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Role of effective groupwork

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Role of effective groupwork
Marilyn Tew

From a class of individuals to a functioning group

A history of research in education has taught us much about how teachers can facilitate the forming and effective functioning of a classroom group. They do so by paying attention to the life of the class as a group as well as the learning of individual students. They are adept at enabling a group to function effectively by investing the time and energy needed to sustain the group and by paying attention to the processes, principles and skills of group dynamics. Have you thought about how you could create effective groups to facilitate: increased learning; a reduction in behavioural problems; personal and social development for all the members of the group?

The idea that we can put thirty or so young people in the same room and expect them to be able to work as a group, or even as a number of smaller groups is questionable from both a theoretical and an experiential point of view. We can probably all recall times when we have put students into groups of 4 or 5 and though they sat at the same cluster of tables and took part in the same task, little or no interaction took place between the group members. It is more likely that the more vocal students took over. They organised the others with varying degrees of success and then everyone worked independently on their bit of the task before bringing it together at the end. Or, perhaps more distressingly, those who felt alienated from the group either kept their work entirely separate from the others or disrupted the work other people were trying to do. Some students may have become overtly angry and / or made it impossible for the group to complete the task.

Experiences like these illustrate the fact that effective groups do not just happen. To expect a disparate and assorted set of individuals to work together productively in the pursuit of a common goal is unrealistic. Effective, functioning groups develop when teachers work in a way that enables their students to acquire the knowledge and skills of participation.

It is true that the group process begins when a mix of people is put in a room together, but only as the teacher intervenes to promote group development do the collection of individuals begin to cohere into a productive working unit. As with any developmental process, group formation is neither linear nor straightforward however. Sometimes there are periods of tiny, barely perceptible improvements and then there may be a ‘growth spurt’ and a great leap forward accompanied by the almost tangible benefits of greater cohesion and more supportive relationships.

Schools and groups
The language of teaching, learning and schooling is littered with reference to groups. Structurally, schools are organised by groups. So we talk about: tutor groups, form groups, year groups, teaching groups, small groups, large groups, to name but a few.

This group-based vocabulary permeates the pedagogy of the school with notions of streaming into ability to groups, mixed ability groups, special needs groups and withdrawal groups. Teachers talk about the ‘chemistry’ of a group, of difficult groups, challenging groups, dream groups, brilliant groups, groups that gel, groups that just can’t get on, and so on.

The latest findings in learning theory indicate that learning is a social activity. It requires supportive learning relationships and a healthy level of challenge. It involves making personal meaning from information that is being presented by linking it to previous learning or experience, often in conversation with others. Learning has an emotional as well as a cognitive component and different learners approach their learning in different ways according to preferred learning styles.

Groupwork is a major key to engaging learners in their learning. An effective, fully functioning group of whatever size pays attention to the learning style, communication style, ideas and experiences of all its members. It is structured in such a way that making meaning is facilitated by the very act of taking part in group activities and tasks. Arguably, every student in every school should therefore learn how to be part of an effective group. They should practise the skills of participation and have opportunities to experience the sense of connectedness and belonging that come from a well facilitated group process.

So the question arises as to how we can use the school’s most basic structure to advantage. How can we make best use of the principles that underpin the way groups form and develop to enhance teaching and learning and to increase motivation and engagement, thereby reducing disaffection and inappropriate behaviour?

Creating an effective group
The theory of groupwork has identified a set of stages through which groups move as they develop. The stages of group development are:

These stages, which we will examine in more detail later in the article, can last for short or long periods of time depending on the qualities, dispositions and characteristics of group members, the needs of the group and the skill of the facilitator. It is interesting to note, however, that every time the group meets it passes through a condensed version of the stages of group development. The cumulative effect of positive group experiences through time enables students to develop new skills and attitudes and become equipped to tackle more complex tasks together.

This twin levelled view of group development provides a way of looking at what teachers can do in the short-term (i.e. during a single lesson) to generate more effective group functioning and then what they can do over the longer term of the life of the group.

Whatever the time frame however, there are certain core tasks that contribute to the creation of a cohesive, functioning unit. Teachers who facilitate effective group formation constantly keep in mind that, in order for this set of individuals to become a cohesive group they need to:

What to do in the short-term
Whenever we join a group either for the first time, or after a period of separation, we experience some level of anxiety and fear. The result is that individuals arrive in a group situation with a host of anxieties:

These anxieties are a natural response to the uncertainty we experience about getting some of our fundamental human needs met and in particular those of: connection & relationship; autonomy & individuation.

