Explain How Social Organisation and Relationships

3.3.2 Explain how social organisation and relationships may affect the learning process

Social organisations and relationships within the class room are again another great learning tool. If you group pupils together and work with them on tasks within the curriculum, they will start to develop a strong learning relationship. You could see that the group dynamics will often change on particular tasks, where a more confident pupil on this task will take lead over a more confident pupil on another task. If the pupils see the adults within the class react well and interact with the pupils, they will get more response from them.
The Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who maintained that these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for the team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to deliver results. Bruce W Tuckman is a respected educational psychologist who first described the (then) four stages of group development in 1965, soon after leaving Princeton.  Looking at the behaviour of small groups in a variety of environments, he recognised the distinct phases they go through, and suggested they need to experience all four stages before they achieve maximum effectiveness.  He refined and developed the model in 1977 with the addition of a fifth stage, adjourning. (Tuckman 2001)
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Chimaera Consulting Limited . (2001). Group Models. Stages of Group Development. Available: www.chimaeraconsulting.com/tuckman.htm . Last accessed 17/11/11.