International Conference on Kurt Lewin:
Contribution to Contemporary Psychology.
Casimirus The Great University of Bydgoszcz,
Institute of Psychology
September 10-12, 2004 Mogilno, Poland
•
•
•
•
•
•
Symposium 2
Lawrence Sherman (convener): Kurt Lewin's contribution to the theory
and practice of education in the United States of America: The
importance of cooperative learning.
Participants:
Richard Schmuck, University of Oregon, USA
Patricia Schmuck, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon USA
Lawrence W. Sherman, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio USA
This Presentation will be available on the web from Lawrence
Sherman’s home page at:
http://www.users.muohio.edu/shermalw
Kurt Lewin Memorial: Mogilno, Poland, 2004
BH = f (P * E)
Democratic/Autocratic/Laissez-faire
Leadership
Group Dynamics
Action Research
Frustration/Regression
Level of Aspiration
Sensitivity Training, T-groups
Larry Sherman (left),
Richard (center) and
Pat (right) Schmuck
Mogilno, Poland, September 12, 2004
Kurt Lewin: A Truly Global Man
Kurt Lewin’s Focus on Children
• Initial post at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, in the School of
Home Economics.
• University of Iowa, Professor of Child Psychology, Iowa Child
Welfare Research Station (now the Institute of Child Behavior and
Research
• Comment: Alfred Marrow states: “ Although his academic title was
Professor of Child Psychology and most of the studies in the years that
followed were of children, Lewin’s concern continued to be general
psychological theory and experiment.” (Marrow, 1969, p. 87) We
believe, however, that this heritage became an important influence or
well spring which had considerable influence on American educational
practice.
FOREIGN HULL
VECTORS
VALENCES
PERSON
NEEDS
ABILITIES
B
A
R
R
I
E
R
PSYCHOLOGICAL LIFE SPACE
+
G
O
A
L
R
E
G
I
O
N
Alfred Marrow, Student of Kurt Lewin and author of
The Practical Theorist: The Life and Work of Kurt Lewin,
(1969)
Kurt Lewin Memorial Award,
1964
Morton Deutsch, 1968
Kurt Lewin Memorial Award
“A Theory of Cooperation and Competition,”
Human Relations, 1949, 2, 129-152.
“An Experimental Study of the Effects of
Cooperation and Competition upon Group
Process,” Human Relations, 1949, 2, 153-158.
Major influence on David Johnson’s
contributions to the world of cooperative
learning.
Ron and Peg Lippitt
Ann Arbor, Michigan 1960’s?
With Lewin and White: Social
Climates (democratic,
autocratic and laissez-faire
leadership styles)
Action Research
Some other interesting Lewinian connections and
influences on American educational practice
•
•
Robert Rosenthal and the Experimenter Biasing Effect, otherwise know as
the “Pygmalion Effect”. He reports that this line of study was inspired by his
interest and eventual re-publication of the book, Clever Hans, originally
published by Otto Pfunst and Carl Stumpf. Carl Stumpf was the director of the
Psychological Laboratory at the University of Berlin and is also credited as
Lewin’s “dissertation father” by Alfred Marrow.
This year (2004) marks the 50th anniversary of the United States Supreme
Court’s 1954 Brown vs the Board of Education decision regarding “separate
but equal” schools. Kenneth B. Clark’s major testimony along with Gordon
Allport and Stuart Cook, before that court was very influential. Clark, Allport
and Cook were all past member of Lewin’s Commission on Community
Interrelations (C.C.I.). Details of Clark’s involvement have recently been
highlighted in the APA’s Monitor on Psychology, Volumn 35, No. 8, pp 56-72.
I am presently interested in what some are calling the “Re-segregation” of
American schools.
The International Association for the Study of
Cooperation in Education (I.A.S.C.E)
Our genealogy
Sherman’s first involvement in 1988 with two presentations,
Both dealing with uses of Cooperative Learning
pedagogy in “higher education”:
1.
2.