These two basic needs are inextricably connected and we cannot satisfy one of them unless we can also satisfy the other. Our capacity to individuate and so speak, think and act independently grows out of and is dependent on the opportunities available to us for connection; similarly, and conversely, the development of individual autonomy strengths the ability to form relationships. The tension that exists between these two needs fuels the more unhelpful interactions that occur in classroom groups. Those students who have a poor sense of themselves, perhaps as a result of inadequate attachment in their early years, find it very difficult to act as individual people. They are dependent on other people for what they think and seem to only act on the instruction of others. The double bind is that a poor sense of ‘self’ is the result of inadequate connection to others, yet without a better sense of themselves as individuals, they cannot connect to others. These are the students who find it difficult to be autonomous and equally difficult to connect to other group members. They are very difficult to handle in a group situation and often disrupt the group by breaking the rules, taking the power and making it unsafe for other people to speak freely.

Much of this behaviour is the result of internal anxiety. High anxiety results in people trying to cope through becoming withdrawn and passive or by adopting aggressive and defensive patterns of behaviour. The coping mechanisms result in silent members of the group who won’t speak or over-loud members who shout out and take control of the group in order to manage their anxiety. The task at the beginning of a group session is to allay anxiety, to affirm autonomy and underline connection. Usually this is achieved through some kind of game. When a group is beginning to form, varieties of name games are useful for providing some laughter, which helps to allay fear, and by creating a sense of group while affording each individual their unique place. As the group develops through time and group members become familiar with names and faces, introductory games can include ways of finding things in common such as ‘Find a new seat if you have a pet’ or a paired discussion to find five things you have in common with your partner. A wealth of ideas for games and warm up activities can be found in books on circle time or in publications produced by the Society of Friends. Some useful resources are given at the end of this article.

Sometimes the most challenging individuals do not cope well with a large group setting and need a much smaller one-to-one context to explore their sense of self before joining in a small group context and eventually developing the skills to become part of a larger group.

Key principles of group development
Whatever the group size, general principles of group development apply. The key is to find the quickest possible route to enable individuals to function cooperatively. The first task is getting to know the other people in the group and generating enough safety for individuals to take the risks intrinsic to learning. So often students are placed in classes with people they barely know and are asked to perform learning tasks that by definition are challenging.

Becoming an effective group is based on members:

Working with a large group
With pairs and small groups, individuals can sit round tables to work on a group task but attention needs to be given to the ways in which groupwork skills are formed and developed alongside a focus on getting the task completed. Stanford and Stoate suggest activities that involve becoming familiar with helpful and unhelpful group behaviours and roles and then using an observer during a group activity. The observer’s role is to make a careful record of how the group functioned during the task: such as who came up with the ideas, who provided practical suggestions, who kept an eye on the time, who made sure everyone was included and so on. At the end of the group task, time is provided for reflection on how well the group functioned before reviewing the successful completion of the task.

When working with a whole class, it is worth exploring the tradition of using circles to facilitate group interaction. The circle has a long history from the North American Indian’s pow-wow to the Brownie Circle. For the last fifteen or so year, schools have increasingly allocated curriculum time for a practice called circle time. In primary schools, this has been a special time set aside each week for discussing issues that are of importance to the class. Schools have used circle time a number of different ways: for developing pupils’ emotional literacy; for discussing personal and social issues; for resolving in-class conflicts; for creating cohesion and a sense of belonging in the class group; for discussing school issues; for decision making and so on.

Using a circle for whole class discussion
The circle has many advantages for whole class discussion connected to its geometrical configuration. In a circle everyone can:

Effective circle time is more than sitting the class in a circle to talk however. It draws on the skills, practices, approaches, principles and theory of group dynamics. It is a group process that pays attention to the ways in which the group forms, functions, copes with conflict, performs a task and closes.

Just as a group develops through five stages over a period of time, so a circle time session is planned to attend to the same five stages on a micro scale.

