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Web-based collaborative writing (CW) has been widely used in the field of English as a foreign language (EFL) during the last decade. Previous studies have mainly focused on how online platforms have facilitated the CW process for EFL learners, how web-based CW has shown progress in EFL learners' writing development, and how EFL learners in groups interact with one another during web-based CW. However, there are limited studies on web-based CW among Turkish EFL learners. The aim of this study was to analyse Turkish high school EFL learners' self-reported accounts of their writing process in English with the support of group leaders in a web-based CW activity. The key findings were that first, the groups found the need to elect a group leader to act as a facilitator for other group members, and that group members found their group leader's help in planning their writing tasks and corrective feedback useful for their learning; second, group leaders provided affective support during the writing activity, with group members reporting that praise and motivational phrases received from their group leaders increased their self-confidence and motivation towards writing in English. This study contributes to knowledge about improving high school EFL learners' writing through a web-based CW activity. The peer leadership approach is promising in supporting student's self-efficacy and self-regulation in learning and is easily applicable to teachers in other contexts who wish to promote writing activities outside of the classroom setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Parental classes consisting of only fathers, hereafter referred to as father groups, have existed in Sweden since the mid‐1990s. Objective: To describe the father group leaders' perspectives on and experiences of father groups. Method: A qualitative study was conducted using content analysis. Eleven individual interviews with father group leaders were conducted. An interview guide was used. Settings and participants: The study was set in different parts of Sweden. The participants were eleven men who are father group leaders. They were recruited using the snowball method. Findings: The father group leaders described how participants often have high education levels and orderly social circumstances. The leaders described that the groups increased the fathers' reflection about parenthood, which could benefit the whole family in both the short and long term. The father group leaders reported that some of the topics in the sessions directly influenced fathers to discuss issues regarding equality and their co‐parenting relationship. They also argued that participating in father groups might help convince fathers to take more parental leave and build stronger relationships with their partner and child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study reports group leaders’ assessment of group members’ risk for reassault and level of accountability during a psychoeducational group intervention with male domestic violence perpetrators. It also examines members’ assessment of their own risk for reassault and level of accountability over the 18-week program. Group leaders and group members completed surveys every 2 weeks. Bivariate analyses examining differences in accountability rating and risk assessment between group leaders and group members show little agreement between leaders and members and few changes over time. Group leaders assessed group members as showing some increases in level of accountability near the end of the group. These findings suggest group leaders perceived increased accountability among group members, but they were rarely able to fulfill their goal of educating members about the connection between accountability and risk of reassault. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An evaluation exercise was performed involving 313 papers of research staff (66 persons) of the Deutsche Rheuma-Forschungszentrum (DRFZ) published in 2004-2008. The records and citations to them were retrieved from the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) in March 2010. The authors compared productivity and citedness of 'group leaders' vs. 'regular scientists', of 'male scientists' vs. 'female scientists' using citation-based indexes. It was found that 'group leaders' are more prolific and cited more often than 'regular scientists', the same is true considering 'male' vs. 'female scientists'. The greatest contrast is observed between 'female leaders' and 'female regular scientists'. The above mentioned differences are significant in indexes related to the number of papers, while values of indexes characterizing the quality of papers (average citation rate per paper and similar indexes) are not substantially different among the groups compared. The mean value of percentile rank index for all the 313 papers is 58.5, which is significantly higher than the global mean value of about 50. This fact is evidence of a higher citation status, on average, of the publications from the DRFZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaders of intervention groups for batterers must continuously assess how well they are meeting their goal of reducing violence. This article reports on survey and qualitative interview data from group leaders about their risk assessments. The practitioners were aware that their information about the risk levels of members was limited. They usually chose the middle of risk scales and reported moderate confidence in their predictions. Group leaders became increasingly confident in their risk predictions over an 8-week period, while they also predicted greater likelihood of physical abuse. This research supports the need for collaboration between practitioners and researchers to increase group leaders' skills and confidence in risk assessment, especially in the early stages of group interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article provides a first-person account of a training program in group dynamics. It is deliberately written in the first-person to capture the highly personal nature of group dynamic analysis. Proceeding through an intensive account of six days of T-groups, module facilitation, and facilitator feedback sessions, the author examines painful emotions and complicated reasoning that arose in encountering several relational and intrapsychic conflicts. In particular, feelings such as needing approval and leaping to respond to various "triggers" are emphasized and several alternatives are suggested. Applications are implied for teachers, psycho-therapists, and facilitators of groups of many kinds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the professional isolation faced by social group work practitioners and educators. It identifies the need for peer support and connection in an environment of limited opportunities for professional development. The paper describes and assesses long-term peer support groups initiated and developed by each of the authors, one for group work educators and the other for practitioners. It discusses the potential for expanding the development of such groups, which could benefit individual group workers as well as strengthen efforts to ensure the survival of group work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]