The group: cycle of birth to death

The following article is a summery and reflection about the

developmental processes and stages of groups creation from
birth to death.
While many theories are available, one of the most
commonly cited was developed by Larry Porter and edited by
Lawrence porter and Bernard Mohr. It has four stages:
In stage 1 also known as forming, students tend to be very
polite and superficial in their interactions in the group, this
stage is characterized by members testing their compatibility
to each other and dependent on the leader to provide guidance
and direction.
Stage 2 or Storming is characterized by individuals
beginning to challenge differences as they seek to regain their
individuality, influence and power. This means that there
might be other leaders emerging, so in here members work out
their needs to maintain sense of control while they still being
part of the group. The group’s need in this stage is to
persevere so that they develop norms and patterns for decision
making within the group.
The next stage is the third one, it is titled Norming and
Performing, finally in this phase the group is becoming a
unified team the focus now is on care and affection for others
and fellowship among the members. Moreover, they work on
achieving goals by recognizing the unique gifts of each
member and utilizing them to everyone’s benefit.
The fourth and the last stage is transforming, it is that when
a group has achieved its goal it should recognize and celebrate
that achievement and their ending. A critical part of
transformation is dis-engagement. “Failure to disengage, to
recognize that the life of the group, as its members have
experienced it, has come to an end, will only lead to a hollow,
unfinished feeling in the future. Even if the members were to
remain in contact, or if a reunion were to occur (which seldom
happens), the experience will never be the same, as the
contexts of each of the members will have changed.
 As far as my teaching practices is concerned the main point
that inspires me is the forming and storming stages because of
different reasons.
Firstly, the storming stage is the hardest to get through. It is
where you and your class have agreements and disagreements.
Some students want to lead, others don't want to and may
boycott the group. The teacher needs to be highly observant
of this stage. The group needs to get through the storming
stage in order to perform. Many groups fail at this stage
because they fail to agree. It is very important for me as a
teacher to get to know all students and help yourself to know
how to approach and get close to each one of them for the
sake of integrating them in the future activities.
Secondly, as far as you knew your students well, it will be
very easy to get them to form a group that may last long the
process of learning. For example; in the CRMEF-Inzegane, I
was looking for similar teachers with the same learning style
and that’s forming, and then within this group we had a leader
and semi-leaders that take decisions, that’s storming.
To the best of my knowledge these two are the main stages
may help form a good strong group. Nevertheless, there are
thing that we strongly must update. For example, when
teaching students and asking them to form groups modeling
how to choose the best group that fits out a very bad need
here, and then see if the individual didn’t work and didn’t
know how to get other groups quickly. Help students discover
their abilities before start making any kind of groups. Also
help them with communication background awareness in
which they use to operate, to preform and to solve their
problems.