STUDENT CENTRED LEARNING AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH-Part3

STUDENT  CENTRED LEARNING  AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH-Part3
Dr.S.Sekar,  Educational consultant & Academic Researcher

HELPING STUDENTS TO LEARN HOW THEY LEARN:

This is the most important thing that human beings ever learn.  In an educational institution, it is vital that everyone is fully aware of the natural processes underpinning human learning, so that they can take control of these consciously, and develop them systematically. 

The following suggestions may help you to keep learning to-learn uppermost in your teaching and in your students approaches to learning:
1. Remind students how long they have been learning to learn 
2. Ask them to reflect on just how much they actually learned during the first two or three years of life. 
3. Remind them that most of this learning they did more or less under their own steam, without any conscious thought about teaching, or even learning. 
4. Remind them that they still own the brain that did all of this, and can still use it to learn vast amounts of new knowledge, skills and competences.
5. Ask students about their learning in school.  They would have learned large amounts of information and would have forgotten most of this! Also, however, they would have learned a great deal about how to take in knowledge and information, and will still have this skill.
6. Remind students that they will never stop learning to learn:  Get them to talk about learning to senior people they know, and retired ones too.
7. Ask them what they have learned only recently.  Ask them how they learned it.  Ask them what they found out about themselves while learning it.  Then ask them which of these was most important and most interesting to them.
8. Provide programmes for students to learn about learning.  Training programmes can help students to tune in to the power of their own minds. 

A good learning facilitator can help students to gain control of the processes by which they learn most efficiently.  Many students find it useful to explore how their minds work in the company of other students, and learn from each others experiences.

Provide resources to help students to learn about their own learning: 
1. Not everyone is comfortable attending a training programme about learning to learn. 
2. Some students fear that inadequacies or deficiencies may be exposed. 
3. Computer-based or print-based packages that help students explore their own learning in the comfort of privacy may be more attractive to such students.
4. Get students asking themselves:  What did I learn about myself when I learned this?. 
5. Learning to learn is closely connected with understanding ones own mind, and ones own preferences and choices.

Get students asking:
What really worked when I learned this?  The chances are that the factors that made one element of learning successful will be transferable to their next element of learning.  There are long works for this, such as  metacognitive processing, but it is simply about helping students to be looking inwards at what works for them when they learn, and what doesnt.

Get students teasing out what slows their learning down.  The more we all know about how the brakes work, the better we can use them only when we need them.

Devloping students key skills.
The development of students problem solving skills is also increasingly being addressed in Sr.Secondary education.

The following suggestions may help you think about your own ways to implement students development of these skills:
Try wherever possible to build into your course provision the assessment of students key skills. 

Whilst stand-alone key skills assessment and accreditation is now available international school students, the evidence suggests that a subject-based, integrated approach works better for most students.

Use assignments as the vehicle for testing studentss key skills.  When designing assignments, angle of activities and tasks that you set towards meeting specific key skills criteria.  For example, look at how an assignment might involve working with others elements. 

Be careful, however, not to pack in too many key skills requirements, or to allow assignments to become too unwieldy for students to undertake, or for you to assess.

Where possible, store your handout materials on disk.  Go for small print runs.  It is then easy to make considerable adjustments and additions to handouts each successive time you use them.  Avoid the waste associated with piles of handouts that youve subsequently replace with updated , improved versions.

Marks are neither the measure of Education nor the Success….

Marks are neither the measure of Education nor the Success….

Every year, the CBSE 12th Class Result  come as an Eye opener to all of us and the bitter reality dawn  on us about the stress and the pressure which has become an indispensable part of our children’s lives…

Thousands of students across India securing above 95℅, is compelling enough to make us sit together to introspect the situation.

The admission to many prestigious Colleges and Universities is becoming much tougher every year  with a large no.of students securing 95% and above.
Then what about the students who have not been able to fare well?

Where is it going to take our children to?
Shouldn’t we consider some other options, other than the traditional ones, Engineering, Medical or MBA?
Marks or the knowledge without creativity is meaningless.

if knowledge is the tool in one’s hands, creativity is the expertise or the skill to use it effectively.

