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@bumail.bradley.edu] Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 8:45 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org; drseskow@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@listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Dr. Steve Eskow Sent: Sat 9/23/2006 4:51 PM To: air-l@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@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Alexander Kuskis Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 4:23 PM To: air-l@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 _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/