Group Goals Research Articles

Goals, Strategies, and Group Performance: Some Limits of Goal Setting in Groups

Based on Mitchell and Silver’s (1990) tower-building paradigm, the authors performed two experiments on multilevel quantity goals, strategies, and performance in task-interdependent groups. The study compared four goal types: IG (individual goal), GG (group goal), IG + GG (individual + group goal), and NSG (nonspecific goal). IG yielded low cooperation and performance, whereas, unexpectedly, NSG yielded high cooperation and performance. To explain this finding, we discerned two goal-setting components: Goal referent (performance-level targeted; individual/group) and goal specificity. Mediation analyses suggest that referent triggers a cooperation/competition mechanism, explaining the lower IG performance, whereas specificity triggers a speed/ accuracy mechanism, explaining the higher NSG performance. We conclude that individual goals can interfere with cooperative processes and group performance, and, for time-constrained interdependent tasks requiring speed and accuracy, specific difficult quantity goals may promote risk taking, thereby obstructing goal attainment.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

A Time to Scatter, a Time to Gather

The beginning of the academic year (the occasion when this paper was delivered at the United Faculty of Theology) is not only a time to gather but also a time when people and ideas are scattered in various ways for the sake of theological education. Several biblical and early Christian texts deal with the themes of scattering and gathering, particularly in three interlocking contexts: the sowing of seed to produce a harvest that will be gathered in; the dispersal of a multitude and its subsequent restoration to its own land; and the assembly of a group followed by its sending forth to various places with the group's goals in mind. Scattering comes with high risk, and often grief and sorrow, but bears the potential for joy at the attainment of the harvest or other goals. The Gospel of John is notable for portraying the crucifixion as both a time of scattering and grief (followed by regathering and joy at the resurrection) and a time of gathering and triumph.

Modern psychometrics for assessing achievement goal orientation: A Rasch analysis

A program of research is needed that assesses the psychometric properties of instruments designed to quantify students' achievement goal orientations to clarify inconsistencies across previous studies and to provide a stronger basis for future research. We conducted traditional psychometric and modern Rasch-model analyses of the Achievement Goals Questionnaire (AGQ, Elliot & McGregor, 2001) and the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scale (PALS, Midgley et al., 2000) to provide an in-depth analysis of the two most popular instruments in educational psychology. For Study 1, 217 undergraduate students enrolled in educational psychology courses participated. Thirty-four were male and 181 were female (two did not respond). Participants completed the AGQ in the context of their educational psychology class. For Study 2, 126 undergraduate students enrolled in educational psychology courses participated. Thirty were male and 95 were female (one did not respond). Participants completed the PALS in the context of their educational psychology class. Traditional psychometric assessments of the AGQ and PALS replicated previous studies. For both, reliability estimates ranged from good to very good for raw subscale scores and fit for the models of goal orientations were good. Based on traditional psychometrics, the AGQ and PALS are valid and reliable indicators of achievement goals. Rasch analyses revealed that estimates of reliability for items were very good but respondent ability estimates varied from poor to good for both the AGQ and PALS. These findings indicate that items validly and reliably reflect a group's aggregate goal orientation, but using either instrument to characterize an individual's goal orientation is hazardous.

Regional Collaboration as a Model for Fostering Accountability and Transforming Health Care

An era of increasing budgetary constraints, misaligned payers and providers, and a competitive system where United States health outcomes are outpaced by less well-funded nations is motivating policy-makers to seek more effective means for promoting cost-effective delivery and accountability. This article illustrates an effective working model of regional collaboration focused on improving health outcomes, containing costs, and making efficient use of resources in cardiovascular surgical care. The Virginia Cardiac Surgery Quality Initiative is a decade-old collaboration of cardiac surgeons and hospital providers in Virginia working to improve outcomes and contain costs by analyzing comparative data, identifying top performers, and replicating best clinical practices on a statewide basis. The group's goals and objectives, along with 2 generations of performance improvement initiatives, are examined. These involve attempts to improve postoperative outcomes and use of tools for decision support and modeling. This work has led the group to espouse a more integrated approach to performance improvement and to formulate principles of a quality-focused payment system. This is one in which collaboration promotes regional accountability to deliver quality care on a cost-effective basis. The Virginia Cardiac Surgery Quality Initiative has attempted to test a global pricing model and has implemented a pay-for-performance program where physicians and hospitals are aligned with common objectives. Although this collaborative approach is a work in progress, authors point out preconditions applicable to other regions and medical specialties. A road map of short-term next steps is needed to create an adaptive payment system tied to the national agenda for reforming the delivery system.

