Transforming Communication in Education

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This article was abstracted from the transforming Communication instructors manual and lends weight to the view that good communication affects people’s lives in many ways.

Using Transforming Communication In High Schools
A: Preventing Violence In Schools: An NLP Based Solution
© Dr Richard Bolstad and Margot Hamblett

For every thousand children attending high school in the United States, there is one serious incident of
violent crime at the school referred to the police every year (NCES, 1998). The National Centre for
Education Statistics cautions that this figure in no way reflects the actual rate of violence which would
be reported by students. It is only the tip of the iceberg.
Programs to deal with this problem have focused on student education. From our experience in New
Zealand, we believe there may be another, equally important way to intervene. Teacher trainer Alfie
Kohn studied teachers who modelled co-operative behaviour in their interaction with their students.
He says that research on teachers who are less controlling and more supportive of students’ autonomy,
finds that their students are more self confident, and more interested in learning (Kohn, 1996, p 85).
The more that students experience their class as a co-operative community, then the more they see
learning as intrinsically valuable, the more skilled they are at resolving conflict, and the more
supportive of others they become (Kohn, 1996, p 103).

Can this success be modelled (in the NLP sense) and passed on to other teachers? We believe it can.
By training teachers in skills for building co-operative relationships, we were able to double the
effectiveness of school violence prevention programs. This study also has implications for any large
organisation using such training in work teams, and we hope to replicate our study soon in a business
setting.

The Transforming Communication Research

In 1999 we conducted a research study on the results of training teachers to use an NLP based conflict
resolution system in their classrooms. The study occurred at a high school on the outskirts of one of
New Zealand’s main cities (Christchurch). At this school, a group of ten teachers took our 26 hour
training program “Transforming Communication”. This training is run as basic training for health
professionals in several New Zealand degree programs, and has been used as management training in
large New Zealand organisations such as Bank of New Zealand. A version of the program is also used
in high schools to train student mediators, and it is regularly offered as staff training for teachers at all levels of the education system.

Versions of the TC program are custom designed for the specifics of each environment, so that the
program for school teachers uses examples and practice situations from school classrooms. The
program includes rapport skills, sensory system recognition, resource anchoring, listening skills,
assertive skills, skills for influencing others opinions respectfully, and a model for win-win conflict
resolution. The overall model has been presented by us previously in articles in Anchor Point and
NLP World (Bolstad and Hamblett, 1998 A-C, 1999).

Three student classes at the high school we studied were taught regular curriculum classes by three or
more of the teachers being trained, and so any flow on effects from the teachers’ training could be
expected to affect these classes significantly. These classes were matched in our study with four
“control” classes of similar type, which had no input or less input from the teachers trained in TC.
Transforming Communication © Transformations International Consulting & Training Ltd, 2009
However, three of the control classes had one of these teachers involved with them, so that some
positive effects might be expected even in these groups.

Teachers and Students filled in a questionnaire a few weeks after the start of the year (before the
Transforming Communication course had started), and again three months after this, (ie two months
after the teachers completed the Transforming Communication training). The questionnaire had some
open answer questions, and some questions where respondents rated an issue on a five point scale.
Changes were evident in both the teachers perception of the classes, and in the students’ perception of
school life.

Changes In The Teachers’ Experience

One of the questions we were curious about, was what problems teachers experienced with student
behaviour. Before the training, five of the ten teachers identified students speaking inappropriately to
staff as a problem. Afterwards, not a single teacher identified this as an issue. Before the training, five
identified lack of motivation amongst students as a problem. Afterwards only one identified this as an
issue. These incredibly concerning student issues may have been almost entirely resolved over the
time of the course. They certainly had become much less significant for the teachers. The teachers’
perception was borne out by the students’ comments. Students were asked how much they felt like cooperating with their teachers. In the controls, the percentage who said they felt “not at all” like cooperating dropped slightly from 6% to 4%. In the test group itself, the drop went down to zero. This
group of highly resistant students, who tend to occupy an inordinate amount of teachers’ time, simply
disappeared.

In the second survey, nine of the ten teachers reported that they were using the win-win conflict
resolution process in their classrooms, and three said they were using it regularly. This in itself is an
important measure, because many staff education experiences are lost in the day to day pressure of
“real life”.

As a result of their use of the skills, teachers reported changes in themselves, in their relationship with
students, in their relationship with other staff, and even in their personal relationships. In the
classroom, teachers reported that they were more confident, more aware of what they wanted and how
to get it, more positive in speaking to students, and more able to listen to students. Three reported that
their students were more confident, and that the students were using the TC skills too. Teachers were
asked how possible it was to get problem situations resolved so that both they and the students felt
pleased with the result. Before the training, none rated this as “Very possible”, and one rated it as not
possible. After training, three rated it as very possible and all rated it as possible to some extent. Nine
said they felt more confident dealing with students whose behaviour was a problem, and nine said
they felt more confident dealing with students who were angry or upset.

In regard to staff relations, some teachers reported being more assertive, some reported listening
more, some reported feeling more supported, and four reported no change. The number who believed
that conflicts with colleagues could be resolved in a way everyone feels good about increased from
four to eight.

