Reducing Teacher Tardiness with the PIPS Method
At Roosevelt Elementary School in the Los Angeles Unified School District many teachers are chronically late in the morning. According to administrative policy, the work day begins at 7:30 a.m., although the students do not arrive until 8:00 a.m. Of the 33 classroom teachers, 13 to 17 teachers arrive from 7:40 to 7:50 a.m., causing numerous difficulties--lack of student supervision on the playground before school, administrative uncertainty about who will be working each day, and last minute rushing around among the late teachers.
In an effort to solve tardiness problem, a problem-solving team has been selected to work together, using the Phases of Integrated Problem Solving (PIPS) instrument for group process.
The PIPS instrument, designed by William C. Morris and Marshall Sashkin, provides a rather simple sequential task structure consisting of six basic phases as follows:
VI. Evaluation of the product and the process
It is a basic assumption of the PIPS process that for groups to improve in solving problems, they need to focus on both the content of the problem and the process of group problem-solving. The PIPS instrument includes guidelines for monitoring the process, and various members of the team take turns checking the procedures in order to keep the group on track. An important part of the PIPS structure is consensus. The group does not move on to the next phase until agreement is reached by all. This does not mean that every person gets his or her way but that the ideas and solutions presented are livable and acceptable to all. Personally, one or more members might prefer a particular solution but will defer to the group process, as long as the solution selected is not personally objectionable.
For the Roosevelt School tardiness problem, the problem-solving group consists of the principal, the school secretary, two grade level chairpersons, two teachers...