Teaching as Groupwork

Abstract

The constructivist paradigm offers the possibility for making group process central rather than peripheral to the teaching/learning experience. From this perspective, the teacher is a facilitator rather than an expert, the classroom is a dynamic group, and teaching is a form of groupwork. “Grounded discussion,” a teaching innovation developed from this paradigm, relies heavily on group process skills of the teacher/facilitator. Although clearly relevant to the teaching and modeling of groupwork in particular, it can be used across the social work curriculum.

The Faculty Meeting: Practicing Social Justice-Oriented Group Work

“…Some group workers are responding to the call to action best articulated by Kurland and Salmon (2006) by recognizing the many and varied sites for thinking about and locating social group work theory and practice (Aronoff & Bailey, 2005;Burford & Pennell, 2004;Finn, Jacobson, & Dean Campana, 2004;Graham, 2002;Jacobson, Pruitt-Chapin, & Rugeley, 2009;Jacobson & Rugeley, 2007;Schulz, Israel, & Lantz, 2004). They tie group work to progressive education, to participatory research, and to political activism and community change.…”

“…Drawing on social work's rich group work tradition, social group workers are breathing new life into prized ideas. Graham (2002), for example, envisioned the classroom as a dynamic group and teaching as a group work process. She outlined an approach based on a constructivist paradigm that addresses the incongruencies between "how we teach what we teach in social work education" (p. 85) and builds on students' strengths, responds to the needs of diverse student populations, and foregrounds issues of social and economic justice by making group process skills central to class discussion.…”