Considering life relationships in general, all made positive comments after the training; some reported
being more aware, some more confident, and some reported being more positive in their outlook. Two
reported improvements in their relationship with their life partner.
Transforming Communication © Transformations International Consulting & Training Ltd, 2009

Changes In The Students’ Experience

There were changes in the way the students in the three classes exposed to the Transforming
Communication trained teachers perceived their class group, and their teacher. The school had a
number of programs underway to support positive changes, and was particularly focusing on reducing
bullying. Positive change in the groups who received strong input from three trained teachers (after
this called the TC group) was far higher than in the other four groups.

Lateness for class and unwillingness to engage in class discussion are good indicators of the level of
apathy and resentment in a classroom. The number of the controls who said they had not been late for
class at all in the last week rose from 21% to 23%. The number never late in the TC group rose to
40%. The positive shift in the TC group is several times that of the overall group, and would clearly
have a marked effect on the time available for a teacher to teach. This change in enthusiasm for school
was very general. In the control group, the number who said they ask questions in class “whenever I
can” dropped from 12% to 3%. They actually got less motivated as the year went on. In the TC group,
the number who said they ask questions “whenever I can” rose from 9% to 13%.

Students were asked how helpful they found their teacher when they were learning, and outside the
learning situation. Again, the trend in the control group was for students increasingly to give up on
their teachers, and the trend in the TC group was to become increasingly trusting. In the controls, over
the period of the study, students’ perception of their teachers’ helpfulness dropped (numbers rating
them extremely helpful dropped from 21% to 10%). In the TC groups, the shift went the opposite way
(numbers rating them extremely helpful rose by 4%). Similarly, the number rating their teacher as
amazingly helpful when dealing with problems outside class dropped in the controls (from 9% to 6%)
but rose in the TC group (from 7% to 11%).

Two crucial questions tracked the level of violence and intimidation occurring in the classroom. As
with all the questions, students were able to reply under protection of confidentiality, offering a
revealing glimpse at levels of “bullying” in the New Zealand school system. Firstly, students were
asked “How often have you seen a student insult or put down another student in class over the last
week?” At the start, over 20% said this regularly happened, and only 8% said it never happened.
Overall there was a 32% improvement in the TC group, compared to a 7% improvement in the
controls.

The difference between the two groups is evident at both ends of the spectrum. In the controls, the
number saying that insults never happened increased slightly from 8% to 10%. In the TC groups, this
positive change was from 8% to 24%. In the control group, 21% said it regularly happened, and this
was the same in the follow-up. In the TC group, at follow-up, no students (0%) said it regularly
happened.

The second question asked “How often have you seen a student threaten, hit or injure another student
in class in the last week?” In the controls, the number who said that this never happens increased from
40% to 42%. In the TC groups the increase in this success went from 46% to 64%. Again, the positive
change was several times as strong in the studied classes as in the controls, although both sets of
classes were exposed to the school’s anti-bullying program.

Conclusions

In our 26 hour program, we were able to effectively encourage most teachers to use skills for cooperative classroom relationships. This change was accompanied by changes in the way those
teachers responded as colleagues, even though such staff-staff situations were not discussed in the
Transforming Communication © Transformations International Consulting & Training Ltd, 2009
207training. The teachers felt more resourceful in challenging classroom situations, and noticed a real
change in the behaviour of their students as a result of their using the skills.

Students in the classes which had the opportunity to interact with these NLP trained teachers became
more enthusiastic about school (as evidenced by their prompt attendance and involvement in class
discussion). They also became more trusting that their teachers could help them with educational and
non-educational problems. Sadly, the students in the other classes became less co-operative, and
lowered their faith in their teachers’ helpfulness. The students in all classes noticed the success of the
anti-bullying program instituted by the school. However, in the TC group, the reduction in insults and
in bullying was three times that produced in the general school population.

Like all research, our study can be challenged in a number of ways. For one thing, almost all the
groups had some input from the teachers we trained, so we didn’t have a “clean” control group. That
means our results may have been even better than the statistics show. Also, as in any small study, the
classes we studied did not always begin with the same baseline statistics; in some ways the TC trained
classes began slightly “better functioning” than the other groups, and in other ways they began
slightly “worse”. A larger study would enable us to get more reliable results.

However, we have demonstrated to our own satisfaction that teaching teachers these NLP based cooperative relationship skills affects the results for their students. This claim is supported by the
previous studies reviewed by Alfie Kohn. Kohn’s research studied teachers who were “naturally”
using these skills. What our report adds is the evidence that when we model such natural skills and
train teachers in their use, the same results will occur.

Bolstad, R. and Hamblett, M. “Transforming Conflict” in Anchor Point, Vol 12, No. 3, p 33-42 and
Vol 12, No. 4, p 17-23, March 1998 and April 1998 (A)
Bolstad, R. and Hamblett, M. “Win-Win” in Anchor Point, Vol 12, No. 5, p 3-12, May 1998 (B)
Bolstad, R. and Hamblett, M. Transforming Communication, Addison-Wesley-Longman, Auckland,
1998 (C)
Bolstad, R. and Hamblett, M. “Transforming Conflict in Training” p 25-44 in NLP World Vol 6, No.
3, November 1999
Kohn, A. Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community, Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development, Alexandria, Virginia, 1996
National Centre for Education Statistics Violence and Discipline Problems In U.S. Public Schools:
1996-97 (NCES 98-030), Education Publications Centre, Jessup, 1998

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