Supporting the Child's Development by Developing the Group Dynamics Experiences from the Supervision of Educators.

This report, the third annual study of primary program implementation, outlines case study observations of learning groups and of teachers relations to groups. The learning atmosphere of a learning group is determined by presence of conducive or disruptive elements, input of children, and relation of the group to the teacher, in addition to good pedagogical practice. In order to advance children's development, good working relations with individual children and with the whole learning group are needed. Group work generally only takes into account the way children in a learning group are composed into the group, without considering the group as a social system. A supportive relationship is important to improved group learning and to instructor's relationship with groups. After an initial discussion of learning groups, experiences of individual teachers are described. Supervision groups and group-experience groups are mentioned, including how supervision, self-experience, and theory can become three interlinked elements of child development. (BGC)