So, one must try to acquire one or the other skill which fascinates him the most and should try his level best to attain proficiency of higher order in it.
When one’s hobby or anything of his interest becomes his profession, nobody or nothing can stop him from reaching the top rung of the ladder of success.
We can find hundreds of such examples of such people around us who are excelling in their respective fields as they chose their hobby or the area of their utmost interest and had even developed and groomed it to the fullest without bothering about their marks or their rank in the school, state or the Board.
The most glaring example is that of the Great Physicist and Nobel Laureate, Elbert Einstein, who was compelled to leave the school as he resisted the traditional methods of teaching with undue emphasis on memorization and rote learning only. There was no room at all for creativity or imagination.
And the rest is history. The theory of Relativity, as invented by him, is the basis of all the nuclear operations.
To sum it up, the students must sharpen their creativity or imagination, hone their skills in the areas of their interest and the rest will come to them naturally, effortlessly, whether good marks, high rank or admission in any course in any prestigious College or University!!!!

Integrating the Science of Resilience in Schools

Integrating the Science of Resilience in Schools

Schools are places where young people spend a great deal of their time, and as such they play a key role in the development of students’ resilience. This occurs in a range of ways — via formal teaching opportunities and the informal learning that occurs through modelling and practice of new skills.

Elementary or primary school is an excellent time to begin teaching resilience to children. The earlier children begin building resilience, the more likely it is to “stick.” However, resilience is not something that can only be built in young children; children in middle school can also benefit greatly from resilience building.

A great resource and suggestions for resilience building in young children comes from Professor Helen McGrath’s Bounce Back! program.

“Bounce Back!” is an acronym for some of the foundational principles of resilience, specifically:
B – Bad times don’t last, and things get better.
O – Other people can only help if you share with them.
U – Unhelpful thinking only makes you feel worse.
N – Nobody is perfect – not you, not your friends, not your family, not anybody!
C – Concentrate on the good things in life, no matter how small.
E – Everybody suffers, everybody feels pain and experiences setbacks; they are a normal part of life.
B – Blame fairly – negative events are often a combination of things you did, things others did, and plain bad luck.
A – Accept what you can’t change and try to change what you can.
C – Catastrophizing makes things worse – don’t fall prey to believing in the worst interpretation.
K – Keep things in perspective. Even the worst moment is but one moment in life.

McGrath applies these principles to building these components of resilience:
Courage
Managing feelings
Humor
Relationship skills
Self-knowledge
Goal setting skills
Optimistic thinking
Helpful thinking skills (avoiding cognitive distortions)

While planning a lesson, the above components of resilience should be identified and related activities must be incorporated. This definitely in a long run will help children to cope up with stress related situation.

Acquiring confidence before an audience

Acquiring confidence before an audience

There is a strange sensation often experienced in the presence of an audience. It may proceed from the gaze of the many eyes that turn upon the speaker, especially if he permits himself to steadily return that gaze. Most speakers have been conscious of this in a nameless thrill, a real something, pervading the atmosphere, tangible, evanescent, indescribable. All writers have borne testimony to the power of a speaker’s eye in impressing an audience. This influence which we are now considering is the reverse of that picture, the power their eyes may exert upon him, especially before he begins to speak: after the inward fires of oratory are fanned into flame the eyes of the audience lose all terror.

Students of public speaking continually ask, “How can I overcome self-consciousness and the fear that paralyses me before an audience?” Did you ever notice while looking from a train window that some horses feed near the track and never even pause to look up at the thundering carriage, while just ahead at the next railway crossing a farmer’s wife will be nervously trying to quiet her scared horse as the train goes by? How would you cure a horse that is afraid of cars, graze him in a back-woods lot where he would never see steam-engines or automobiles, or drive or pasture him where he would frequently see the machines?