Sherman (1988)
Sherman & Woy-Hazelton (1988)
Kurt Lewin
M. Deutsch
L. Festinge r
R. Lippit t
J. Kounin
D. Johnson
E. Aron son
R. Schmuck
L. Sherman
Creative
Confli ct
I.A.S.C.E:
R. Schmuck ,
1st President;
R. Slavin,
S. Shar an, and
others, Past
Presidents
Jigsaw
STP
DEC
IASCE members and some of t heir
Cooperative Learning Techn iques :








R. Slavin (STAD, TGT, JIGSAW II, TAI,
CIRC)
S. & Y. SHARAN (GROUP
INVESTIGATION)
D. DAN SEAREAU (SCRIPTED STUD ENT
DYAD S
J. FANTUZZO (RECIPRICAL P EER
TUTO RING)
S. KAGAN (COOP-COOP)
E. COHEN (COMPLEX INSTRUCTION)
L. SHERMAN (DEC)
R. & D. John son (Cooperative Confli ct)
Five Basic Elements of
Cooperative Learning
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•
•
•
•
Positive Interdependence:
Individual Accountability:
Face To Face Interactions:
Heterogeneous Grouping:
Social Skills:
Dick and Pat Schmuck,
1988, IASCE Conference,
Tel Aviv, Israel
Pat was also a student of
Ron Lippitt.
Pat is a Professor at Lewis
& Clark College, Portland
Oregon
Dick is a Professor
Emeritus, University of
Oregon
PAT (left) and RICHARD (center) SCHMUCK
AND SHLOMO SHARAN (right),
IASCE CONFERENCE
1988, TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
Richard Schmuck (right) and Shlomo Sharan (left)
Israel,1988 IASCE Conference
Shlomo is a Professor at the Tel Aviv University and a
Past President of the IASCE
RECENT HISTORY OF THE
I.A.S.C.E
• OUR RECENT HISTORY IS AVAILABLE AT THE FOLLOWING
ADDRESS:
• HTTP://WWW.USERS.MUOHIO.EDU/SHERMALW/iasce's
history.doc
• Additional information on the IASCE is available on the web at:
http://www.iasce.net
• First established in 1979 when it held it’s first conference in Israel.
Richard Schmuck became it’s first President.
• IASCE celebrated it’s 25th Anniversary this year at its most recent
International Conference in Singapore.
Richard Schmuck
Action Research
Mature
G
a
i
n
i
n
g
Reflective Professional Practice
Collaborative
Action
Research
E
x
p
Public
e
Dialogue
r
i
Solitary
e
Dialogue
n
Self
c
Focus on Others
Focus on Results
Focus on Self
e
New in Field
Individual
Increasing Collaboration
STP Concepts
S
Current
Situation
P
T
path – plan – procedure – project - proposal
Desired
Target
Force-Field Analysis
Facilitating Forces
Undesirable
state on this
side
Current Situation
(S)
Restraining Forces
Most desired
state on this
side
Defining Action Research
• Action Research is to study a real school
situation with a view to improve the quality
of actions and results within it.
• Action Research aims to improve
professional judgment, and to give into how
better to achieve desirable educational
goals.
• Action Research is continuous and cyclical.
Traditional Research
A social studies teacher must write a field
study to earn a master’s degree. He is
required to state a research question,
review what the research literature says
about the question, and collect data in
schools other than his own to answer
the question. His research question is:
Do only children and first borns,
compared to later borns, assume more
leadership positions in the student
government? His literature review
reveals a mixed case with a tendency
for first borns (but not only children) to
take on student leadership positions
more often than later borns.
The teacher prepares a questionnaire to
measure birth order and
involvement in student
government. He collects data from
students at ten high schools in a
neighboring county. He writes up
the results along with literature
review, research methods, data
analysis, and conclusion. In the
conclusion he must return to the
literature review- to show how his
study adds to the accumulating
literature on the subject. His paper
is read by his wife and a colleague
and approved by two professors. Is
is stored in a cabinet at the College
of Education.
Action Research
A social studies teacher joins a network of
teachers doing action research. She is
expected to choose a problem in her own
classroom or school. She focuses on her
school because as a faculty advisor she
sees a problem with the student council.
