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Superior performance results from flexible structures such as familiarity and formal interventions by members in decision-making groups. However, formal interventions in familiar groups are unlikely to produce the same results.

Discussions among students in classrooms is essential for clearing doubts and examining concepts, and teachers should encourage such discussions in classrooms. Properly planned co-operative learning groups, similar to the cooperative learning model of David and Roger Johnson, can be used by teachers to solve the problems which arise when a few students start dominating a discussion. Teachers should develop positive interdependence so that students learn to work in close cooperation with each other.

The use of group discussions in death-and-dying courses is a common technique to increase students' awareness of their feelings and of other students' perspectives. A structured small-group discussion format in which discussion is preceded by reading material and a written reaction paper is described. Evaluations indicate that students react favorably to this approach.

The journey of one third-grade teacher, Karla Peterson, as she implemented literature discussion groups for the first time, highlighting the ways she moved through this transition, supported students in their struggles, and renegotiated her role in the process is shared. Focus is made on the transition period when literature discussions move from teacher-led to student-led and on the demonstrations that teachers can offer to students to facilitate that move.

Current models draw a broad distinction between communication as dialogue and communication as monologue. The two kinds of models have different implications ,for who influences whom in a group discussion. If the discussion is like interactive dialogue, group members should be influenced most by those with whom they interact in the discussion; if it is like serial monologue, they should be influenced most by the dominant speaker. The experiments reported here show that in small, 5-person groups, the communication is like dialogue and members are influenced most by those with whom they interact in the discussion. However, in large, 10-person groups, the communication is like monologue and members are influenced most by the dominant speaker. The difference in mode of communication is explained in terms of how speakers in the two sizes of groups design their utterances for different audiences.