A common goal on the beach...

Yesterday I spent the day at the beach with the children. I went with my friend who had her son and her two daycare children. Total of 5 small children ranging in age from 2-6 and 2 adults. Temperaments varied quite a bit. It was definitely like those movies driving out and back. The minivan full of children singing songs with the occasional yelling, mothers trying to carry on a conversation unsuccessfully. "I'm hungry!" "I want to go to the store." "When will we be at the beach?" "I have to go to the bathroom." "Are we there yet?" " I don't like THAT strawberry, I want that one that she has" "Well I like that one and NOT that one he has." "I don't want a strawberry, I want a carrot." "Ewww!"

We get there and no one managed to run off ahead of us and all the strawberries were gone. The beach was full of driftwood from the storms. Others had built little forts along the sand. The children decided to build a house. What was great was seeing the littlest one help two bigger ones carry a very heavy piece of wood to their work site. "I will help!" "Oh Thank you!" They managed to get them into the ground and make a crescent shaped wall. I was fascinated at their ability to all work together.

It reminded me of Kurt Lewin's field theory.

An intrinsic state of tension within group members stimulates or motivates movement toward the achievement of desired common goals (Johnson and Johnson, 1995). Interdependence (of fate and task) also results in the group being a ‘dynamic whole’. This means that a change in one member or subgroups impacts upon others. These two elements combined together to provide the basis for Deutch’s (1949) deeply influential exploration of the relationship of task to process (and his finding that groups under conditions of positive interdependence were generally more co-operative. Members tended to participate and communicate more in discussion; were less aggressive; liked each other more; and tended to be productive as compared to those working under negative task interdependence) (Brown 1989; Johnson and Johnson, 1995) (Smith,2001).

The children were dependent on each other for the achievement (the house). This created a strong dynamic of interdependence. They had a common goal and cooperated in making it happen. According to Lewin, people may come to a group with very different dispositions, but if they share a common objective, they are likely to act together to achieve it.

5 children with radically different temperaments and in different stages of development worked together.

Smith, M. K. (2001). Kurt Lewin, groups, experiential learning and action research. The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. Retrieved April 21, 2006 from: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lewin.htm