Helping Teachers Improve Classroom Group Processes

Abstract

The studies reported here assumed that informal classroom group processes affect students' attitudes as well as their academic performances and that teachers can modify these group processes constructively. Three action research interventions are described in this paper which, in various degrees and in different ways, helped teachers improve the informal group processes in their classrooms. The major intervention of Project z was a teacher development laboratory with seven core training activities: (i) sensitivity training and related human relations experiences, (2) didactic discussions on basic research about classroom group processes, (3) problem-solving techniques for improving group processes, (4) analyses of diagnostic data from the teachers' own classrooms, (5) discussions about useful classroom practices developed by other teachers, (6) role-play tryouts of new classroom practices, and (7) follow-up discussions during the school year. This laboratory was compared with a seminar in which the participants experienced all phases of the laboratory except for sensitivity training, related human relations experiences, and roleplay tryouts of new classroom practices. Both the laboratory and seminar were compared with a control group in which no interventions were attempted. An overview of the results indicated that the laboratory teachers and students made more positive changes in their group processes than those in the seminar group; both of these groups were more improved at the end of the school year than the control group. In Project 2, psychological consultants attempted to enhance teachers' capabilities for coping with group processes in the classroom. The consultants spent four hours each week for 15 weeks in small-group discussions, classroom visitations, and individual conferences. The contacts between consultants and teachers were problem-oriented, centering on the teachers' reactions to classroom processes and how the teachers might try to improve group interaction in their classrooms. The consultants attempted to explore how teachers might relate to students with interpersonal problems, low self-esteem, and disinterest in learning. Results indicated that cognitive and attitudinal changes did occur in the teachers, but that these were not also accompanied by behavioral changes that made a difference in their classroom groups. Constructive changes in classroom group processes and students' attitudes did not occur as a result of the consultations. Project 3 involved an organizational development laboratory for a school faculty which was aimed at improving such organizational processes as interpersonal relations and feelings, communication patterns, and group norms of the staff. The laboratory included structured group exercises, small-group discussions relating the exercises to school processes, total staff discussions on their own group processes, and problem-solving techniques applied to total staff problems. A majority of the teachers, quite unexpectedly, tried new group procedures in their classrooms patterned after their laboratory experiences, even though classroom applications were never formally mentioned during the laboratory. It was concluded that an organizational development laboratory encourages a faculty to try out new group processes in the school organization or in the classroom. Problem-oriented and self-reflective discussions with consultants help teachers perceive that they can improve classroom group processes by modifying their own behaviors. But the regular presence of a psychological consultant does not appear, by itself, to change teachers' actual behaviors in the classroom. A teacher development laboratory which includes problem-solving techniques, sensitivity training, and role-play tryouts increases the likelihood that changes in teachers' cognitions and attitudes will be accompanied by behavioral changes in the classroom. These three interventions can fit well into integrated action programs that might be used by school systems for improving classroom group processes.