Search Engines: Terrorism's Killer App.

This article investigates whether a relationship exists between the number of fatalities caused by a terrorist group and the number of websites returned via the Google search engine when a search for the group is conducted. It is hypothesized that search engines’ algorithms facilitate such an association, and search engines’ role as the Web's “gatekeeper.” Much attention has been paid to understanding the role the news media, particularly television, has within a terrorist's campaign. Today, terrorism is understood as being partly theater—carefully choreographed events created not solely to kill, but to capture transnational television screens, and arouse a heightened state of public apprehension, and achieve a terrorist group's psychological devastation goal. This article questions whether such offline terrorist violence has a similar agenda-setting function online.

Inside the Iron Cage: Organizational Political Dynamics and Institutional Changes in Presidential Selection Systems in Korean Universities, 1985-2002

This paper explores why and how organizations respond to external pressures for institutional change in terms of organizational political dynamics. The focus on organizational political dynamics is important in understanding a period of institutional change when multiple groups of actors are involved in the dynamic political processes of promoting each group's goals, interests, ideologies, and institutional logic. We propose a social movement framework of organizational political dynamics that focuses on political interactions between two sets of actors—incumbents and challengers—in an organization to explain the micro-foundation underlying the decline and emergence of organizational practices in an organizational field. A longitudinal study of changes in the presidential selection systems of Korean universities illustrates how organizational political dynamics between incumbents (a board of trustees at a private university or government agents at a public university) and challengers (faculty councils) shaped the process of replacing the conventional appointment system with a new system of direct voting during the period 1985 to 2002. The general implications for organizational political dynamics, institutional change, differences in organizational responses to external pressures, and micro foundations of macro institutional phenomena are discussed.

Young children breaking the rules: a sociocultural interpretation

In this article, I explore why young children challenge and break adults' rules. I briefly review others' explanations of this phenomenon and draw on my doctorate study to offer teachers an alternative way of understanding this more challenging aspect of children's behaviour. My study investigated how young children learn to be part of the group and, using a sociocultural framework, I carried out a qualitative case study at an early childhood centre in New Zealand. My observations provide many detailed descriptions of the rules that induct young children into group culture, but also children's continued resistance to these rules. The frequency of children's resistance led me to reflect on why they resist or accept adults' messages. Rules guide socialisation and enculturation Sociocultural theories propose that all learning, including socialisation, begins at the interpersonal level as we participate in daily life. Vygotsky (1978) says that social experience is internalised to form individual understandings and meaning-making systems at the intrapersonal level. This means that the self or individual is sociological in nature and formation, or to put it more simply, people are created by people. William Corsaro (2000) proposes that it is the right of every child to know the rules of the culture and society they belong to. While children have the right to know the rules, we cannot assume that socialisation will always involve willing teachers and eager learners. In fact, we have much to learn about why young children accept or reject adults' messages and rules. Cultures create and implement rules as a means of socialising new members into the group (Vygotsky, 1978), and this sociocultural interpretation of enculturation offers an explanation as to why experienced members, like adults, expend a significant amount of time and energy ensuring that new members, like children, abide by the rules of each culture. Competing voices Today, sociologists and psychologists are reviewing their understandings of the many ways that young children are affected by the voices of multiple sources. Children are subjected to a bombardment of suggestions and directives from the people they live and interact with across a range of settings. Even very young children are asked to negotiate rules in more than one setting on a daily basis, for example, at home and at the childcare centre. Rules often compete with each other and are further complicated by messages that arrive via contemporary, tools, such as media and television (Brennan, 2001, 2002). Observations from my study indicate that children use a range of innovative and creative strategies to accommodate this circumstance. These children continued to challenge adults' rules and, at first, this behaviour seemed surprising, as compliance offers many benefits, such as valued group membership and positive relationships with both adults and peers. Life is easier for children when they abide by the rules, and security and acceptance are gained in meeting others' expectations. However, in spite of these benefits, the young children in my study continued to resist, modify, and manipulate adults' rules. Children's strategies included: adapting existing rules to meet their own purposes; subverting the group's or adult's goals to pursue their own goals; and distracting the messenger to avoid or dilute the instruction. As beginning members, children demonstrated sophisticated responses to their compulsory participation in a culture that others had created for them. For example, even very young children balanced rule subversion with compliance, a strategy I interpreted as a means of ensuring that valued relationships were not unduly jeopardised by their challenges to adults' authority (Brennan, 2005). Mediating the culture Leont'ev (1978) views such behaviours as cultural mediating devices (p. …

