Evaluation of EnTeam in the High School Classroom
June 2005
by Corey Drake, Ph.D., University of Missouri—St. Louis, Educational Program Evaluator

Key points from interviews with 2 administrators and 3 teachers:
• Different people came to the EnTeam activities with different goals and purposes: help teachers learn about cooperative learning, improve character education, improve education in content areas and in special education. Interestingly, each thought that EnTeam served their purpose well, with the exception of one teacher who didn’t think it worked in the content area but did work in character education. Other teachers thought that it did work in the content area, though they felt it was difficult to link in a non-simplistic way. Overall, interviewees were quite positive about the experience, and all offered ideas and comments about how to get more teachers involved and help teachers incorporate EnTeam more into daily classroom activities and routines.
• When asked why more teachers did not take advantage of EnTeam activities, three things came up repeatedly. 1) Teachers are resistant to change or do not see the need for change. 2) Teachers needed to have more experience doing the EnTeam activities themselves. 3) It is difficult for teachers to consider using EnTeam given the heavy demands of content coverage. Implicit in this is a need for teachers to better understand and experience ways in which EnTeam activities can be linked to or support content-based activities. Some of the interviewees provided good examples of how individual teachers managed to do this.

Overall Assessment of EnTeam Implementation:
• Ted Wohlfarth is great to work with and wonderful to have work with teachers. He listens closely and then offers ideas and interventions based on his theory and techniques.
• The character education program was starting to run out of fuel; teachers were struggling with what to do next.
• EnTeam provides a win-win situation for everyone and all groups and is very good at promoting cooperation and win-win situations. For example, in a special education class doing an EnTeam activity, everyone, including students and observers, was involved. This is a sign of success.

Relationship Between EnTeam and Prior Ideas about Cooperative Learning:
• EnTeam activities were a good beginning for teachers learning the process of cooperative learning. The principal and school need to follow up with an in-service program next year.
• Education has to change. It can no longer be teachers standing up, lecturing, and handing down edicts.
• The benefit of cooperative learning for students is that kids are more involved in learning. The only drawback is that it is hard any time you change the whole structure of teaching.
• In the short-term, the goal is for students to do better. The long-term goal is for teachers to be educated in the paradigm of cooperative learning.
• Schools have used cooperative learning and peer tutoring before, but not as much as one would like. These activities were different from EnTeam because they weren’t always win-win. EnTeam activities are unique—the students strategized together to optimize their situation.
• The general preconceived notion of cooperative learning is nothing more than group work. With EnTeam, cooperative learning is win-win
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Teachers and EnTeam:
• These kinds of activities are a lot of work for teachers. They’ll try it, but it is a question of getting them to adapt and incorporate it into their daily classroom practice. This is not impossible, but it will be an extended learning process for teachers. The principal plays an important role and must give it value and reinforce it.
• It would be nice to have an innovative way to incorporate individual assignments in order to meet objectives and then come together at the end. We know that students need to talk to learn, but generally, providing individual instruction and board work will keep students on task. The environment is not as fun as we would like, but routine helps with discipline since students seem to act out more in novel environments.
• To use EnTeam more, teachers need to know enough to do it on their own, given the pace of class and the amount of material to be covered.
• One teacher did not try EnTeam immediately because had so much material to cover. She eventually accommodated lesson to EnTeam activity, though it was simpler content than what class was currently working on.
• It is difficult to think about doing cooperative learning with math, but it is helpful in character education. If EnTeam could come up with a way to do it in math, teachers would be open to trying it.
• Some teachers need to change their mindset when it comes to their teaching styles. This is not going to be resolved in one or two semesters.
• Need more in-services where teachers actually participate in EnTeam activities. Teachers can then build on and expand on these activities.
• It would be great for teachers to take advantage of EnTeam resources more fully.
• Teachers who didn’t take advantage possibly felt that they needed that kind of support or resource. They were focused on their own thing and not open to intervention or new teaching techniques and styles.
• Those teachers that did use EnTeam successfully took the technique and expanded it to multiple lessons and different lesson types.
• For example, a special education class and a regular education class teamed for activity. They formed groups of in such a way that one could not tell who wasin regular education and who was in special education.
• Another example was in a math class which was struggling with unfocused students who were not on-task. EnTeam offered some intervention strategies that worked.

Students and EnTeam:
• EnTeam makes the environment enticing for kids.
• Teachers should always have at least three activities going on in the classroom and at least one should involve teaming or a project approach to make it more intriguing and interesting for students.
• Students' perspective of learning will be different with EnTeam. EnTeam presents a breath of fresh air and lets students know that math can be fun.
• EnTeam activities get students’ focus off of themselves. They listen better and are more cooperative in the classroom. The activities help them see that, with help, the can accomplish a lot.
• Some students didn’t follow the rules and did not see the connection between EnTeam activity and academic activity.

Ideas for Future Implementation:
• Itroduce EnTeam at the beginning of the school year and use it continuously throughout the year.
• Students need help understanding how to behave in large groups and during assemblies.
• Have celebrities such as rappers and athletes come in and talk to the students about character education and present the EnTeam activities to the kids.
• Approach implementation next time with in-service for staff instead of going into classrooms. Although the in-service was done, it was not in enough depth. Having more detail about EnTeam and participating in some EnTeam activities would help teachers accept it a little more.
• Diversity is a big issue which is about more than race. For instance, different interests, turf issues, students coming from other areas are all issues of diversity in school which students must learn to accept. EnTeam could help teach students the difference between clubs and gangs and that, in clubs, students can be accepted in a positive manner and still be part of the group.