Sensitivity Training and the School Teacher: An Experiment in Favorable Publicity

Abstract

The use of T-groups (under which category may be included sensitivity training, encounter, human relations labs, etc.) has gained in popularity with professional educators and psychologists, but is still far from accepted by the school community. More and more teachers, administrators, and parents are reacting to the use of sensitivity groups in the schools, fearing disruption of school routine and disorder in the classroom as a few of the imagined results. This project introduced sensitivity training to a of twenty-four skeptical teachers. The method em ployed was a combination of many activities found in groups, but with a special emphasis upon talking about each exercise after its completion. Rather than forcing participants to rely upon the skills of the facilitator to develop a successful experience, members were allowed a great deal of freedom to behave naturally in the groups. Comparison of before and after attitudes regarding the type of relationships expected and perceived showed significant changes in a positive direction. The Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory was used to assess changes in attitude. It was concluded that careful planning, and attention to participants' reaction (i.e., . . how do you think the is going for you so far?), can produce a positive experience. SENSITIVITY training (viewed here as one variant of T-group) has been with us in its many forms (basic encounter, human relations, mara thon) since the early 1950,s. No other psychologically oriented practice has created such widespread furor of public and professional reac tion as this movement, which brings a small of persons together to increase personal awareness,, develop more efficient communication skills, learn how small groups operate, or simply to enjoy the uninhibited intimacy of nude whirl pool bathing. Time, Life, and Newsweek have explicated (and exploited) the popular notoriety of the encounter movement, and Schr?g (16), among others has brought attention to the social science centers in sophisticated publications like Harpers. To quote Back (3) : . . sensitivity training has become something to be talked about, something which certain types of people engage in, an integral part of popular culture. There is little doubt, moreover, that the group move ment or whatever it will be called, is here to stay for awhile. In and of itself, this movement is not an unworthy phenomenon of (or perhaps reac tion to) our times, an age torn by interracial problems, privation and poverty, war, dissent, and an increasing distance between a nation of strivers on the move. When, in 1949, a small of people in Bethel, Maine, discovered al most by accident an approach which was to grow into National Training Laboratory (NTL), small interaction was primarily a research inter