Advanced Message Queuing Protocol

The advanced message queuing protocol (AMQP) working group's goal is to create an open standard for an interoperable enterprise-scale asynchronous messaging protocol. AMQP is finally addressing the lack of enterprise messaging interoperability standards. This relatively simple yet compellingly powerful enterprise messaging protocol is thus poised to open up a bright new era for enterprise messaging

WebWatch

BioTechniquesVol. 41, No. 4 WebWatchOpen AccessWebWatchKevin AhernKevin AhernSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:21 May 2018https://doi.org/10.2144/000112278AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit Doing DrugsIt's not difficult to find online data bases containing pharmaceutical info. A little Googling leads easily to molecular structures, lab tests, patents, side effects, and much miscellany. What's not so easy to find is a database that links drugs with data and the proteins being targeted. Fortunately, that important niche is occupied by David Wishart's DrugBank. The list of compounds in the database is impressive—over 3000 experimental compounds, greater than 1000 FDA-approved small molecules, 113 FDA-approved protein/peptides, 60+ nutraceuticals, and over 6000 protein targets (complete with sequences). Wideranging research data on each molecule is organized tidily on a “card” and much of that is cross-linked to records in related databases. If you could only go to one place to access drug data, DrugBank would be an excellent choice.@ redpoll.pharmacy.ualberta.ca/drugbank/index.htmlProper IDsYou're out in the field, and you spot a really interesting looking tropical plant. It's not one you're familiar with, and the printed field guide you own doesn't list it. What to do? To the rescue comes the Virtual Field Herbarium (VFH) complete with its gallery of thousands of images of plants. The subjects of most photos in the collection are available as herbarium specimens, and the original photographer or collector of each is known, so questionable identifications can be readily rechecked. Recognizing that no single field guide can be everything to everyone, VFH goes way beyond the standard reference, with tips on designing personalized field guides and then to “make it happen,” provides an extensive set of links/listings to existing field guides and relevant information. Its bibliography alone, with over 800 entries, is a bonanza for tropical botanists.@ herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/vfhBig Field MicroscopeWith content areas that span news, images, education, historical documents, taxonomic indexing of organisms, and others, it's not much of an exaggeration to describe Micro*scope as the mother of all microscopy sites on the web. Designed with a relaxed taxonomic approach to managing organism information, the site is loosely hierarchical in its organization so as to allow visitors the maximum likelihood of easily finding desired info. Collections can be browsed alphabetically, by topic, or by concept. Organisms can similarly be viewed alphabetically or by classification. Micro*scope appears to be meeting with great success, if the recent addition of its 10,000th image is any indication.@ starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/portal.phpCellular CommunicationSupported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Alliance for Cell Signaling (AfCS) has some heavy hitters behind it and with good reason—the group's goals are to “understand as completely as possible the relationships between sets of inputs and outputs in signaling cells that vary both temporally and spatially.” In a word, it's all about communication—both cellular and scientific. For scientists, there are full-length research reports and mini-communications about signaling that are freely available to visitors. With respect to cellular messaging, databases are available on very diverse signaling-related topics, including yeast two-hybrid analyses, antibodies, plasmids, phosphoproteins, and covalent modification. A signaling gateway puts frosting on the cake with up-to-the-minute news on this important topic.@ www.afcs.orgBusy HighwaysIn the middle of Los Angeles, surrounded by a bewildering array of freeways pointed in all directions, you wouldn't dream of getting around without a map, so shouldn't scientists hoping to navigate the “interstate” pathways of cellular information also have some assistance? Enter Pathguide, the pathway resource list, which serves as a sort of super Rand McNally for scientists traveling across intracellular molecular freeways. With links to over 220 molecular “highways,” Pathguide guides users to databases covering protein-protein interactions, metabolic pathways, signaling pathways, pathway diagrams, regulatory networks, protein-compound interactions, genetic interaction networks, and sequences of interest.@ www.pathguide.org/index.phpFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 41, No. 4 Follow us on social media for the latest updates Metrics History Published online 21 May 2018 Published in print October 2006 Information© 2006 Author(s)PDF download

Investigating Culture Through Cooperative Learning

Studies indicate that group work accompanied by the cooperative learning elements of Individual accountability and structured independence among group members enhances student achievement. This article illustrates the implementation of a specific type of cooperative learning project called group investigation. The project is based on Slavin's (1995) six‐stage model of group investigation. It was implemented in a fourth‐semester college‐level French class and would be suitable for third‐ and fourth‐year high school French classes. The model could be adapted for Spanish or other language classes.