Apply horse-sense to ridding yourself of self-consciousness and fear: face an audience as frequently as you can, and you will soon stop shying. You can never attain freedom from stage-fright by reading a treatise. A book may give you excellent suggestions on how best to conduct yourself in the water, but sooner or later you must get wet, perhaps even strangle and be “half scared to death.” There are a great many “wetless” bathing suits worn at the seashore, but no one ever learns to swim in them. To plunge is the only way. Practice, practice, PRACTICE in speaking before an audience will tend to remove all fear of audiences, just as practise in swimming will lead to confidence and facility in the water. You must learn to speak by speaking. Do not be disheartened if at first you suffer from stage-fright. For one reason or another, some master-speakers never entirely overcome stage-fright, but it will pay you to spare no pains to conquer it.

Be Absorbed by Your Subject:

Blacksmiths sometimes twist a rope tight around the nose of a horse, and by thus inflicting a little pain they distract his attention from the shoeing process. One way to get air out of a glass is to pour in water. Apply the blacksmith’s homely principle when you are speaking. If you feel deeply about your subject you will be able to think of little else. Concentration is a process of distraction from less important matters. It is too late to think about the cut of your coat once you are upon the platform, so centre your interest on what you are about to say, fill your mind with your speech-material and, like the infilling water in the glass, it will drive out your unsubstantial fears.

Self-consciousness is undue consciousness of self, and, for the purpose of delivery, self is secondary to your subject, not only in the opinion of the audience, but, if you are wise, in your own. It is sheer egotism to fill your mind with thoughts of self when a greater thing is there, TRUTH Say this to yourself sternly, and shame your self-consciousness into quiescence. If the theater caught fire you could rush to the stage and shout directions to the audience without any self-consciousness, for the importance of what you were saying would drive all fear-thoughts out of your mind.

Far worse than self-consciousness through fear of doing poorly is self-consciousness through assumption of doing well. The first sign of greatness is when a man does not attempt to look and act great. Before you can call yourself a man at all, Kipling assures us, you must “not look too good nor talk too wise.” Nothing advertises itself so thoroughly as conceit.

Have Something to Say: The trouble with many speakers is that they go before an audience with their minds a blank. It is no wonder that Nature, abhorring a vacuum, fills them with the nearest thing handy, which generally happens to be, “I wonder if I am doing this right! How does my hair look? I know I shall fail.” Their prophetic souls are sure to be right. It is not enough to be absorbed by your subject, to acquire self-confidence you must have something in which to be confident. If you go before an audience without any preparation, or previous knowledge of your subject, you ought to be self-conscious, you ought to be ashamed to steal the time of your audience. Prepare yourself. Know what you are going to talk about, and, in general, how you are going to say it. Have the first few sentences worked out completely so that you may not be troubled in the beginning to find words. Know your subject better than your listeners know it, and you have nothing to fear.

After Preparing for Success, Expect It:

Let your bearing be modestly confident, but most of all be modestly confident within. Over-confidence is bad, but to tolerate premonitions of failure is worse, for a bold man may win attention by his very bearing, while a rabbit-hearted coward invites disaster.

Humility is not the personal discount that we must offer in the presence of others, against this old interpretation there has been a most healthy modern reaction. Any man who thoroughly knows himself must feel True humility but it is not a humility that assumes a worm like meekness; it is rather a strong, vibrant prayer for greater power for service, a prayer that could never have uttered.

Washington Irving once introduced Charles Dickens at a dinner given in the latter’s honour. In the middle of his speech Irving hesitated, became embarrassed, and sat down awkwardly.Turning to a friend beside him he remarked, “There, I told you I would fail, and I did.” If you believe you will fail, there is no hope for you. You will. Rid yourself of this I-am-a-poor-worm-in-the-dust idea. You are a god, with infinite capabilities. “All things are ready if the mind be so.” The eagle looks the cloudless sun in the face.

Assume Mastery Over Your Audience:

In public speech, as in electricity, there is a positive and a negative force. Either you or your audience are going to possess the positive factor. If you assume it, you can almost invariably make it yours If you assume the negative, you are sure to be negative. Assuming a virtue or a vice vitalises it. Summon all your power of self-direction, and remember that though your audience is infinitely more important than you are, the truth is more important than both of you, because it is eternal. If your mind falters in its leadership, the sword will drop from your hands. Your assumption of being able to instruct or lead or inspire a multitude or even a small group of people may appal you as being colossal impudence, as indeed it may be; but having once essayed to speak.