She notes that over the last three years
fewer students have been volunteering to
serve on the council and that more
students who do volunteer have been
dropping out after only a couple of
meetings. She decides to study all
students’ perceptions and attitudes about
student council with a questionnaire. She
gets help with the questionnaire from
teachers in the network. She collects and
analyzes data; distributes the results to
students,
faculty, and the administration; and works
with an action-research team of council
and faculty members to improve
council functioning. She announces
new practices at a faculty meeting and a
student assembly and works with the
team to implement them. Later, team
members interview new council
members to see how the new practices
are going. At the end of the school year,
council members interview a sample of
students and faculty members about the
council’s work. After the teacher reports
on the project at a network meeting, a
counselor from another school asks her
to help him do a similar project.
Differences Between Action and Traditional Researchers
Improvement versus
Explanation
Development
versus Knowledge
Perspectives
versus
Experimentation
Local versus
Universal
Action researchers seek a
shared understanding of how
those who work together
affect one another. They are
concerned with intervention
for continuous improvement.
Action researchers wish
to foster development and
self-renewal of their own
group or organization.
They are concerned with
planned change.
Traditional researchers seek
to explain how social
relations function, why
people influence one another,
and what characterizes an
effective group or
organization. They are
concerned with explanation
and truth.
Traditional researchers
seek to build a body of
knowledge about social
relations that grows over
time. They are concerned
with accumulation of
knowledge.
Action researchers strive to
reach beyond their own,
limited points of view by
collecting data on multiple
perspectives of significant
others, they are concerned
with obtaining trustworthy
information from the right
people.
Action researchers work
by themselves or engage
colleagues in self-study
and problem solving to
increase local effectiveness. They are concerned with building
tentative theories to
guide future steps in the
change and improvement process.
Traditional researchers
strive to move outside their
subjective realities by
collecting data in controlled
experiments or field
studies. They are concerned
with obtaining objective
data from a representative
sample.
Traditional researchers
engage other researchers
worldwide in studies to
build universal theory.
They are concerned with
establishing generalized
principles.
Two
Kinds
of
Research
Traditional
What others are
doing
Seek explanation and
truth
Objective
Strive for knowledge
Removed from
research site
Action
What one is
personally doing
Data
collection
Inquiry
Problem
solving
Seek continuous
change
Reflective
Strive for
development and
planned change
Personally
involved
PROACTIVE ACTION RESEARCH
1. TRYING A NEW PRACTICE (to have a different effect or to
bring about better outcomes)
2. INCORPORATING HOPES AND CONCERNS INTO
PRACTICE
3. COLLECTING DATA TO TRACK STUDENTS’
REACTIONS
4. CHECKIG ON WHAT THE DATA MEAN
5. REFLECTING ON ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO BEHAVE
6. TRYING ANOTHER NEW PRACTICE
Steps to Proactive Research
Steps
1. Try a new practice to
have a different effect on
others or to bring about
better outcomes.
2. Incorporate hopes and
concerns into the new
practice.
Examples
a.
b.
c.
A new way to prepare students to work in groups
A new method to teach some part of the
curriculum
A new procedure to have students assess their
own learning
Hopes:
a. Student will work more diligently together and
not “hitchhike” on the hard work of a few peers.
b. Students will work harder and make fewer
Hopes are what one strives
mistakes.
to accomplish.
c. The new assessment procedures will lead to
portfolio assessments that are meaningful and
engaging to students.
2 (cont’d).
Concerns are
what one predicts
might happen,
creating
cautionary
expectations
about the new
actions.
Concerns:
a. Some students will require one-on-one counseling before
they are ready to work cooperatively with their peers.
b. Some students will be confused with the new method
and show their frustration by resisting parts of the new
method
c. Some students- particularly those who now get high
grades- might not wish to use portfolio assessment.
3. Collect data
a.
regularly to keep
track of the
students reactions
and behavioral
changes.
b.
c.
Once a week, the teacher asks students to fill out
questionnaires about their reactions to group work. The
teacher also asks a committee of five students to observe
the work groups and give feedback to the class about
what it finds.
The teacher asks a colleague to observe the class while
the new method of teaching is being used. The teacher
also asks the colleague to keep a journal about the new
practice.
