Group building from the point of view of Ed Psych

There are many groups that teachers work with while teaching.  Your building colleagues, other teachers of the same subject or grade in your district, state, region or the whole country are examples.  Also, for reasons we will emphasize in Block 1, virtually all levels of school, from kindergarten to grad school, have increased their use of group work over the past decade.  Creating groups, working with them as a member and as the teacher-manager of groups is an important skill for the modern teacher.

Recently, the School of Education completed the first round of new kind of master's degree.  It was a very successful program that ran over two years.  The people in that program spent much of their first semester getting to know each other.  Block 1 doesn't have that much time but the experience reminded the faculty of the importance of groups and group work.

How classroom groups are constructed may not be as important as how to get along with members of any group since a person must often work with others that she had no chance to select.  Getting along with others involves interpersonal skills, including (Note: the links below are on pages in another course.  They include instructions and assignments not required of Block 1 students.  These links are supplied for information only):

• stating your own ideas and feelings clearly but succinctly,

• listening fully and empathetically to others,

• working out mutually acceptable solutions to problems,

• negotiating over more controversial differences and

• reacting to unacceptable, immoral or unethical behavior. 

Each of these skills is difficult to completely master and can be improved over one's entire lifetime.  Of the skills listed above, negotiation is often the least developed skill and the one that most needs work.  In fact, some students assume that the very idea of negotiation involves bullying, sleazy behavior, dishonesty or something reprehensible.  Yet, we find, as we go through life, that we are constantly called on to invent approaches that bridge initially different, even opposing positions or needs.  Much of Ed. 351 with Upham & Jozwiak focuses on negotiating with other educators over the making and use of Individual Education Plans (IEP).