BE courageous, it lies within you to be what you will.MAKE yourself be calm and confident. In facing your audience, pause a moment and look them over, a hundred chances to one they want you to succeed, for what man is so foolish as to spend his time, perhaps his money, in the hope that you will waste his investment by talking dully?

Several skills students need for their future

Several Skills Students Need for Their Future.

There are two major trends in the world that pose a fundamental challenge – and many opportunities – to our educational system. One is the world is shifting from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. The other is the rising generation – brought up on the Internet – is very differently motivated to learn.

These two forces, argues Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group, compel us to reconceptualize education in this country. In his thoughtful analysis of future industry needs and education readiness studies, Dr. Wagner has identified what he calls a "global achievement gap," which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must-have skills of the future:

1. Critical thinking and problem-solving
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurialism
5. Effective oral and written communication
6. Accessing and analyzing information
7. Curiosity and imagination

Dr. Wagner points out that in today’s digital age, the “Net generation” is, among other things, accustomed to instant gratification and use of the web for extending friendships, interest-driven, self-directed learning; and are constantly connected, creating, and multitasking in a multimedia world – everywhere except in school.

In order to motivate and teach this generation, the school system must be reinvented to be accountable for what matters most. That means to do the work – teaching, learning, and assessing – in new ways.

Students must acquire knowledge, but “we need to use content to teach core competencies,” he states.

To learn more about the seven skills, and how to reinvent the education system to prepare our graduates for the 21st century, please view the accompanying presentation below.

This presentation is based on Dr. Wagner's book: From The Global Achievement Gap: https://www.slideshare.net/internationaled/the-global-achievement-gap Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach The New Survival Skills Our Children Need – And What We Can Do About It (Basic Books, 2008). The program was made possible through the generous and visionary support of the MetLife Foundation.

Are you committed??

Are you committed??

Committedness: The trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose.

Commitment: The act of binding yourself, intellectually or emotionally, to a definite course of action.

What are you doing with your Life? Would you say that you are living your dream or are you living from hand to mouth, making the best of things; just getting to the next week; what we might call existing, rather than living? If you are living your dream, then well done: you are truly on the road to success.

If you are not living your dream - or even if you have no dream at present - then do not despair because this little blog was written for you. We are going to help you to find your dream, develop it and then to actually achieve it!

To live a truly successful life, you do need to first have a dream. As Carl Sandburg, American historian, poet and novelist put it, "nothing happens unless first a dream."

If you think about it, nothing at all now exists within our experience of physical reality that did not first exist in the mind of the person who made it or brought it into being. In all cases, everything is created twice: as Stephen Covey once put it, the physical creation follows the mental creation. To succeed, you must have a dream, or you may prefer to call it a vision, and you must completely commit yourself to its ultimate fulfilment - that is the essence of the mental creation.

Here is one of the real secrets of success: you should dream big dreams because you can have anything you want! Read that statement again and let it really sink in because it is true that you can have anything you want; you can be anything you want to be and you can do anything you want to do.This may at first seem a bit self-indulgent to you, but your deepest desires constitute a strong indicator of your own life purpose.

What does it mean: To commit yourself to your dream? To illustrate, let me tell you a little about the story of Charles Lindbergh. You know, of course who he was - he was the first person to fly the Atlantic solo - non-stop all the way to Paris. An incredible feat which he eventually accomplished in May 1927. He used to dream of flying across the Atlantic during his long haul flights delivering mail. Once he had imagined the possibility of being the first person to do this, he completely committed himself to its achievement overcoming all kinds of set-backs. He did not allow the negative opinions of the doubters who surrounded him to influence his resolve. When he was unable to purchase the single aircraft in existence that he calculated would be capable of making that momentous journey, he had his own airplane designed and built. He didn't have the money, but he got a group of St Louis businessmen to sponsor him - that's why the plane was called The Spirit of St Louis - now that's commitment.

