Group Observation Essay Example

1877 Words4 Pages

Group Description
The group observation occurred at an International school. The primary school counselor was the facilitator. He meets with individual classes every month. The ages of the students range from 3-11 years old, which represented Pre-k through 5th grade. Each class is pulled out to the counselors classroom for a 45 minute session led by the school counselor. The counselors classroom has minimal distractions with lots of positive quotes. The chairs are set up in a semi-circle so that all can look at each, along with some students sitting on a carpet in the middle. The group observation occurred on October 30th, 2017. The school counselor was very supportive about the group observation assignment, especially because …show more content…

The regular group sessions were something that they enjoyed and it was obvious they felt very comfortable with the group facilitator. There was little evidence of transference or countertransference. The group and curriculum showed a support group dynamic. The facilitator led the group and provided ways to stimulate sharing, suggestions, and advice. He was able to provide support to individual participants and the group as a whole (Maguire, 2002). They read a book about a group of pigs that were doing a scavenger hunt to find a prize. One pig in particular didn’t listen to the instructions and in a humorous way he struggled to find the clues. He often would push others to get the next clue and other pigs were scared of him. The pig that didn’t listen had many struggles. It was resolved by the other pigs helping him, as well as the main character realizing what he should have done differently. Throughout the book the facilitator stopped and asked questions using the text and pictures. He added group empathy by adding their personal experiences to the …show more content…

A meta-analysis of the SEL program in the US public schools found significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance among students that participated in a SEL (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Social and emotional learning programs are able to meet individual and larger groups needs. This group was a growth group that aligns with an SEL training. This social skill training is a strong match with a growth group.The purpose is to strengthen the group class identity and develop skills such as empathy, resilience, social interaction, and problem-solving. The objective of a training growth group is further explained by Jones (2003) as helping the individual participants to grow in increased awareness of their feeling experience, of their reaction to other people, of their impact on other people, of how others impact them, and in their awareness of how people interrelate and of how groups operate.The ability to listen and understand one another empathetically is central to a training growth group (Jones, 1998). Measuring outcomes for individuals in growth groups show an increased ability to express thoughts and feelings to others with confidence (Young, 2013). This was apparent with the students as they processed their thoughts and provide meaningful comments to the

More about Group Observation Essay Example

Open Document