Additional information
| Dimensions | 8.5 × 11 in |
|---|---|
| Cover | Paperback |
| Dimensions (W) | 8 1/2" |
| Dimensions (H) | 11" |
| Page Count | 82 |
| Publisher | Edge Enterprises, Inc. |
| Year Printed | 1993 |
| Requirements |
Teamwork Strategy: Instructor’s Manual
D. Sue VernonDonald D. Deshler
Jean B. Schumaker
Group assignments are notorious breeding grounds for bad feelings: someone always feels like he’s doing more than his fair share, and someone else is not doing enough. Research has shown that group assignments can also stimulate negative interactions among students.
To prevent such problems, students can be taught the Teamwork Strategy, a simple yet effective way to organize and complete group assignments. Before beginning an assignment, students who have learned the strategy talk about the assignment and break it into smaller tasks. They then decide who will be responsible for each task and the date by which it needs to be completed. Once all group members have completed their assigned tasks, team members provide each other with feedback about the work that has been done, and, if necessary, make suggestions for improvements. Based upon these suggestions, changes are made, and the final project is completed. Along the way, as they use each step of the strategy, students also use the SCORE Skills, the foundational skills that are at the heart of any group activity.
This manual contains step-by-step instructions on how to teach the Teamwork Strategy. The first lesson provides instructions on how to review the SCORE Skills with students. Each subsequent lesson focuses on one or two steps of the strategy. For each step, students learn about the step, watch a demonstration of the step, and practice using the step. Cue cards, role-play activities, and worksheets are included at the end of the manual to be reproduced and distributed, so students can practice and master the strategy.
$15.00
Description
Research on the SCORE Skills and Teamwork Strategy Program
Overview
The Teamwork Strategy is used by cooperative groups to complete a group project. The SCORE Skills are basic social skills used during each cooperative-group activity. The research was conducted in a total of six classrooms, two each at the fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade levels. Members of these three pairs of intact classes were randomly assigned to the experimental or control condition. A total of 115 students received parental consent to participate, with 57 students enrolled in the experimental classes and 58 students in the control classes. The three teachers of the experimental classes taught their students the SCORE Skills and the Teamwork Strategy. The three control teachers did not teach the SCORE Skills or the THINK Strategy to their students. The performance of two groups of students was monitored: target students and all other students. Target students were students with exceptionalities who were receiving educational services for their disability and/or skill deficits.
Results
Observational data were gathered on the fidelity of the experimental teachers’ implementation of the instruction. They presented a mean of 95% of the information on the SCORE Skills and the Teamwork Strategy, according to a checklist based on the two instructor’s manuals.
All students in experimental and control classes completed a written test of their knowledge about social skills and teamwork skills at pretest and posttest. The ANCOVAs revealed significant differences between the posttest scores of experimental and control students for students with exceptionalities, F (1, 15) = 13.84, p < .002, η2 = .48, and for students without exceptionalities, F (1, 84) = 129.83, p < .001, η2 = .61. (These are very large effect sizes.) For students with and without exceptionalities, the adjusted mean for the experimental group was significantly larger than the adjusted mean for the control group. (See Figure 1 for mean scores.)
Data were also gathered on the students’ performance as they completed projects together in small groups during the pretest and posttest. Since students with and without exceptionalities worked together in these groups, the analysis was conducted on the combined group means. Observers determined the percentage of social skills and strategy steps the students used. The ANCOVA on the in-class project revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control group posttest scores, F (1, 16) = 53.24, p < .001, η2 = .77, a very large effect size. The ANCOVA on the out-of-class project (a generalization task) also revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control group posttest scores, F (1, 16) = 38.26, p < .001, η2 = .70, also a very large effect size. The adjusted posttest mean for the experimental group was significantly larger than the adjusted posttest mean for the control group in each case. (See Figure 2 for mean scores.)
Experimental teachers and students used a 7-point Likert-type scale to rate items regarding their satisfaction with the program (“7” indicating extremely satisfied; “1” indicating extremely dissatisfied) at the end of the year. Teachers endorsed the program, and their ratings indicated satisfaction with each aspect of the program. For example, teachers’ average satisfaction rating for “relevance of the program to your students” was 6.3, “students benefited from the instruction” was 6.0, “students got along better after the instruction” was 6.3, and “the steps of the Teamwork Strategy were relevant for the students” was 6.0. Students also indicated that they were satisfied with the program, with mean scores on most items ranging from 5.0 to 6.0. One hundred percent of the fourth and fifth graders recommended that all fourth- or fifth-grade students receive this instruction.
Conclusions
The SCORE Skills and Teamwork Strategy instructional programs can be successfully used to increase student knowledge about social skills and completing group tasks and to teach students how to complete group projects successfully in small cooperative groups. This is an important skill for students who will be faced with completing group tasks in work teams the rest of their lives. Both teachers and students were satisfied with various aspects of the program.
Reference
Vernon, D. S. (1998). Effects of instruction in The SCORE Skills and the Teamwork Strategy: Progress report. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Mental Health, SBIR Phase II #R44 MH47211.
About the Author
D. Sue Vernon, Ph.D.
Affliations
- Research Affiliate and Certified SIM Professional Development Specialist
- University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning
- Lawrence, KS
- Lecturer
- Department of Special Education
- University of Kansas
- Lawrence, KS
- Retired Director of Research & Development
- Edge Enterprises, Inc.
