Role-play a special staff meeting that has been called by the director to discuss and reach a decision about allocation of classroom space at the child care center. One additional classroom will be available beginning in September, and a new teacher, Mark, will be employed. The new classroom is larger than the others and opens directly to the playground. Sandra currently has the best classroom, which has its own bathroom. The other four rooms share a bathroom down the hall. Jean will be working with a new pilot program and will have many parents participating in her classroom. She was responsible for getting the pilot program funded, and it is a real asset for the center. Bob’s classroom is far from the outside play area and from the storage room. Bob feels that this location is inconvenient. Sheila would like to keep her current classroom because she recently made curtains and painted the walls. Barbara feels that her 10 years of teaching qualify her for the new classroom.

The staff has allocated 30 minutes for making this decision. After the group has arrived at a decision, individually rate your level of satisfaction with the decision from 1 (low) to 5 (high). Also, rate your level of participation from 1 to 5. Tally the results on the chalkboard. As a group, discuss the factors that contributed to the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Was the level of participation a factor?