Selection and evaluation of the teaching materials for developing environmental awareness in all classrooms Contents Introduction Chapter I. Class as a social group and its atmosphere

Be acceptable to the person that it is provided to making sense to him and be beneficial to him helping him in some way to understand, realize or accept something. According it is very important to set and explain rules of giving feedback in advance in order to eliminate negative undesirable strategies of feedback which can be contra productive. The basic rule should be never to provide evaluative or judgemental feedback saying for example “this is wrong”, “you are mean” but instead showing how something made us feel “This made me feel or think....” showing by the means of feedback what is going on inside our mind. Be useful for the person that it is provided to, being beneficial and helpful to him not making things more complicated but making them easier for him clear and relevant and concentrated only to the topic that it is concerned with.
Be provided at the right time as it is not always good to provide feedback straightaway. For example in case of tiredness of learners or conflictive situations it is better to provide learners with some extra time for their emotions to cool down before giving them feedback.
Be concerned only with characteristics, qualities and behaviour that is can be improved or at least influenced by the person. Pointing out things that cannot be influenced at that time only raises the level of stress. It is also undesirable to overload a person with exhaustive evaluation which can lead to a shock.
All of this is necessary to bear in mind during interactive activities to avoid possible traumatizing of learners especially those who cannot or do not want to participate. According to these principals have to be followed for the suitable course of interactive activities:

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  Principle of absolute voluntariness of self-expression and involvement;
  
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  Principle of the right to stop participating on an activity anytime without having to give a reason;
  
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  Principle of the right to express one’s opinion concerning the actual course of events or the facilitator’s (teacher’s) proceedings;
  
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  Principle of trust that everything that happens in the group stays in the group.
  

Depending on the nature of an activity participants should be engaged in individual work first, then to be put in pairs or small groups (of 3/4/8) and only then asked to work as a big group. This grouping technique (sometimes called TPS – think, pair, share) allows filtering ideas, negotiating them within smaller groups and building confidence of participants. This technique also allows making an equal contribution to the discussions. Otherwise, if to start from big group activities there is always a danger that some participants can keep silence while others can dominate. (Look at Activity 1 of the sample session in the Appendix for more ideas about this grouping technique). Grouping and regrouping are also beneficial in allowing participants to communicate with a maximum number of people and get a maximum number of ideas. Grouping and regrouping instructions can be physical (put them in groups yourself), verbal (saying “Form pairs”) or calling out categories (like salt, pepper, mustard, etc.). While putting them in groups physically, it is advised to apologise and respect cultural conventions of the participants. If you allow the participants to form groups themselves, they can end up staying with the same people all the time, whereas calling out categories can help to mix the participants very well. (Look at Activity 2 of the sample session in the Appendix for more ideas on how to group participants). If you deal with a group of participants who do not know each other, group building activities can create a secure and friendly atmosphere. The relationship of the participants with each other is very important for group dynamics. The Facilitator can make or break trust by making verbal comments, his/her body language, etc.
Group activities based on a shared task bring the participants closer, both physically and emotionally.
Group activities should allow the participants to take different roles (leader, reporter or a task manager), try to offer something for each learning style (visual, kinaesthetic, etc.) and let participants demonstrate their different abilities (drawing, story-telling, poem composing, analysing, etc.).