CSLG6121
Structuring the Group Experience:
A Guided Tour to Designing
Psychoeducational Groups
I. Table of
Contents
A. Introduction
D. Goals
E. Objectives
F. Content
I. Processing
K. Evaluation
L. Go to Directly to Presentation Slides
II. Directions
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III. The Narrative Material
CSLG6121
Structuring the Group Experience:
A Guided Tour to Designing Psychoeducational Groups
Designing structured groups is a step-by-step process. By following the format in this program, you can address almost any psychological issue from an educational perspective.
You first must decide what topic you want to address and the population you want to reach. These two decisions are crucial for your design. Your topic must be one that can be translated to an educational format. That means that there is information that can be taught to the participants. In addition, your participants must then be able to benefit from the material that is taught. The participants must have the ability to function as group members as well as have the capacity to learn the material.
Once you have decided on your topic, you need to examine the literature to develop a foundation for what you want to accomplish in your group. Your review should help you determine what type of activities will help members accomplish the purpose of the group. In a sense, you are developing the theoretical foundation of your group. One of the main things a theory tells you how does healthy development take place. Does development take place on a cognitive or thinking level? Or perhaps development is dependent on emotional awareness. Other areas for development include the behavioral, existential or spiritual, and physical.
Example: Assertive behavior is the result of both a personal belief system that supports the right to be assertive and the behavioral skills to communicate one’s beliefs, opinions, and emotions in a direct manner. In order to develop assertive behavior, the individual needs to examine beliefs that interfere with assertive behavior and then modify these beliefs in a way that supports assertiveness. Once the individual believes that assertiveness is an appropriate behavior, then he/she can develop the communication skills that convey assertiveness. Behavioral skills are involved such as eye contact and posture as well as tone of voice. Choice of appropriate language is also important for conveying one’s message.
As you can see from the example, the literature indicates that for a person to develop assertive behavior, the belief system and the behavior of the individual must be addressed. This background becomes the basis for the Statement of Purpose and the Goals and Objectives.
Click to access literature review
presentation materials
The Statement of Purpose covers four areas: (1) what is the topic of the group; (2) who is the group for; (3) what topics the group will cover; and (4) how the group will accomplish its goals.
Click to access statement of
purpose presentation materials
Example:
Learning
to deal with conflict constructively is an important skill for today’s high
school student. With the risk of
violence increasing for adolescents, students need to develop the ability to
resolve conflict peacefully. The group, Peace
Builders, is designed to teach high school freshmen and sophomores to
recognize potential conflict situations, identify options to defuse conflict,
and develop appropriate communication skills. Group members will participate in
small group discussion, self-assessment activities, and role-play to develop
conflict resolution skills.
Goals give direction to the group;
in a sense, goals are the compass for the group. How are your group members
going to be different after participating in the group? For a goal to be effective, it must be
specific, measurable, and attainable.
One
mistake often made in writing goals is making the goal too general. For example, while it may be admirable to
want to improve one’s self-esteem, that type of statement belongs in the
statement of purpose. Although it is part of the long-term objective of a group
on self-esteem, the immediate goals of the group might include changing
negative cognitions or learning new behaviors that create success.
Goals
are directly derived from the themes in the literature review. Does change need to take place in
cognitions? If so, a goal needs to
address change in thinking. Ask yourself on what levels does change need to
occur. Consider all of the possible
dimensions—cognitive, affective, behavioral, existential, and physical.
Click to access goals presentation materials
Once the goals are written, it is important to review them to see that they are in a logical and sequential manner. Goals need to start with the most basic concept and build to more complex ideas. If goals are written in this manner, the content of the group will flow smoothly, and members will find that one step prepares them for the next step.
Objectives define the steps to take in
order to reach the objectives. If goals
are the compass, objectives are the road map.
Objectives provide very specific direction in how to accomplish the
goals. These objectives provide a direct blue print for the content of each
group session.
Click
to access objectives presentation materials
Selection of Content
Once
you have written your goals and objectives, you can begin identifying the
content you want to address in your group.
Each objective should tell you a concept that needs to be taught to
group members. In this step, you need
to outline the concepts that members need to understand. Your aim at this point is to determine the
information that members need to master in order to achieve the goals of this
group.
Click to access content presentation materials
Choice
of learning strategies
After
outlining the information that members need to gain, you need to determine the
best strategy for ensuring that members are actively involved in the learning.
The
most basic strategy is to make any lecture material interactive. First, you want to limit lecture material to
short segments, often no more than five minutes in length. When presenting the material, you should
think of ways to involve the group members in the discussion. For example, before presenting a definition
of a concept, you can elicit definitions from the group. Whenever presenting a new idea, you can
gather examples from the group. Both of these strategies allow the leader to
assess how well the group members understand the material. This presentation of the material is
referred to as the didactic portion
of the session and refers to material that can be taught directly to members.
Click to access didactic presentation materials
Experiential
Activities
Once
the basic information has been presented, you need to devise an active learning
experience to provide members with a direct, hands-on experience that will
reinforce the concepts presented in the didactic portion. This segment of the session is the experiential portion of the
session. You can be very creative in
this area and draw from a wide-variety of exercises. The main issue in choosing
an experiential activity is that it fit the material you are teaching. For example, if you are teaching about a
cognitive concept, the activity also needs to focus on the cognitive. Your activity
needs to match the dimension you are trying to change whether it be cognitive,
affective, behavioral, existential, or physical.
Click to access experiential activities presentation materials
No matter how interesting the didactic or how creative the experiential, the true consolidation of the learning takes place in the processing of the activities. During this time, information is reinforced and incorporated into the members’ frame of reference. Processing addresses three areas: (1) what did the member do during the experience;
(2) what did the member learn from the experience; and
(3) what are they going to do in the
future with what they have learned?
It is important that you formulate questions which encourage members to examine what they have learned and what that insight means to them. These questions need to written in advance since it is not always possible to create thoughtful questions on the spur of the moment. You are not limited to these questions but will find it helpful to have prepared them to fit the group activities.
Click to access processing presentation materials
Repeat this process
for each didactic/experiential segment
Once you have the individual segments that address didactic/experiential/processing completed, you will need to organize each individual session. Each session is somewhat similar because of including these three elements. However, a single session may repeat this sequence depending on the length of the session. All session will need introductory remarks and closing summaries. In addition, transitions will need to be added between the different segments for the group to flow smoothly. Members need to know the reason for entering each segment of the group in order to gain maximum benefit from the material.
Click on access group session presentation materials
Session
formats
1. First
Session
Introduction of leaders
Setting rule
Icebreaker
Mini-lecture
Exercise
Processing
Summary
Homework
2. Middle Sessions
Review of homework
Mini-lecture
Exercise
Processing
Repeat
Summary
Homework
3. Closing Session
Review of homework
Mini-lecture
Exercise
Processing
Closing activity
Evaluation
Structured groups need two types of evaluations—process evaluation and outcome evaluation.
Process evaluation is built into group sessions and
primarily asks group members for feedback on how the group is progressing for
them. Is the group helping reach their
goals? Are the activities interesting
and appropriate for what they are trying to learn? Process evaluation lets you know if the group is on target for
the members. The information can be
used to make small adjustments to meet members’ needs although major changes
may not be possible during the group.
Outcome evaluation is a way of assessing the
effectiveness of the group. This evaluation may take several forms.
·
Pre/post
measures—assess actual change.
·
Goal
attainment—members assess how successful they were in attaining either the
goals of the group or personal goals
·
Information
testing—measures gains in member knowledge
·
Member
satisfaction—measures how satisfied members were with the group experience
Click to access evaluation presentation materials