TUCKMAN - STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT Tuckman (1965) in describing the stages of group development identified four distinct stages of group development. He suggested that groups needed to move through and experience all four stages in order to maximise the potential for a successful group experience. In 1977 Tuckman and Jensen added a fifth stage.

• Forming – where students form themselves into groups • Storming – where students debate and decide group issues such as leadership,

direction, method etc. • Norming – where students establish the ground rules for operating as a group • Performing – where groups become cohesive and effective • Adjourning – where the group work ends and students reflect upon the process

The crucial stage for students is in the forming stage. Robbins et al. (2000) split the forming stage into two linked, but distinct stages. They identified the first of these as Pre-stage 1 and the second as Stage 1 Forming (see Figure X). Pre-stage 1 is the period prior to people joining groups and forming formal groups. It is in this Pre-stage that the team building exercises and discussions play an important part in developing effective groups.

Figure X: Stages in group development

STAGE I FORMING

Student/group dynamics What you can do • At the first meeting group members are

polite • Generally little planning • Minimal leadership or agreed leader or

group roles • Vague goals may have been set • Members are cautious and guarded • Decision making is minimal • Conflicts tend to be avoided as people

find their feet

• Have students formalise their group roles and rules

• Have students introduce themselves to each other and discuss the strengths and preferences that they can bring to the group

• Have the students decide on what form of leadership the group should have

• You may ask for the group to nominate a group coordinator/leader

• Discuss the need to keep minutes, personal and/or group journals and appoint tasks

• Assist students to determine realistic and achievable goals and sub goals

STAGE II STORMING • Is sometimes the immature stage of the

groups development • Members may still be a little unsure

about what actions the group should take, when, why and how

• Members may at times be confused especially if leadership issues arise or the group is focussing too heavily on group issues rather than the task

• Students are beginning to understand each other

• Growing comfort with each others styles, attitudes and expertise

• The group may not always act like a group but they are beginning to find their own way

• There can be some conflict in this stage

• Encourage the group to work through and deal with differences of opinion or ideas and arrive at their own solutions to their own problems. Be creative!

• Flag potential organisational, management and conflict issues

• Support the group leader or coordinator in their role (give some guidelines)

• Facilitate a group meeting where individuals have chance to articulate their ideas and concerns (helps to identify differences of opinion)

• Remind the group of ‘brainstorming’ and effective group work principles

• Ask students to keep a group work journal in which they record their own insights or experiences of the process

STAGE III NORMING • Ask how rather than why – as a result

they may tend to focus on the current process rather than challenging the way things are done

• Group members reconcile competing loyalties and responsibilities

• Ground rules are established; work is done on roles in the group and individuality of group members

• Competitive relationships begin to become more cooperative

• Monitor, motivate and support the groups through the total process

• Make comparisons to successful teams (eg sporting teams who can manage their performance peaks and troughs)

• Reinforce the need for short term goals that are linked to their longer term goal, and as for all SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attractive or Attainable, Realistic and Time framed) goals they must be achievable and set to a time line

• A growing sense of group cohesion, competence and common spirit/goals

• Increased productivity and sharing of opinions, ideas and skills

• The group is able to constructively self evaluate and reflect

• Begin to work through their problems

STAGE IV PERFORMING • Group members have discovered and

accepted each other’s strengths and weaknesses

• Increased insight and a better understanding of each other

• Satisfaction with groups progress • Roles are understood • Good group spirit and confidence • Increased ability to prevent and work

through problems as they arise • Primary focus is on the task and high

level performance • Interpersonal and group issues are dealt

with by open communication, collegial support and trust

• There is group synergy (people are working in harmony - polling their strengths to maximise group output)

• Encourage reporting back to you on how they are managing goals and tasks

• Support total group involvement by engaging with individual group members rather than a single group spokesperson during feedback sessions

• Be aware that groups may slide back

into a storming phase. Remind students that it not a linear process and they may cycle through the above three more than once. If this is the case ask the group to again self-manage the storming process a work back through their issues

STAGE V ADJOURNING The success of the use group work will depend on whether students have understood the benefits of having worked collaboratively in a group. Therefore the process for adjourning groups is very important. This can be achieved through quality debriefing by the teacher to all groups in class or via a facilitated group feedback session to the entire class. In this case each group is required to report back to the class a summary of their group work processes and project. This could also be supported by written reports. In both cases students can be asked to individually briefly outline what benefits or insights they gained from group work (orally or on paper). This could be captured through the use of a learning journal. Techniques, ideas and options for facilitating reflection and evaluation of group work are addressed in detail in ‘Section Five: Reflection and Evaluation’ of this Guide)