Consequently each time the group meets there is a:
·    beginning phase when the group reconvenes and each member finds their place again
·    middle phase when the group performs a task and/or considers an issue by using the ways of working together that they discuss and agree and continue to refine and develop, including ways of dealing with any conflicts that may arise
·    closing phase when the group terminates this session and releases individual members to go on to their next activity

Beginning phase
At the beginning of any group session, it is important to allocate time to allaying the anxieties of the group and to finding some connection between group members. In schools a game is often the quickest way to bring the group together. Students of all ages report enjoying games, particularly if the teacher is also visibly enjoying it and if there is some choice and control over how the game is played. Games work best when they are fun and also related to a subject, attitude, disposition or behaviour that is of relevance and/or importance to the group. For instance, trust games can introduce a discussion of safety and unsafety; of risk and certainty or cooperative games can be used to introduce a session when the subject under discussion is working together or when the task requires cooperative working. Trust games include physical trust such as guided walks where one person guides their blindfolded partner through an obstacle course and emotional trust such as disclosing a piece of personal information and trusting your partner (or the group) to respect your confidence. Cooperative games are many and varied, including Points of Contact, which involves student in groups of four or five and a caller. The caller calls a number and the groups have to find a way of making that number of points of contact with the group between them. In a group of five students, considerable trust is also required to make one or two points of contact with the ground between them as some students have to take their whole body off the ground.

Middle phase
This part of the lesson is when the group task is done (in most cases this relates to some aspect of PSHE or Citizenship, though it could equally easily be a topic that lends itself to groupwork in any subject). A group cannot function well in performing a task however, until it has established productive ways of working. At this stage, any residual anxiety will result in either passive or aggressive patterns of behaviour. These ways of behaving serve the purpose of helping the individual deal with their anxieties, but also cut them off from the possibility of connecting to others in ways that would more productively reduce anxiety. Once vicious cycles of aggression or withdrawal are in place, they become difficult to break and the individual finds it increasingly hard to escape.

The art is to recognise withdrawn or aggressive behaviour as symptoms of a deeper need rather than a personalised threat to discipline or classroom management. Once we recognise these behaviours as distancing techniques that serve a safety function for the individual, it is easier to rise to the challenge of providing a relationship, group structures and activities that create an atmosphere of trust and connection which in turn produce enjoyment. For instance, if the group behaviour indicates that several people do not feel safe in the larger group, discussion can be broken down into pairs or smaller groups so that personal views are considered in the safety of a small context before anything is said into the larger and more frightening arena of the whole class.

It is common practice in circle time to have a ‘round’, which involves passing an object around the circle so that students are given an opportunity to speak and voice their opinion. Many young people will only give an opinion that they think is acceptable in the group (either to the teacher or to their peers). Teachers who run circle session say that students will choose to pass and say nothing rather than voice an view that might be ridiculed in the group. Alternatively, they will play safe and make something up rather than give their honest view. Only when groundrules are agreed and enforced in a meaningful way will ridicule, unkind laughter and put downs be eliminated. Once the group is perceived as a safe place, honest opinions and perceptions will be given and the round becomes a meaningful exchange of views and opinions, connected to real feelings. Once this happens, values and attitudes begin to be voiced, explored, challenged and changed.


Once a group has found connection, is functioning with reduced levels of anxiety and has established agreed ways of working, anything is possible. Group members will take part in activities such as:

Closing phase
The end of each session involves breaking the close bonds that develop during an effective group session. Inevitably this results in a loss of emotional energy and in increased levels of anxiety. It is good to remember that anxiety is allayed if there is the certain knowledge of a similarly good time together next week. The art here is to provide activities and routines that reduce anxiety and bring a sense of closure. It is often helpful to reflect on previous experiences; to recall things that have gone well and satisfactory outcomes. Sometimes students can practice giving and receiving affirming feedback to one another. It can also help to close the lesson with a game or activity that reunites the group and relieves any tension by providing an opportunity to laugh. Once again, many games are cited in books on circle time and some favourite closing activities include Wink Murder, detective games including Psychiatrist and We Can Count. Readers are probably familiar with Wink Murder. Psychiatrist is played by choosing one person to be the Psychiatrist. He or she leaves the room. Whiles/ he is out of earshot, the group decides on a rule for their communication such as ‘girls lie and boys tell the truth’. The Psychiatrist is invited back into the group to ask questions of individuals. Skilful questioning produces his or her ‘diagnosis’ of the condition. We Can Count is one of a number of games that require group anticipation. The object of the game is to count to 30 or 31 (depending on how many are in the group) by group members standing up one at a time while calling out consecutive numbers. If two people stand up at the same time, everyone sits down and the game begins again. If the entire group manages to stand up in sequence, then the game is played faster so that group anticipation is harder.