The teacher sends questionnaires to parents about the
new assessment procedures. The teacher also interviews
a random sample of students about portfolio assessment.
4. Check
a.
what the data
mean.
b.
c.
5. Reflect on
alternative
ways to
behave.
a.
b.
c.
The teacher holds discussions once a week with the class to
analyze the data on group work.
Colleague-to-colleague exchanges occur regularly about the
new teaching method.
A committee of parents meets to review the new assessment
procedures.
How is what is happening during group work related to what
is said about and done with the group work? The teacher
writes a solitary dialogue between her caring self and
challenging (or confrontational) self.
How else might the new practice be carried out? The teacher
writes a solitary dialogue between her past self and future
self about the new practice.
How can the students be motivated and evaluated? The
teacher finishes a sentence stems such as, “As a modern
educator, I prefer to motivate students to work hard by
emphasizing the following ways of evaluating their
academic performance…” The teacher writes a solitary
dialogue between her stern self and permissive self.
6. Try another new a.
practice. (The
sequence has
b.
traveled full circle
back to step 1.
c.
Revisions are
made in the
original practices
to make them
more effective).
In the next group assignment, students start in pairs
before creating large work groups.
The teacher tries a few of her colleague’s suggestions
for revising the new teaching method.
The teacher prepares a one-page explanation of
portfolio assessment for parents.
RESPONSIVE ACTION RESEARCH
1. COLLECTING DATA TO DIAGNOSE THE SITUATION
2. ANALYZING THE DATA FOR THEMES AND ACTION
IDEAS
3. PRESENTING THE DATA AND ANNOUNCING CHANGES
4. TRYING A NEW PRACTICE
5. CHECKING TO SEE HOW OTHERS ARE REACTING
6. COLLECTING DATA TO ASSESS THE SITUATION
Steps to Responsive Action Research
Steps
Examples
1.Collect
data to
diagnose
the
situation.
a.A school-climate committee collects questionnaire data from all staff
members on their perceptions and feeling about the staff’s socialemotional climate.
b.Members of a site council interview a random sample of parents
about their views on the school’s strengths and weaknesses.
c.The administrative cabinet uses observations in several behavior
settings to assess citizens participation in the school’s extracurricular
programs.
2. Analyze
the data
for themes
and ideas
for action.
a.The school-climate committee notes a large communication gap
between the certified faculty and the classified staff.
b.The site council concludes that parents tend to be satisfied with the
school’s math and science offerings but are not please with student’s
writing and speaking skills.
c.The administrative cabinet believes that while a considerable number
of citizens attend boys’ sports events, too few attend girls’ sports
events.
3. Distributes
the data to
others and
announce
changes that
will be tried
a.The school-climate committee announces its findings at a
whole-staff meeting. It tells everyone that it will be running a
four-hour workshop for the entire staff in a few weeks. The
focus of that workshop will be on improving communication
between classroom teachers and other staff members.
b.The site council distributes its data back to the teachers and
announces it will run a series of small-group discussions with
heterogeneous groups of teachers.
c.The administration cabinet presents its data to the staff and
PTA. It announces, in both settings, that it will ask for
volunteers to participate in an advertising campaign to get more
adults to attend girls’ sports events.
4. Try a new
practice to have a
different effect on
others.
a.The school-climate committee designs and orchestrates a
four-hour workshop for the entire staff. The topic of the
workshop is “getting to know our colleagues better-it takes
all of us working together to educate our youngsters.”
b.The site council runs eight discussions for eight different
teacher groups of seven each. It concludes with a new task
force to work on speaking and writing across the
curriculum.
c.The administrative cabinet attracts fifteen volunteers (six
teachers, seven parents, and two citizens without children in
school) to create an advertising campaign for girls’ sports
events.
5. Check to see how
others are reacting.
a.
b.
c.
6. Collect data to
diagnose the situation.
a.
(Again the sequence has
circled back to step 1;
however, in this second data
collection, the general
methods used will be
supplemented with specific
questions about the particular
issues worked on).
b.
c.
The school-climate committee closely watches to
see that certified and classified staff become better
acquainted and share information about the school
with one another.