Guest Editor's Remarks: Decolonizing Archaeology

Guest Editor's Remarks:Decolonizing Archaeology Sonya Atalay (bio) The Wisdom of Chickens This collection of articles came about as the result of the professional relationships and friendships among a group of archaeologists who collectively call themselves the "Closet Chickens." The organization known as the Closet Chickens formally came into existence after extended e-mail discussions among a group of Native American archaeologists who had participated in a conference at Dartmouth College in 2001. The conference was titled "On the Threshold: Native American Archaeologist Relations in the Twenty-first Century," and it brought together a small group of Indigenous archaeologists from around the United States who were able to share their ideas and perspectives about being Native American archaeologists. The conversation started at this conference was continued via e-mail and resulted in the decision to maintain discussions as a more formal group. In early e-mail correspondence a discussion arose over what to name the group. One participant suggested the name "Funky Chickens," while another scholar suggested including the word "grease" in memory of the movie they were watching while having that original discussion at Dartmouth. Soon the naming suggestions included the word "closet," after one member rejected another's offer of a closet in her small, crowded apartment for temporary lodging. The group was officially titled the Closet Chickens, and members soon began to find appropriate chicken-related names for each other, including Greasy Chicken, Chicken Noodle, Chicken Strips, and Chicken–a-la-Queen. As the group's informal webpage notes: "One of the group's major goals is to ensure that there are too many Native American archaeologists [End Page 269] to fit into ANY closet." Additional members have been added to the Closet Chickens group, which now includes Native American and First Nations archaeologists and supporters. At recent archaeology and anthropology professional conferences, over a number of networking dinners and friendly coffee breaks, members of the group have developed a "secret" Chicken handshake, have been known to sing a Chicken song, and there are even plans to perform the Chicken Dance each year at the Society for American Archaeology professional meetings. Amidst the joking and silliness of the Closet Chickens tales is a profound story of strength and perseverance. As have First Nations and other Indigenous groups globally, Native Americans in this country have faced, as part of the colonial process, the theft, appropriation, and misrepresentation of our history, cultural heritage, and intellectual and cultural property. Even the bodies of our ancestors were not sacred in this assault. As David Hurst Thomas and others have demonstrated so powerfully, the rise of archaeology played an intricate part in the colonization process, and the results of this conflict remain with us to this day.1 However, Native people in North America are not simply helpless victims of colonization; they are people who have actively found ways to work against Western and colonial practices to retain aspects of their traditional knowledge and lifeways. In an effort to regain control of their cultural resources, ancestral remains, and heritage, Indigenous people around the globe have played an active role in creating positive change in the field of archaeology. Scholars and activists have critiqued the discipline and practices of archaeology and anthropology—for example, they have protested such practices as displaying open burials for tourism and the display of human remains and sacred objects in museums. They have also worked with archaeologists and museum professionals to develop NAGPRA, important legislation that has resulted in the reburial and repatriation of thousands of our ancestors and sacred objects.2 In addition to such community activism and academic scholarship focused on making changes in the practice of archaeology from outside the discipline, Indigenous people have also chosen to work actively to improve the discipline of archaeology by advancing change from the inside, as professional archaeologists, excavation monitors, scholars working in tribal or national museums, and academic archaeologists. Each of the Closet Chickens has taken on this charge, and they face the difficult task of learning to facilitate change in a way that is both productive and [End Page 270] effective. As a member of the Closet Chickens myself, I can speak from firsthand experience to...

Gender, power, and the performance of justice: Muslim women's responses to domestic violence in Kazakhstan

ABSTRACTThe grassroots assistance that Muslim women activists provide to victims of domestic abuse in Kazakhstan differs significantly from approaches commonly used by service providers in the United States. Yet the activists' informal remedies, which are shaped by discourses of religion and ethnicity and which have attracted women who seek something other than safety or formal justice, are implicitly regulated by cultural politics. By examining particular cases, I show how activists prescribe gender ideologies that guide victims' choices while supporting their own group's broader political goals. These findings may help in understanding the dynamics of women's political agency outside the state.

