The Effectiveness of Group Settings

For my paper I have chosen the movie Coach Carter. Coach Carter is an autobiographical film about Thomas Carter. Its based on the story of a basketball coach from Richmond, California. Coach Carter became famous for benching his undefeated basketball team for not having good grades. I chose this film because everything that he taught them and put them through was for the better of the whole group. He pushed them to push each other, including his own son.

In the beginning, no one agreed with Coach Carter's demanding style of coaching. He held the players to a commitment of being on time and ready for practice. If you were late he'd make you pay for it in the form of "suicides". If your grades were not up to par, even if you were the best and strongest players, you would not have the opportunity to play in the next game. When Coach found out that alot of the players were failing and skipping classes he locked down the gym and sent them all to the library for study sessions. The community, including the parents, were all outraged. The school board held an assembly about the lockout. Carter stated that if they ended the lockout he would quit. The board ultimately voted to end the lockout, forcing Carter to quit. Upon packing his office up, Carter discovers the whole team is in the gym with teachers studying so they can get their grades up. They all eventually pulled their grades up and fulfilled their agreement that they had made with the coach.

I believe Coach Carter's group method was effective. He held them accountable as a group. If everyone wasn't passing their classes, no one was going to play, and the lockout would not end. He took a group of inner city kids and molded them into responsible young adults. The guys pushed each other to study. Even though in the beginning none of them understood why Coach was pushing them or why he was using the method that he did, in the end they did understand, and I believe that they appreciated someone caring enough to push them. Most of the guys ended up getting college scholarships after that. He created positive relationships between the guys by building camaraderie and trust. Knowing that someone has your back and will help you up when you fall is key in group effectiveness. They held each other accountable.

Coach Carter used a structured problem-solving approach. He identified the problem, which was none of the players were passing their classes. He then analyzed the problem by identifying what needed to be done for the players to become successful, which was setting up study groups so the guys could study together and help each other. He used the teachers for support. He then evaluated the solutions. He felt that not allowing the guys to do what they love, playing basketball, would produce the desired change. He then implemented the plan. Although he resigned from his job, the greater goal of getting the guys to come together and acheive something was met.

There are four developmental stages that groups go through. In the orientation stage members approach the problem and one another conditionally. In this stage some members can be reluctant to take a stand. When Coach Carter intitially started, there was a player on the team named Timo. He was a street kid and didnt really care about academics. When the coach tells them that they will be doing suicides for being late, Timo quits the team and school and got more into the streets. It wasnt until he saw the success of the other team members and his cousin being killed in the streets, that he decided being a part of the group was more important to him and he tried to get back on. The next stage is the conflict stage. During this stage the members take a strong stand and defend their stand to those who oppose their viewpoint. In the movie, Timo sees that no one is hanging out with him because they're all focused on getting better grades to play. The guys tell him that he has got to get it together to be able to play with them. They invite him to study with him, letting him know thats the only way he will he able to play. After the conflict stage, is the emergence stage. In the emergence stage everyone comes together knowing that studying is the best solution for the best result.They sign a contract that Coach Carter drafts, stating that they will maintain a certain grade point to be able to play. The final stage is the reinforcement stage. At this point all the members accept the group's decision and endorse it.Once everyone saw that academics were actually more important than the game of basketball, they all came together in the defense of the coach and still decided to not play until they were all passing their classes.