The site council decides to talk informally with the
language teachers to give the special
encouragement during the change process.
The administrative cabinet strives to give the
fifteen volunteers ample reinforcement and support
for their participation in organizing and running the
campaign for girls’ sports.
What happened to the communication gap between
certified and classified staff members?
What is going on in the effort to implement a
program on speaking and writing across the
curriculum?
What is happening with citizen participation at
girls’ sports events?
Patricia Schmuck
Lewis & Clark College
Portland, Oregon
Ronald Lippitt’s Social Science Curriculum
and Action Research
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESOURCE BOOK:
LABORATORY UNITS
AUTHORS:
RONALD LIPPITT, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND
SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
ROGERT FOX, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY
OF MICHIGAN
LUCILLE SCHAIBLE, EDUCATOR AND WRITER
SCIENCE RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, INC., CHICAGO, IL
UNIT 1 - Learning to Use Social Science
•
•
•
•
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•
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Scientists Who Ask Questions About People
Behavior
What Is a Behavior Specimen
Three Ways to Use Observation
Who Goes There?
Cause and Effect
The New Neighbor
Miltiple Causation
Circular Process
Special Ways of Asking Questions
Asking Qauestions About the Future
How Social Scientists Test Predictions
Unit 2 - Discovering Differences
•
•
•
•
•
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•
What Makes People Different
No Girls Allowed
Six Years of Silence
We See the Same Things Differently
Squash Makes Me Sick!
Where Do We Get Likes and Dislikes?
What Is a Group?
Stereotypes
Unit 3 - Friendly and Unfriendly Behavior
•
•
•
•
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•
Friendly and Unfriendly Behavior
Friendly or Unfriendly?
The Present - Feelings and Intentions
Once Burned, Twice Shy
Warm or Cold?
The Hill Club
Unfriendliness off Target?
Robbers’ Cave Experiment
Unit 4 - Being and Becoming
•
•
•
•
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Being and Becoming
Growth and Development
Charlotte
Cliff
Intelligence - Can It Be Tested?
Viki - Chimp and Child
Expectations - The Science Report
Unit 5 - Individuals and Groups
•
•
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Individual - Group Behavior
Alone or Together?
Jamie Alone
The Aquarium Committee
Autocracy and Democracy
Group Pressure - The Majority Wins
The Deviant in the Group
Unit 6 - Deciding and Doing
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who Makes Decisions?
What Happened?
Lingon’s Lake I
Lingon’s Lake II
Making a Poster
What Links Deciding to Doing?
What’s the Problem?
Solving Problems
Unit 7 - Influencing Each Other
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
What Is Influence?
Five Kinds of Influence
Influencers in John’s Morning
Children with Influence
The Halo Effect
Group Ignorance
Glossary
Lawrence Sherman
• Cooperative Learning
• Humor and Children’s Gleeful Behavior
• Classroom management and behavior
settings
Lawrence W. Sherman,
Oxford, Ohio, Miami University
December, 2003
Student of Jacob S. Kounin, 19661971, Wayne State University
School environments as behavior
settings
Group Glee (Children’s Humor)
Locus of Control
Cooperative Learning (Treasurer,
IASCE)
Computer Supported Intentional
Learning Experiences (CSILE)
Wayne State University,
Detroit, Michigan
1965 - 1971
Major Influences:
•
•
•
•
Jacob S. Kounin, Ph. D. Dissertation Advisor
William Wattenberg, Dissertation Committee
Fritz Redl, Dissertation Committee
A. F. Citron, Graduate course work.
– Both Redl and Citron were associated with the
Commission on Community Interrelations (C.C.I)
Jacob Kounin Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University,
Detroit, Michigan, 1970
Experimental Studies of
Rigidity and co-satiation
Exploratory Ecological Research
Classroom management and
Discipline.
Signal systems and Behavior
Settings.
Many collaborations with
Paul Gump.
