, & Sellnow, 2013).

Many of the academic studies of SDGs either relates to the mathematical probabilities connected to the various structural co-constructions based on role configurations and village engagements (Midgal, 2010) or as a proxy for analysis of deception (Chittaranjan & Hung, 2010). As communication scholars, it is important to look at the communication interactions themselves, rather than a proxied representation of social interactions present in the previous research.

The focus of this case study is to show how SDGs were used to teach aspects of small group communication (specifically the developments of roles with small groups & power structures that emerge with small group structures (Harris & Sherblom, 2011)) to multiple groups of students taking the basic communication course at a large university in the United States. The framework of the case study will begin with an explanation of the game. The next element will be a brief discussion of the previous literature related to SDGs are the ludological aspects of small group communication. This will be followed be a description of the lesson plan/course objectives that were used to frame the class time. An analysis of the reflective assignments will help describe the benefits of approaching small group communication with a ludological technique. There will also be artifacts from interviews with other werewolf players from popular gaming conventions to show how the students’ impressions of the game match “the reality” of playing the game with others (as opposed to playing the game in the academic realm). Finally, there will be a discussion of the effectiveness of SDGs within the college communication curriculum. 

Two of the major themes that were present in the reflective analyses conducted by the students were the understanding of “task-based” communication patterns and the impact of power roles and leadership within SGC. Artifacts will be presented in this case study to provide context behind these two themes.

Our phenomenological approach to classroom discourse considers the relationship between a first-person perspective and the perspective of the ‘other’. We argue that a detailed analysis of an enactment of a phenomenon such as team-based learning or the development of academic argumentation through interaction can be examined in a local context in a way that is translatable to other contexts. One aspect of the approach taken here is to interpret data extracts from insider and outsider perspectives rather than to adopt a more impersonal approach torater reliability. ‘We’ (a student, a teacher and an external researcher as co-authors of this paper and co-researchers) examine recorded data of the learning process alongside written outcomes. The student and the class teacher provide a first-person insider perspective. The external researcher confronts the experiential data with an explanation based on learning principles. We have analysed recorded data of a team of students engaged in a task that requires them to synthesize individual literature reviews into a team literature review. Our findings in this context suggested that detailed team discussion, while indicating a good understanding of synthesized writing, did not result in a perfectly synthesized final team-written written product, but it did result in a reasonably competent final draft which appears to represent emergent competence in synthesized writing.  Interesting findings about the quality of team interaction and team-based writing have also emerged. The discourse analyzed indicated that there was a good team participation, but there was also a clear leader of the discussion. We report strong evidence in the data suggesting that his ability influenced the quality of the team-written report, but we also found that the individual writing performance of several, but not all, other team members did improve.

It is increasingly common for schools to form partnerships with schools in the countries of languages learnt in the classroom. While there has been substantial investigation of language and culture learning in the tertiary study abroad context, there has been limited research attention to pedagogical interventions which may support learning in young exchange travellers. This study applied the principles of intercultural language learning to the exchange context. The article reports the impact of a three-phase intervention which was designed to extend student intercultural learning, before, during, and after, two exchange trips, to China and Europe. Student response to the intervention is assessed through the analysis of student journal and blog data, using criteria developed from a three-tiered model of descriptive, dialogic, and critical writing. The study shows that the intervention facilitated student observation skills in both groups, but had more limited success in the development of self-reflection in relation to the exchange environment. It offers strategies for effective design of such teaching interventions, as an important contribution to current language education.

When attempting to theorize and critically reflect upon moments of small group communication, it is important to establish a multitiered theoretical framework through which the interpretation of what groups look like and how they function becomes clear in order to interrogate the cause that produced the effects of the group’s actions. As more literature is published attempting to solidify a universally preferred interpretation oriented towards peak group efficiency, the interjection of alternative, critically theoretical perspectives is necessary to provide a holistic yet contextualized reflection that would produce portable skills and understandings that inform further group interactions as to why a specific group has produced specific outcomes. Uniquely true for self-reflections from the positioning of communications studies majors, fore-fronting such a comprehensive framework that resists the urge to over-code alternative perspectives provided by other group members and external perspectives provided by group shareholders with hegemonic, foundational theories self-prescribed through inherently biased positions solidified through unquestioned affirmations of foundations requires the collection of multiple, recent resources of scholarly information (including textbooks, interviews, lectures, and published articles) to establish external expertise supporting conclusions provided by internal members.

