Group Work Theory And Youth Work Practice

Creating Effective Teams: a Guide for Members and Leaders is a book by Wheelan (2013) designed to do as the title states; guiding members and leaders to create effective teams. Wheelan (2013) begins the book by highlighting the reasons that groups are important. Wheelan (2013) states that throughout history, “Groups have played a major role in both the survival of human beings and the development of human culture” (p. 1). The majority of the book is based on 4 stages that create a group of individuals into an effective team. The first stage is called dependency and inclusion. According to Wheelan (2013), the first stage of the group is

Corey, G., Corey, M. S., & Haynes, R. (2014). Groups in action: Evolution and challenges (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Thus the role of group work can be seen as one which places emphasis on sharing of thoughts, ideas, problems and activities.

Learning how to work effectively in a group situation is key to success in many professions as well as in social situations. Groups vary from each other based on the individuals that make up each group, all of us belong to various groups at one time or another. The roles that we fulfill vary from group to

In my opinion, group work is a type of cooperative learning that helps people to accomplish a certain task in a faster and more effective manner. Team working also helps to achieve the tasks that are impossible to finish by one individual. However, if people in a group have a lot of conflicts, group work will not be able to achieve as much as we expected. There are many reasons which lead to dissatisfaction in group work such as individualism as well as conflicts in opinion and time.

Group work is important in social work as it promotes understanding of the social contexts of people’s lives and identifies strengths of the oppressed to pursue social change (Dominelli 2008).

A group is a set of people or things that are considered and classified together who frequently interact and mutually influence each other. Whereas each individual of a group differs greatly from one another, each member shares a common goal or expectations. Universities, for example, are groups of students who are seeking a higher education in a specific area of study. Government parties are groups of people who share certain political beliefs and seek to attain and maintain government power. Wall Street firms are comprised of highly motivated bankers who graduated from the most prestigious universities. Despite the individual differences of every member, the common goal remolds their individualism by inputting its own expectations and goals

In this paper I will identify the need for the group that was chosen. Part of the discussion will concentrate on the three key values used in the group approach with this population. The other will address models and theories of group practice, and the approach used by this group. The paper will also look at the key challenges or obstacles in group interventions with this population. Using the worksheet planning guide for social work group’s eight headings will be discussed. Briefly the readings from the course syllabus will be used in the development plan and incorporated in the paper will be the plans for an initial group session. Based on the skills inventory three critical skills will be addressed. Lastly a critique of a proposed group will be conducted.

When first hearing the word group, people normally picture about 5 people hanging out as friends but there are many different types of groups that we don’t even realize in our day to day lives. When I hear the word group I think of people who have the same beliefs or values. This definition when you think about it is far from correct, there are groups everywhere and they don’t always believe the same values. Groups can be very helpful in the human service field. There are many different types of groups in the human service field anywhere from groups of workers all working toward a common goal to a group of people who need to talk about the problems they are facing in life. No matter the different types of groups they all have a common

Groups may be defined in many ways, indeed providing an absolute definition of a group, as with much of the theory around group work, is highly problematic and contestable. However for the purposes of discussing groupwork within a context of working with young people we may define a group as a small gathering of young people. Group work may simplistically be described as the study and application of the processes and outcomes experienced when a small group comes together.

Since much of our time is spend in groups, it is helpful to work in groups because it will give an opportunity to improve their human functioning. Group work helps to develop individual skills in communication, relationship building and asserting oneself

Group work has been a cornerstone of the social work profession and requires a variety of facilitator skills and awareness of group processes. The SSLDTM Group Program for People with Difficulties in Social Situations (Socialwork1914, 2017) provides an excellent example of a psycho-educational group co-facilitated by two female social workers, Jane and Karen. After viewing the 6th session of this 8-week program, I began to understand how the concepts of group formation/development, interpersonal dynamics, and leadership styles contribute to successful group work outcomes.

This chapter reviewed many different aspects of group work such as different processes and skills required to run several different groups. The groups discussed were open-ended group, groups hosted in residential settings, single-session groups, and large activity groups.

“Group work is a form of voluntary association of members benefiting from cooperative learning that enhances the total output of the activity than when done individually”.

Humans have been forming groups since the beginning of humanity. We are constantly categorized as a group at the basic level as a species, as an ethnicity, and as a society. It is speculated that our success and evolution as a species is based on our ability to work with each other in collaboration on many levels to ensure our survival. Groups have enabled us to get things done efficiently, whether by combined physical effort, mental effort of generating ideas, or support of others. At its most effective, a group is considered a team. Teams are formed when