ASSIST: Development of the American Samoa Selected Invasive Species Task Force1

American Samoa, a U.S. territory in the South Pacific, has a history of invasive species problems and limited success managing them. Created to respond to these conditions, the American Samoa Invasive Species Task Force (ASSIST) includes researchers, management specialists, and concerned citizens. The group's goals are (1) to increase public awareness, (2) improve agency communication, and (3) coordinate management efforts on invasive species. ASSIST has created an invasive plant priority list, developed a manager's field guide to established invasive plants, and is making brochures to inform the public about plants to avoid bringing into the territory. There are significant biological, administrative, and cultural challenges to address, but ASSIST should be an effective means to overcome these obstacles.Additional index words: Coordinated weed management, interagency collaboration, Pacific Islands, public awareness.Abbreviations: ASG, American Samoa Government; ASSIST, American Samoa Invasive Species Task Force; NPAS, National Park of American Samoa.

Suzanne F. Delbanco on the Leapfrog Group and employer purchasing power. Interview by Pamela K. Scarrow.

Suzanne F. Delbanco, PhD MPH, is the first executive director of The Leapfrog Group, founded by the Business Roundtable. The Leapfrog Group's goal is to mobilize employer purchasing power to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and overall value of healthcare for American consumers. The group's growing consortium of more than 155 Fortune 500 companies and other large private and public healthcare purchasers provides health benefits to more than 34 million Americans; these companies spend more than 62 billion dollars on healthcare annually. Dr. Delbanco is a member of the National Committee for Quality Assurance Purchaser Advisory Council and a board member of Bridges to Excellence. Before joining The Leapfrog Group, she was a senior manager at the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH), where she worked on the quality team. Prior to joining PBGH, she worked on reproductive health policy and the changing healthcare marketplace initiative at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. She has also consulted on health insurance coverage in the temporary employment industry and on the first statewide survey in California of MediCal beneficiaries, and worked as a community Liaison for Kaiser Permanente during the establishment of one of California's first County Organized Health Systems. She holds a PhD in public policy from the Goldman School of Public PoLicy and a MPH from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.

Indicators to assess biological diversity: Weyerhaeuser's coastal British Columbia forest project

Adaptive management is a key component of a forest project being implemented across all of Weyerhaeuser's coastal forest tenures. This project uses two main tools to accomplish the British Columbia (BC) Coastal Group's ecological and socio-economic goals: variable retention (VR) harvesting and broad zoning of the land base. The adaptive management program was designed to examine the effectiveness of retention systems and zoning in maintaining those forest attributes necessary to sustain biological richness and essential ecosystem functions, such as nutrient transfer, energy flow, decomposition, and dispersal of seeds, spores, and animals. The program is grounded on three biological indicators evaluated in both operational and experimental contexts: 1) representation of habitat types in a relatively unmanaged state to ensure that little-known species are retained; 2) structure of stands and landscapes to ensure that key elements are present through time; and 3) indicator organisms to track whether retaining structures and patterns, while addressing representation, will maintain species and populations whose life needs are well understood. Representation of ecosystems in unmanaged conditions has been examined. Habitat structure is being assessed in VR blocks and in unmanaged blocks. Studies on several organisms (breeding birds, owls, gastropods, amphibians, bryophytes, lichen, squirrels, mycorrhizae, and carabid beetles) have been underway for various lengths of time. These studies collected baseline information to begin comparisons of the effectiveness of the various types of VR for maintaining biological richness. The current focus in the adaptive management program is refining the lists of specific elements to monitor and beginning to create tools to help extrapolate relationships and findings over large areas and long time frames, with the expectation of operational implementation in 2003. The first two years of pilot work are also being used to examine how the results will link to management practices to strengthen areas that most need improvement. This paper describes three indicators used in Weyerhaeuser's adaptive management program. Key words: adaptive management, variable retention harvesting, indicators for monitoring forests

Collectivistic and individualistic values : their effects on group dynamics and productivity in China

Collectivistic and individualistic values are theorized to have far reaching effects on teamwork and organizations. This study proposes that cooperative and competitive goal interdependence mediates the relationship between these values and group interaction and outcomes. Working in State Owned Enterprises in three regions of China, 689 employees in 194 teams indicated their group's values, goal interdependence, constructive controversy, and productivity. Their managers also reported on the extent these teams were productive. Structural equation analysis suggested that collectivistic values may reinforce cooperative goals and an open-minded discussion of views which in turn results in strong relationships and team productivity, as experienced from both the team's and manager's perspectives. Individualistic values, especially the horizontal version, can have contrasting effects through fostering competitive goals and closed-minded discussion. These results, coupled with previous research, suggest that collectivist values, cooperative goals, and constructive controversy provide an important foundation for productive teamwork.

