The Group Device as Methodology of Training of Teachers: Assessment of its application based on case studies

The main objective of his research is to show the results of the application of the “Group Device”, a methodology of teaching which deals with the teacher as a person, activating and mobilizing his own resources to acquire and develop new knowledge which allows him to improve his professional performance inside of the school context and in the group situations in which he participates.

This methodology is based on learning through the group experience, where living together, being and sharing with others is the matter of analysis and reflection. In this way, the group in its entity activates a series of elements which emphasize the individual-collective difficulties, limitations and potentials. That allows, under continuing accompaniment, the detection of the relations individual-group-individual, integrating professional elements and personal and collective aspects, in that way helping the teacher to adapt efficient and creative roles for the institutional improvement and his pedagogical practice.

Specifically, this traditional training of teachers puts the emphasis of its pedagogical action in the curricular dimension, this being its linchpin of acting; but nevertheless, there is a dimension which is disregarded

The results of this research show that teachers should know the dynamics which get activated in the group instances, and acquire new instruments to think and understand the difficulties and the professional opportunities that manifest in the collective life of the class groups, where they develop their task as teachers, and also in a global manner in the educational centre, organizational space where the teachers as a group, have to develop continually new knowledge to contribute to the institutional improvement and development.