Trends in Education for Social Work Practice with Groups

Abstract

A survey study of groupwork educators in graduate schools of social work indicated that group process and group-work methods courses continue to attract large numbers of students despite movement by schools away from single-method concentrations. Experiential learning groups, groupwork process records, and videotape instruction are the most widely used teaching tools of groupwork faculty. Critical problems facing groupwork educators include lack of methodological specificity in groupwork, the knowledge explosion in the group methods, and poorly developed group-work courses in schools of social work. The problem exists of determining what to teach and how to teach group methods.