Sensor's economical design and construction contribution to the industry and the academy

In this paper we present the construction process of four analog sensors used in converting level, position, and temperature to voltage. Each device serves two primary purposes: first, to promote the magnetic levitation research group's goals, and secondly, to offer the Colombian industrial community alternatives for economical implementation of process monitoring devices. In the article's conclusion, as an important result of the experience acquired designing and building these devices a methodology is proposed for developing these or similar devices as needed by the academic or industrial community.

A Practical Guide to Translating Lesson Study for a U.S. Setting

The authors describe a process for creating deep and grounded reflection about the complex activities of teaching that can then be shared and discussed with other members of the profession. LESSON (jugyoukenkyuu) is a Japanese professional development process that enables teachers systematically examine their practice in order become more effective instructors. In recent years, researchers have argued that lesson is a promising approach for improving teaching in the U.S., and, as a result, today we can document a widespread growth of lesson efforts in American schools.1 However, since there are limited descriptions of how actually translate the basics of lesson for a U.S. context, we wrote this article provide U.S. educators with concrete ideas for structuring, organizing, and implementing lesson in their schools.2 A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE LESSON STUDY PROCESS Before we share our recommendations, we would like outline the main features of lesson that we refer throughout this article.3 Lesson can bring together teachers from one school or from various schools. Teachers begin the lesson process by identifying an overarching goal that they would all like achieve with their students. Then, by working collaboratively on a small number of study lessons, the teachers examine how tailor their teaching in ways that will help achieve the group's selected goal. Working on these lessons involves several steps, the first of which is for the teachers jointly plan a lesson and draw up a detailed lesson plan for it. The next step is for one of the teachers in the group teach the lesson in a classroom while the others observe. Next, group members come together discuss their observations of the lesson and reflect on what it taught them about the goal they set out explore. Often, the group will choose revise the lesson plan and have another group member reteach the lesson in another classroom, while the group members again observe. A debriefing meeting in which observations and insights are discussed once again follows this public demonstration lesson. At the end of this process, the teachers produce a record of their lesson work by writing a reflective report. A group may also periodically hold an open house, where teachers can share their lesson work with other teachers and with other school staffs by teaching lessons and discussing them with the invited guests. As you read our suggestions for successfully implementing and learning from lesson study, please keep in mind that the advice we provide here is meant be more suggestive than prescriptive. We do not believe that there can be a one-size-fits-all approach for integrating lesson into the U.S. educational landscape. Instead, we encourage creative experimentation with lesson that allows teachers engage in high- quality learning experiences. With that first piece of advice in mind, here are our suggestions for conducting lesson study. ADVICE FOR SETTING UP LESSON STUDY 1. Select an overarching goal focus and direct lesson work. A key step in setting up your lesson group is choose a specific goal you want explore through your work on the lessons. This goal will focus and direct your work by providing you with a research question for your group answer. For example, if you select as your group's goal to develop students who are critical thinkers, you can plan all your lessons with an eye answering the question: How does one create and teach lessons that encourage students think critically? A lesson group might select an overarching goal the way that many Japanese teachers do. They begin by identifying the gaps that they see between the kinds of children they want nurture and the kinds of students that are actually growing up in their school. …

Identity Through Stories: Story Structure and Function in Two Environmental Groups

Two environmental groups were analyzed in their usage of story telling as a tool for mediating identity formation and facilitating behavioral change of members. The structure and function of their stories are compared with those of a previously documented group, Alcoholics Anonymous. Comparisons of story structure and function in these groups and the resulting entrance into the figured world of the nondrinking alcoholic or that of the active environmentalist illustrate the role stories can play in developing identity and motivating people to action. In one environmental group, members take political actions; in the other, they change their own consumption patterns. The members' self-described identities and the actions taken are consistent with their respective group's goals and stories.