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home / Better Management Practices (BMPs) for ‘Water Thirsty Crops / Farmer Field School (FFS) / FFS Activities / Group Dynamics
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Group Dynamics


Group dynamics is how members of a group interact and communicate with one another and what their roles are in a group.  Group dynamics highly influences the quality of training. Where a close relationship among trainees and facilitator is lacking, it is impossible to create a confident and relaxed earning environment. Consequently, participants may feel reluctant to participate in the FFS. The FFS will be successful if the facilitator can encourage participants, create an atmosphere of mutual trust and convey empathy.

The goal of group dynamic exercises is to strengthen group cohesion, maintain motivation and help participants develop organizational skills. There is a large menu of the group dynamics activities that facilitator learn during their training. Often facilitator will help farmers process the activity by asking them how the activity is relevant to the special topic of the day or to some local farming problem is a process of interaction of a group at work. It includes such processes as communication, goal setting, decision-making, support giving and leadership.

Creating a happy and excited environment is an important element for a successful FFS. To encourage group dynamics, it is important to pay attention to seating / standing arrangements. The illustration below shows seating arrangements in a traditional training situation, based on a teacher – student teaching model. In that situation, trainees cannot exchange and interact with one another.

 

 


 
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