The role of the teacher
In a classroom group, the teacher is the facilitator of the group’s interaction. The teacher is the main focus of attention and he or she sets the tone and provides the role model that the rest of the group emulate. When students from year 7 to year 11 were interviewed about whole class groupwork in their PSHE (personal, social and health education) lessons, they said that the class works best as a group when the teacher:

• is ‘OK with herself’. The students seem to be acutely attuned to whether the teacher was genuine or putting on an act; whether s/he is comfortable with the subject matter; and whether or not the teacher is pleased to be part of the lesson.

• genuinely likes the students, is happy to be with them and wants to hear their point of view. Students seem to have sensitive personal antennae that detect any lack of congruence in the teacher. Interestingly, teachers who are perceived to be genuine and good to be with can be any age, either gender and have had a range of teaching experience from newly qualified to approaching retirement. The issue is connected to the teacher’s professional values rather than their range or breadth of teaching experience.

• provides activities and opportunities that enable the group to get to know one another and feel safe so that they trust each other, rather then focusing only on the content of the lesson.

• takes part in the activities, especially warm up games or ‘getting to know you’ exercises with enthusiasm and interest.

• is fair and will stick to the rules that the group has agreed. The students look to the teacher to ensure that the agreed group rules are constantly applied and become an innate way of working for the group.

• doesn’t dominate the group or talk too much but is willing to let some of the control go to the group so that they become better at sorting out their own problems and issues. They are not authoritarian teachers but, as the students put it, ‘more like us’. They are evidently in charge and able to organise and control the group, but they form a relationship with the class that is easy and free flow.
  

• is able to be flexible with the content of the lesson so that they can allow the group to work through issues that might be stopping them from getting on together. Opportunities to talk about conflicts in the group have a very beneficial effect in the longer term even if they are difficult and painful in the short term. In other words, they support the development of student-student relationships in the group

• develops supportive relationships with the students that communicate a sense of approachability. The students do not want the teachers to be other than an adult, they want clear professional boundaries, which engender a sense of safety and allow trust to develop.
  

Alongside the students’ views, the findings of research demonstrate that it takes more than a term for a set of students to become a productive group unless the teacher takes an active lead in providing group development interventions. When the teacher facilitates the forming and development of the group, the whole process is much faster. Similarly if the teacher intervenes to control or quell every sign of conflict, the group does not have the opportunity to develop the skills to deal with disagreements and differences for themselves. (Stiltner,1973)

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The longer-term view of group development
As I said at the beginning of this article, group development can be viewed in the short-term as the way in which we bring a set of students together for a lesson to acquire some knowledge, develop some understanding, build some skills and/or examine some attitudes or values. Of immediate interest is how to engender some cohesion, cooperation and good communication between the individuals in this class so that they can productively learn together. In response to this immediate need we have looked at the principles of group formation and functioning. There is a need to also look at group development in the longer term however. Groups tend to have a life that develops over time and if teachers are aware of the stages that groups pass through during their life together, it is easier to manage the different phases of group development. A longer-term understanding also helps to keep the events of today in perspective and balance while holding to a bigger vision of how the group might be in the future when it has performed the tasks that are necessary to productive and effective group functioning. So let’s examine the characteristics of each stage that a group passes through as it develops over time.

Stage One: Forming – Getting to know the group (including the teacher)
New groups of students often come through the door asking questions, mostly directed at finding out what the new situation will be like. ‘What topics are we going to cover?’ ‘Where do we sit?’ ‘Can I sit next to Sally?’ ‘Are you strict?’ ‘What happens if I don’t do my homework?’ and so on.
For every question that finds a voice, there are many more that remain unvoiced such as ‘How will I get on with these people?’ ‘Will anyone like me?’ ‘Is everyone cleverer than me?’ ‘Will I be able to do the work?’ Will I be accepted or rejected here? What risks will I take in here? How am I like other people here? Different? Will I feel pressured and pushed to perform in some way? How important will I be?
Students are concerned about how they are going to be treated by both the teacher and the other students and how they are going to fit into the classroom group.

The first task in the development of any group focuses on allaying the overt and hidden fears. This involves describing what the students can expect to happen in class and getting to know one another. This is the exact opposite of the kind of practice that used to provide the substance of staffroom witticisms such as: ‘On no account smile before Christmas’; ‘Keep them guessing and make sure they are always off-guard’; or ‘Don’t let them get their feet under the table’.

