Methods of Group work

-Baruna Rana
-Jyoti Pariyar

Group work
Group workis a form ofcooperative learning. It
aims to cater for individual differences, develop
students'
knowledge,
gernal
skills
(e.g.communication skills,collaborative skills,
critical thinkingskills) and attitudes.

Why work in Group ?????

1.generating a broad array of possible

alternative points of view or solutions to a
problem
2. giving students a chance to work on a

3. giving students a chance to teach each other

4. allowing students with different backgrounds to bring

their special knowledge, experience, or skills to a project,
and to explain their orientation to others
5. giving students a structured experience so they can
practice skills applicable to professional situations
Encouraging Ideas

Methods for Groupwork

Action planning
Brainstorming/ Reverse Brainstorming
Energisers
Flipchart
Ground Rules
Go Wild
Group Review
Ice Breakers
Metaplanning
Multi voting
Ranking
Round Robin
Working in pairs or trios
Three star rating
Structured problem solving/decision making

Action planning
This is vital for team success to gain commitment
for action and should be a simple technique for
team use after any type of team event such as
meetings, projects, etc. Usually the items captured
are what, when, who with space for a progress to
be captured. To ease the assignment of action
points, it is sometimes best to leave that part to
the end of the meeting/event.

Ground-Rules

At an early stage of the group coming

together, it is helpful for the facilitator or
meeting leader to get the group to
establish some ground rules or team
code for the way the group wish to work

Go Wild

Using the Go Wild method involves writing down 20

ideas beginning with the phrase wouldnt it be good if.
This can really help to push the group to come up with
better and more good solutions. To begin with, the
statements might be obvious and predictable but will
become increasingly creative and wild as you go on.

Brainstorming/ Reverse Brainstorming

This is an ideal tool for generating a large quantity of
ideas within the group, although there are some
fundamental principles that guide effective brainstorming
sessions. Reverse brainstorming asks the group to look at
how they can make the issue worse which can produce
some thought provoking ideas on improving issues. You
may find our tips ondeveloping creativilityuseful .

Ranking
This decision-making technique helps the group select the
most appropriate and relevant idea using a predetermined selection criteria. You can use brainstorming
to generate the quantity of ideas you are looking for but
then determine a selection criteria the group
must use to guide their personal
decision - making
process
against a numerical
scale.

Multi-voting
This
technique
allows
groups
to
use
Brainstorming to generate a long list of ideas, and
then narrow these ideas into a manageable size
for realistic consideration and selection of the
best ideas. It allows the whole group to be
involved in the selection
Process and ultimately
saves the group a great
deal
of
time.

Three -star -rating

A helpful visual group decision making technique using
coloured stickers (all the same colour and star shaped).
Each participant is given three stars to award against
their preferred option or options. The stars can be
distributed as the participant wishes. At the end you have
a visual record of the preferred option.

Energisers

These are ideal to raise personal energy levels within the

group and can therefore be used at appropriate intervals
throughout the day. You can build up your repertoire of
energisers by reviewing training manuals, sharing ideas
with colleagues and thinking up your own.
Flipchart
Using a flipchart during a team meeting can provide a
creative yet structured working environment for
everyones benefit and bring focus to the group.

Ice-Breakers
Ice Breakers are ideal to get people interacting
early on in the meeting and particularly helpful
for new groups coming together. They help take
the group members mind off the meeting content
whilst concentrating on working with each other
in a light-hearted way.

Working-in-pairs-or-trios
This is an ideal method of group working at the earlier
stages of a meeting to encourage easy participation and
break down any initial barriers. It is also a good way of
helping individuals define the issue the group is working
on.

Discussions should last about five to ten minutes before

bringing the pairs back together to discuss the issue as

Round-Robin
This simple technique aims to raise participation levels or
to help define a problem by asking each person in the
group to state their views on the issue under discussion
without being interrupted by anyone else in the group.

This means that all the ideas and views are raised at one time but the
facilitator gets the group to summarise these ideas and views before
the group moves on.

Group-Review
Getting the group to review what they have
learnt and gained out of the meeting will help
facilitate higher performance and only takes
five to ten minute
s.

Structured problem
solving/decision making
There are many different processes
available, but essentially, most stages
follow this structure:
Define the problem
Present the background
Generate ideas
Group ideas
Choose the idea/s
Check commitment

Methods Of Case
Work

Stages of Casework

Case study/social investigation/psycho-social stud

Social Diagnosis
Social Treatment

ocial case study / Case History

nterview with the client

nterview with the relatives , employers, teachers

and friends of the client

Visiting the neighborhood

and environment in which the client lives

Social diagnosis
Social diagnosis is an attempt to arrive at an
exact definition as possible of the social situation
and personality of a given client.
Types of diagnosis
Dynamic diagnosis :
It gives an understanding of the current
problem of the client and forces currently
oprating within the client, within social
environment and between him / his environment .

Clinical diagnosis :
It is an attempt to classify the client s by the
nature of his or her sickness / problems .It
identifies the client personality mal-adaptation
and mal-functioning.
Etiological diagnosis
This diagnosis is concerned with the
explanation of the life history of the client
problems when the client responses are not in
accordance with the problem , the past history
and its appraisal helps to understand the rigid

Social Treatment
Social treatment in a case work is the sum total of
all activities and services directed toward helping
the client with a problem. The focus is to relieve
the immediate problem and if feasible modify any
basic difficulties which precipitated it .Strictly
speaking , everything that has been discussed so
far is part of treatment .

Methods o social case work

treatment
Indirect Treatment (environmental
manipulation)
Environmental manipulation means changing the social
conditions of the client so that he/ she may be relieved
from exclusive stresses and strains. For example
attempts to change the attitude of the parents, teachers,
spouse, employer, friends, and relatives, training and
experience in accordance with the needs of the client.
Environmental modification is undertaken by the case
worker only when environmental pressures upon the
client are beyond the client control but can be modified
by the case worker

Direct treatment

In this case worker exerts

influence directly on the client. It
is used when the client needs
direction because of his ignorance,
anxiety and weakness of his ego
strength

Administration of practical
services
Providing help to the client to choose and
use the social resources afforded by the
community. Money medical care, legal aid,
helping to get job or admission in
educational institutions, aged homes,
foster homes, recreational facilities are
such type of services that such type of
services that any person in problem may