The idea of group discussion has deep roots, but hasn't always been thoroughly studied. Groups are comprised of people who are Individuals with different understandings of collective/community identity We need to wrestle with our sense of identity and how that impacts the way(s) we engage others. Some problems are simple. Some are complex. Talking without communicating We too often interact and speak with one another without listening. The challenge is to be able to listen with one another. There are many dimensions to group dynamics when we think about diversity It is essential that we identity and navigate the challenges/opportunities of diversity (broadly defined and experienced) in group settings when people need to communicate and make decisions that affect organizations and their decision-making processes. • We need to be able to identity these challenges/opportunities. • We need to learn skills and practices that help to cultivate and sustain group communication practices. • Working with those who hold different viewpoints, values, etc. is a necessity. There are useful technologies that can transform small group communication and/or create new ways of engaging others. Platforms and technologies exist now that enable small groups of people in groups to engage in civil discourse communication. Leadership in groups/decision making.

The study investigated a range of characteristics of intercult- ural competence in young language learners in one Australian primary school. This paper explores students' expression of identity formation aligned with the act of speaking the target language, which the authors believe to be an expression of students' intercultural competence. Through the opportunities created and required by an immersion language pedagogy, the students perceive that their speaking ability is linked to their ability to participate , to learn , to belong and to change . These four functions are viewed as a series of increasingly personal stages of identity formation. Student perceptions describe their successful intercultural ability firstly to reflect and compare languages and cultures and secondly to negot- iate an individual personal and cultural identity, constructed from their experience of spoken discourse. The important role

Publication View. 6268583. Science teachers' perceptions regarding the integration of both inquiry and science applications approaches into their laboratory activities / (1998). Al-Balushi, Sulaiman Mohamed. Abstract. Typescript.. Thesis (MS)--University of Iowa, 1998.. ...

Laboratory activities should accurately portray the nature of science (NOS). In well-designed and well-conducted laboratories, students construct new meaningful concepts and generate “if...and...then...therefore” arguments and hypothetico- deductive inferences, managing “ideas that work extremely well at explaining the natural world in naturalistic terms we can understand, making accurate predictions, and guiding further empirical research”, in other words, experiencing the way science comes down to patterns that are naturalistic, testable, and always open to revision.

...we see a teacher investigating even more than teaching in some traditional sense of “transmitting knowledge”; this teacher always tends to be brief: He or she must constantly refrain from giving notions to students (that would often be answers to never-asked questions!); she has the key role to provoke, to challenge students, and to suggest to them activities for finding answers themselves; according with the “degree of openness” of the particular laboratory, he allows real choices; she has a facilitating style: rather than interrupting and correcting students, she helps to spread students’ good ideas and strategies in the classroom and to find new ones. Such a teacher’s work is renewed and enriched year after year by new and unexpected results. Of course, he must find solutions for an authentic and honest assessment, respecting the nature of the laboratory activity.

«Students need to be made aware that the scientific community, not public opinion polls, individual scientists, or small groups of scientists decide what is good science» (Michael P. Clough).

But while it is true that laboratory requires much of the teacher, we ought to say that laboratory can help the teacher to construct his own professional identity. So we advise teachers not to wait to become “highly skilled enough” to start using laboratory activities; on the contrary, they can use laboratory activities to construct their competence.

The aim of this 2-day international symposium scheduled for 23-24 May 2017 is to assess the state of the emergent research field of meeting science (or meeting research) as evidenced by recent edited volumes and special issues (Allen et al. 2015; de l’Estoile 2015; Brown, Reed & Yarrow [forthcoming]; Clarke, Wodak & Kwon [forthcoming]; Sandler & Thedvall [forthcoming]) and to foster interdisciplinary dialogue through a multidisciplinary network of scholars with a shared interest in face-to-face meetings.

It is the first attempt ever to bring together meeting researchers from all social sciences to create synergies and cross-fertilization between meetings related research that has so far taken place in relative isolation from each other in social anthropology, organizational communication, sociology, workplace studies, sociolinguistics, political science, psychology, management, and even applied IT (Group Support Systems).

A small group model was tested that traced the path by which communication motives influenced interaction involvement and loneliness and the ways that these factors, in turn, influenced group satisfaction. Results indicated that pleasure was a reason for communicating responsively, whereas escape, control, and inclusion were not reasons. Escape was not a motive reported by those who were lonely. With regard to group satisfaction, it was found that loneliness was a mediatingfactor in that members who interacted responsively were not lonely, and those who were not lonely reported satisfaction with the group. Finally, there was a direct link between the need for affection and satisfaction. Implications of the model's findings support the need for communication skills training and understanding members' motives for interacting in ongoing task groups.

In the development of intercultural language learning, limited research has been conducted on language learners' negotiation of identity and cultural memberships. There is little research in particular on intercultural identity in young (primary school) language learners. With the global growth of languages in the primary school, it is timely to examine the quality of young learners' experiences and their achievement of intercultural goals in more depth. This paper reports findings from a qualitative case study of intercultural competence in a group of Australian upper primary school language learners. The paper demonstrates that the case‐study students are self‐aware of their sense of change and transformation through language learning, and show sophisticated critical negotiation of their simultaneous memberships of different cultural groups. It highlights for teachers the dynamic personal and complex framework constructed by young learners in their interaction with language study.