- Lawrence, KS
My Background and Interests
By wearing my different hats (a university instructor, a certified teaching-parent, a trainer and evaluator of child-care workers, a SIM professional development specialist, a parent of three children (one with exceptionalities), and a researcher), I have gained knowledge and experience from a number of perspectives. I have a history of working with at-risk youth with and without exceptionalities (e.g., students with learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, behavioral disorders) in community-based residential group-home treatment programs and in schools. I also have extensive experience with training, evaluating, and monitoring staff who work with these populations, and I have conducted research with and adapted curricula for high-poverty populations. In addition to the Teamwork Strategy program and other Cooperative Thinking Strategies programs, I’ve developed and field-tested interactive multimedia social skills curricula, community-building curricula, communication skills instruction, and professional development programs. I have also developed and validated social skills measurement instruments. As a lecturer of graduate-level university courses in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas, I have taught courses designed to enable teachers to access and become proficient in using validated research-based practices.
The Story Behind the Teamwork Strategy
My focus for the last 30 years has been on helping youths learn, and especially on helping them learn how to use social skills. My interest in social skills instruction began when I was a teaching-parent in a group home for adolescents who had a history of social problems. Clearly, those youths had not learned the social skills they needed to be successful in today’s world. Nevertheless, experience showed they could learn to use social skills well, given the right type of instruction. Later, I was the co-founder and Director of Training and Evaluation of the Teaching-Family Homes of Upper Michigan, originally developed through funding from the Michigan State Department of Mental Health and Father Flanagan’s Boys Home. This new agency eventually provided services to over 1,000 youths per day in schools, residential group homes, regional treatment centers, treatment foster homes, schools, and in counseling centers. My primary responsibility in this position was teaching adults (e.g., parents, teachers, foster parents, counselors) to teach social skills to children, and everyday I witnessed these adults successfully teaching the various skills to the youths in their care. Unfortunately, the population receiving instruction was often children who were already involved in the juvenile justice “system.” They were in trouble and had been removed from their homes. As I watched their growing success, I wanted to find a way to introduce social skills instruction as a way to preventsocial problems – I wanted to teach children alternative ways of behaving that would help them not only to stay out of trouble but also to create and maintain relationships. I thought the perfect place to prevent problems would be in the general education classroom beginning in elementary school.
As a result, a whole line of research on social skills instruction was born. During early research efforts, I began observing and recording social interactions as students worked in cooperative groups on different types of tasks (and I was appalled at how the students treated one another – especially how other students treated students with exceptionalities). I surveyed teachers and found that they actively supported social skills instruction and were looking for ways to enhance productivity in cooperative groups. They had specific types of tasks in mind that they wanted their students to complete. For example, they wanted their students to successfully work together to complete a major project that included a product (e.g., poster, report, speech). Thus, my colleagues and I developed and tested the Teamwork Strategy program in general education classrooms. Our goal for the Cooperative Thinking Strategy Series was to develop programs that could be used in general education classes that would benefit students both with and without exceptionalities. We wanted students to learn ways to cooperate with each other that they could use in their future lives, such as in post-secondary schools, work, and community situations.
My Thoughts about Teamwork Strategy Instruction
During the pretests for this program, I observed student teams trying to complete short “project” assignments as a team. Rarely did a team complete the assignment. Instead they argued over what to do and how to do it, and they cried, yelled, tattled, complained, ignored some students, putdown others, and called each other names. It was a painful process to watch. Many individuals have indicated that while working on an adult team doesn’t necessarily result in the same angst that students experience, their experience is nevertheless unpleasant. I have no doubt that all ages could benefit from the type of structure the Teamwork Strategyprovides. During the posttests after learning the Teamwork Strategy, the same unruly groups of students peacefully completed their team assignments, everyone participated, and not a single tear was shed!
A professional development specialist told me that one of her favorite stories came from a special education teacher who taught her students the Teamwork Strategy. The seventh graders were learning several learning strategies and decided that they wanted to practice using the Teamwork Strategy to create and produce a videotape describing the strategies they were using to become independent and successful learners. They showed the videotape to a very impressed group of parents and other adults during open house. Their production received rave reviews!
Teacher and Student Feedback on the Teamwork Strategy
The results of the field-test study indicate that children with different kinds of exceptionalities and other students enrolled in general education classes could learn and generatively use the Teamwork Strategy to help them organize and efficiently complete their “project” assignments in small work groups. Additionally, both teachers and students had many positive comments about the program. For example, teachers commented that the skills taught in the program are “very valuable” and “needed by many children.” They said, “The best part of the program was that it concentrated on skills needed by many children” and commented that the teamwork skills provide students with “a sense of direction and control in interdependent situations,” noting that an “ability to be productive group members will become increasingly important in our society.”
Students comments included, “I am extremely satisfied (with the Teamwork Strategy) because it helps me get organized and work in cooperative groups,” “The Teamwork Strategy helped me understand the directions more and get done faster,” “I wasn’t a good team member at first, but then after learning the skills I became a better team member,” “Now I don’t yell or say something mean when I correct someone,” “Others kids who couldn’t work together before can now work together,” “I liked people not making fun of me,” “I used to be afraid to lead, but now I like it,” “I like using it (TEAMS). It’s fun,” “It (TEAMS) works,” “You get to know people better so it’s easier to be the (team) leader,” “It changed me. I feel really proud of myself because now I know the Teamwork Strategy,” and “It helped me learn more things. Plus it let me get to know those people more.” When asked if the students would recommend the program for other 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade students, 100% of the 4th and 5th graders and 73% of the 6th graders replied that they would recommend it.
My Contact Information
Please contact me at svernon2@windstream.net
