Social Group Analysis

What’s Bugging You?

        Using groups in occupational therapy offered social and emotional support for my students. Students participated in the group lesson and motivated others. Working in a group also promoted self-efficacy, social participation, and lastly communication. My group lesson entailed a group of lower functioning students that were working on self-controlling their emotions. 

Directive leadership style was used as I set goals for the group, chose media, and provided a high level of instruction for my group. While viewing the video of the lesson, I observed three strengths in my leadership skills: organization, motivation, and communication. Organization was a strength because I had materials prepared and lesson plan written before the lesson began. I was also motivating to my clients because I gave positive feedback to the students as they shared their emotions in group discussion. Communication is another strong leadership skill that I displayed in the lesson by explaining the sequences of the activity and what was expected of my clients.

After observing the video of the group presentation, I noticed two areas for improvement. One area that needed improvement was time management. I did not organize the activities planned and too much time was taken completing the hands-on activity. Secondly, I need more improvement in the area of preparation of the materials at hand before the lesson. If the materials had been prepared ahead of time, more time could have been spent working on the skill of identifying emotions. It is known that people learn from their mistakes in order to excel the next time.

          There were several challenges that I experienced as I lead the group in the activity. One challenge that I experienced during the group presentation was directing the students to complete the task in front of them.  Too much time was taken when the students were gluing the parts onto the bumblebee. I experienced a difficult period trying to direct the students back to the task at hand once others were finished and others were lagging behind.  I also felt challenges from the different types of personalities in the group. One girl in the group verbally attacked another one by degrading her bumblebee. Others in the group were easy going and compliant while a few were provokers.  

          While presenting the lesson, I felt a little overwhelmed as I tried to lead a group of 11 clients. This was my first lesson that I had taught in a group. I felt confident in my group activity but overwhelmed and frustrated when I was unable to finish the activity planned. The feeling of frustration was also felt as some of the participants in the group were not following directions while others in the group completed the task at hand.

          Goals that were addressed in the group were the following. The first goal was sharing supplies in the group as the students took turns sharing the glue sticks. Secondly, the group identified circumstances or situations that upset them. After discussing the situations, the students wrote out on an image of a bee of “what bugged them.”  By expressing this emotion, the client was able to deal with this feeling and share it with the group. Another goal for this assignment was that the clients would learn from other discussions about emotions. They would be able to add their insight and build their self-esteem by helping others with their problem situations.

          Barriers or conflicts that were met in the group lesson were that one student told another one that their bumblebee was ugly. This also added an emotional conflict on top of the emotions that some of the members in the group were dealing with in their mind. This conflict did not last long, so the students were able to move on to their next activity.

          Non-verbal behaviors that were noted during the lesson were the following. Students were pointing to other students’ bumblebees. Another non-verbal behavior noted was that several students looked around after the instruction was given to glue the wings on the bumble bee. They appeared to not understand the direction given but started doing the activity after seeing the other students gluing the body parts on the bumblebee.