Kounin’s Issues in Classroom
Management
•
•
•
•
•
•
The “Ripple Effect”
Withitness
Transitions
Overlapping
Group Focus
Variety
– Satiation and co-satiation connections
• Signal Systems and Behavior Settings
Roger Barker,
1963,
Kurt Lewin Memorial Award
With Dembo and Lewin:
Frustration Regression
With Jacob Kounin:
Child Behavior and Development
Stream of Behavior
Behavior Settings
With Paul Gump:
Big School Small School
Paul Gump with Edna Friedman, WSU,
Detroit, Michigan, 1970
Some Useful General References


Brody C.(Chair), Baloche, L., Schmuck, R., Sherman, L., and Sharan, Y. (2004). The Past and Future
of Cooperative Learning: Perspectives from Leaders in the IASCE. Panel Session at IASCE
Conference (draft version), Singapore, June 2004 http://www.users.muohio.edu/shermalw/iasce's
history.doc
Morton Hunt (1993). The Story of Psychology. New York: Doubleday.

Alfred F. Marrow (1969). The Practical Theorist: The Life and Work of Kurt Lewin. New York:
Basic Books.

The Journal of Social Issues and The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI),
especially the list of Lewin Memorial Award Winners.

Monitor on Psychology. American Psychological Association, Vol. 35, No. 8, pp. 56-72.
(Desegregation to Diversity? Psychology takes a look at a half century of response to America’s
watershed decision of Brown v. Board of Education). Special emphasis is made on “… Clark’s work
and how it was grounded in Kurt Lewin’s “social action research” - work in the community rather
than only in a lab. Like Lewin, Clark believed that research could spur social activism and empower
community members to change society for the better…” p. 60.

Philogene, G. (editor), (2004). Racial identity in context: The Legacy of Kenneth B. Clark.
Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Richard Schmuck References
•
Richard A. Schmuck (1997). Practical action research for change. Arlington
Heights, IL : IRI/Skylight Training and Publishing.
•
Richard Schmuck (editor) (2000). Practical action research : a collection of
articles. Arlington Heights, IL : Skylight Training and Publishing.
•
Richard and Patricia Schmuck (2001, 8th edition)). Group Processes in the
Classroom. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
Jacob Kounin References
•
Roger Barker, Jacob Kounin & Ralph. White (1943). Child Behavior and
Development. New York: McGraw Hill.
•
Jacob S. Kounin (1970). Discipline and Group Management in Classrooms.
New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
• Kounin, J. S., and Sherman, L. W. (1979). School environments as
behavior settings. Theory Into Practice, 18(3), 145-151.
Lawrence Sherman References
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sherman, L. W. (2001). Cooperative Learning and Computer-Supported Intentional Learning
Experiences. In (Chris Wolfe, editor), Learning and Teaching on the World Wide Web. San Diego,
CA: Academic Press, 113-130. http://www.users.muohio.edu/shermalw/wolf_chapter-draft3-25.htm
Sherman, L. W. (2000). Postmodern Constructivist Pedagogy for Teaching and Learning
Cooperatively on the Web. CyberPsychology and Behavior: Special Issue. (Volume 3, No 1, 2000).
Sherman, L. W. (1993). Organizer of the 11th [ 4th (ISHS) ] International Conference on Humor and
Laughter (October, 1993). Miami University's John E. Dolibois Campus, Grand-Duche de
Luxembourg, Europe.
Sherman, L. W. & Woy-Hazelton, S. (1988). The student team project: A long-term cooperative
strategy in graduate environmental studies. Paper presentation to the Fourth Convention of the
International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education. Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel, July 58, 1988. ERIC DOCUMENT, ED 299-872.
Sherman, L. W. (1988). Cooperative classroom pedagogies in undergraduate education. Paper
presentation to the Fourth Convention of the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in
Education. Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel, July 5-8, 1988. ERIC DOCUMENT ED 299-873.
Sherman, L. W. (1985). Humor and social distance. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 61, 1274.
Kounin, J. S., and Sherman, L. W. (1979). School environments as behavior settings. Theory Into
Practice, 18(3), 145-151.
Sherman, L. W. (1984). Development of children's perceptions of internal control: A cross-sectional
and longitudinal analysis. Journal of Personality, 52(4), 338-354.
Sherman, L. W. (1975). An ecological study of glee in small groups of preschool children. Child
Development, 46, 53-61.