Stage two: Establishing Norms - agreeing ways of working
This is the period of time when students begin to work out how they will behave in the future. At this stage, students work very hard to agree the ways they will act in the group. The agreed expectations often take the form of groundrules, which are posted on the wall. Students in interviews reported that the teachers who establish the most effective groups ensure that:
·    the agreed ways of working are those that are likely to be most helpful to the group
·    once the rules are established, everyone is responsible for them
·    the groundrules remain alive in the minds and practice of the group throughout its time together, not just at the beginning.

Stage three: Coping with conflict
It is common for interpersonal conflict to arise just at the point when the group begins to communicate more openly and feely. The temptation as a classroom manager is to quell conflict in order to keep the peaceful functioning that has been nicely developing over the past few weeks. Yet, if conflict is suppressed, it will block effective group functioning and produce increased levels of anxiety, often resulting in greater withdrawal or aggression. Teachers who find ways to help students to understand their feelings and behaviours and develop constructive ways of resolving conflicts, enable the group to move through this stage and develop much more consistent relationships in the stage of productive functioning.

One student told a story about her teacher’s success with conflict. She said that certain members of the group just didn’t get on. One day, the teacher was flexible enough to set the lesson plan to one side and allow the group time and space to work through the conflict and find a way of resolving it. The group was much better together after the discussion than before it.

Stage four: Productive functioning
At this stage a group identity emerges. The group becomes effective at accomplishing its tasks and in meeting the emotional needs of its members. There is a strong sense of belonging and cohesion.

Stage five: Termination
In schools, the life of a group is finite. At the end of the year or the key stage, students will go their separate ways. Where a functioning group has not been formed, the sense of connection may not be very great and the sense of regret may be high. If the class has become a cohesive working group, the strong emotional bonds that have formed make it upsetting and difficult to leave the group. In this stage, the teacher must help the students deal with the problems of separating so they can leave this group behind and move on to new experiences. Where group closure is managed well, people are left with good memories and a lasting sense of satisfaction.
(Adapted from Stanford & Stoate, 1990)

Management of effective groupwork strategies including circle work
As with all issues of pedagogy, it is not always either easy or straightforward to get staff to try new ways of working. Willingness and reluctance vary from teacher to teacher and subject area to subject area. Some staff learn groupwork skills as part of their initial training such as PE and drama teachers, so they find the idea of abandoning conventional classroom formats less daunting than some of their colleagues. Interviews with staff and students about the management of implementing circle work for PSHE and Citizenship lessons across Key Stages 3 and 4 in a comprehensive school came up with the following points:

• It is important for senior managers to bear in mind just how daunting it is for experienced and successful teachers to adopt an unfamiliar approach, often for what amounts to a tiny fraction of their working week (tutor time, PSHE or Citizenship).

• Staff and students cited quality training opportunities as important to successful PSHE and Citizenship lessons that use groupwork, particularly circles.

• Teaching staff valued watching a skilled practitioner run a circle session. Observation of good practice was a very strong learning preference for the teachers.

• Working alongside a more experienced colleague and co-running groupwork and/or circle sessions.

• Time and structured opportunities for reflection and sharing best practice was seen as a key to success.

• Making sure that the groupwork process is regularly monitored and reviewed with students so that future practice can be adjusted in the light of feedback.
  
  Teacher quote:
  Introducing and embedding whole class groupwork such as circle work is about hearing good experiences, observing good practice and doing it yourself as well. The expectation must be that this is not a miraculous tool that will work ‘just like that’ but it will take time.’
  
  References:
  
  Bliss, T & Tetley, J. (1993) A resource book for Infant, Junior and Secondary Schools, Bristol, Lucky Duck Publishing
  
  Mosley, J. & Tew, M. (1999) Quality Circle Time in the Secondary School: A handbook of good practice, London, Fulton
  
  Stamford, G. and Stoate, P. (1990) Developing Effective Classroom Groups: A practical guide for teachers, Chippenham, Acora Books
  
  Stiltner, B. (1973) The Effects of Interaction Activities and Teacher Role on Group Development in Junior High School Classrooms. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado.
  
  Woodcraft Folk (1989) Games, Games, Games 111, London, Woodcraft Folk
  
  Dr Marilyn Tew is a Visiting Fellow at the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol – Marilyn.Tew@bristol.ac.uk and works as a freelance educational consultant through Marilyn Tew & Partners Ltd

For further information email: info@marilyntew.co.uk