[Air-l] groups

[Dr. Steve Eskow]

Edward,

Your message suggests to me that somewhere in the literature there are
attempts to distinguish between a "group," a "team," a "society," an
"organization," and so on. Or are these terms used imprecisely in the
literature?

Another hunch: most of the research and writing on "groups" assumes that
"groups" will be meeting in real time and face-to-face for most of their
"groupness." 

Thus the possibibility that much of the research does not fit well or easily
such new creations as online assemblages of people such as this one where
time and space are used in novel ways.

Steve Eskow

-----Original Message-----
From: Lamoureux, Edward [mailto:ell at bumail.bradley.edu] 
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 8:45 PM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org; drseskow at cox.net
Subject: groups

I don't want to either overstate the obvious or to sound offensive or
condescending in any way. It is certainly the case that merely because a
topic of study has gotten a lot of attention does not guarantee that the
findings there are helpful to everyone in every circumstance.
My comments also don't directly refer to whether or not a particular
approach or concepts (like Tuckman's work) cross apply/generalize to other
(such as online) research contexts.

But in general, I'm sort of responding to Steve's question as to the
usefulness of the term "group."

There are established literatures about group behavior in (just to name a
few) psychology, sociology, and communication studies. Each set (and others)
have taught us a lot about how groups function. There are a lot of
definitions of the term "group," just as there are a lot of definitions of
terms such as "communication" or "peace." 

But I don't take the plethera of definitions, or the interest that they
reflect, as evidence in favor of dropping the terms. 

Most certainly one (or other) definition will be better suited to the
particular phenomena at hand for study. 
But I don't think one gets very far by trying to drop a key taxonomical
item. 


-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Dr. Steve  Eskow
Sent: Sat 9/23/2006 4:51 PM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-l] Listserv research
 
Perhaps the term "group" has become too large and vague for any research
findings to be useful. Are four men who meet one a month to play poker a
"group"? Are the students in the freshman class of the local community
college a "group"? Is the Women's Auxiliary of the local Episcopal Church a
"group"? Is each chapter of Rotary a "group"?

If a taxonomy of "groups" exist, it would be helpful to know about it. If
not, such a taxonomy seems needed.

Steve Eskow



-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Alexander Kuskis
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 4:23 PM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-l] Listserv research

Yet, the reasons for it would be inappropriate to apply Tuckman to a
group
of online learners are as much as an assumption as it is to say Tuckman
would be appropriate. Are the differences between therapy groups and
groups
of online learners proved? And in which ways? Furthermore, if
differences do
exists, are they relevant to the aspect(s) that is/are being studied?

------>I make no assumption either way. Tuckman's stages of group
formation might or might not be appropriate to online groups. (My own
experience and action research indicates that it is not). But before
stating that they are, the research needs to be done to prove it. You
don't just adopt a F2F group dynamic and apply it to online groups and
willy-nilly state that they're the same. Palloff & Pratt (1999) make no
claims for having based any of their assertions on research. By the time
they write 'Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom' (2001), they state
that Tuckman's stages exist for online groups, but not in the order in
which Tuckman placed them. And in 'The Virtual Student' (2003) they drop
the matter of group formation entirely. But, if you want a model of
online group development that is specific to online courses and is based
on action research, I suggest the model of Dr. Gilly Salmon:
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/salmonmodel/index.htm . At some point,
I will publish my own research on this matter.
 
................................[snip]..................................
.................................
So to get back to the issue, what specifically do you think is the
problem
in applying Tuckman to groups of online learners? Does it have something
to
do with the unconventional models they adopt at Fielding? What
specifically
do you think is the problem in framing group life in terms of
cycles/stages?
Have you ever thought that the discomfort with models of groups lies
into
the cultural bias we Westerners have against group and in favor of
individualism?
Rosanna Tarsiero

--------->The problem is that the research needs to be done before
making claims of applicability to the online context. Tuckman has been
adopted uncritically for both F2F group formation, as well as online.
The words "forming, norming, storming, performing" have become a mantra
in all kinds of group dynamics literature (just plug them into Google,
and you'll see what I mean). But, whatever warrant there is for it F2F,
there is none online. I have no idea what models Palloff & Pratt adopt
at Fielding. And having taught university courses entirely online for
more than 5 years, employing collaborative and learning community
strategies, I have no discomfort whatsoever with group learning models.
I think that most online instructors recognize that the bias of online
learning is towards collaborative and group work, rather than the
individualism of classroom learning.........Alex Kuskis



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