Once you have your dream, you too need to demonstrate that kind of resolve - and let me tell you plainly - you are capable of it! It requires you to take actions that are congruent with your wishes in order to translate them into reality, but the first step is to have that dream - your own dream, not anyone else's ideas about what is best for you in life - and then absolutely commit yourself to its achievement.

Importance of Technology

Importance of technology

Technology is one of the most valuable tools that we have at our finger tips everyday. Technology provides different opportunities to make learning more fun and enjoyable.
Modern learning is about collaborating with others, solving complex problems, critical thinking, developing different forms of communication and leadership skills, and improving motivation and productivity.
Modern technology moves faster than we can keep up with it. Technological advancement has helped to introduce many positive changes in the human life.

Technological advancement has helped to introduce many positive changes in the educational sector. New methods of learning and teaching have made the process simple and more interesting.
Technology can encourage collaboration with students in the same classroom, same school and even with other classrooms around the world.
Use of technology in health care sector has helped us develop many ways of diagnosing dangerous diseases.
Technological advancement in field of medicine has helped patients from backward nations get good health care facilities.

Positive effects of technology on society are clear from the progress made in the last few decades.
Being aware of the importance of technology is imperative because technology helps us in all walks of life. We cannot imagine our life without technologically advanced things such as phones, computers, cars, machines, etc. So, we conclude that it is our responsibility to continue to the development in technology for the benefit of the entire society.

Neo - colonialism

It all started as freedom propaganda.
The lie was told so subtly that we didn’t notice.

To gain popularity, they convinced us that it was all about gender equality. Then they preached to us, saying it was a human rights and child rights agenda.
To draw the attention of women, they hid under Women Empowerment Campaigns.
We saw everything they did as part of civilization. Because of this, we applauded them and blindly sang their praises.

We were so blind that we did not notice when they went from equality to role reversal, and from ‘rights’ to ‘wrongs’. They told us it was all a matter of understanding. I mean, if she earns more than he does, why can’t she be the head while he submits?

They told us we had the right to our bodies. They told us that if the guys can do ‘it’ anytime with anybody, so can the girls. They introduced free love, and ‘friends with benefits’, and convinced us that we were just exercising our rights to enjoy our bodies. We agreed. Which youth wouldn’t?

When we complained about STDs, they introduced condoms, and even started sharing it to us free of charge in our secondary schools. They told us that
from the age of 16, we had the right to do whatever we wanted to. This made us to start seeing our parents and school teachers as toothless bulldogs as they no longer had the right to discipline us. Talk of sweet freedom!

When we complained about teenage pregnancies, they told our parents to educate us about contraceptives as early as possible. Then they introduced the reformed sex education in our school as a guise to give us more condoms.
Some of us still got pregnant, and we complained yet again. So they decided to legalize abortions. This was in a bid to help us. You see, they really cared about our future, and wanted to ensure that we live a free life.

Abortion made sense to us. So we accepted it. I mean, why bring a child you don’t want or can’t take care of into the world? We felt a bit guilty because it seemed like murder. But they told us not to worry. According to them, what we were doing was merely taking out an unwanted foetus, and not killing a child. Yet again, we accepted it, and got pacified.

They said that we weren’t supposed to be accountable to any deity, religion, our parents or the society. Next, they told us we had the freedom to do what we wanted with our lives, so far as we weren’t hurting other people or trampling on their rights.

Almost immediately, we stopped regarding God. We rather chose to play football, hang out, or watch
seasonal movies on Fridays and Sundays.

We also decided to experiment with homosexuality. It seemed like fun, and they encouraged us. When we told them that the society frowned against
our choice, they legalized it and told us we can get married too.

We decided to go further and experiment with drugs. They frowned against it publicly, but we still had access to it. Moreover, we were minors, and the law enforcement agents couldn’t really punish us.

We looked for role models and they gave us Hollywood stars with multiple divorce stories, musical icons addicted to drugs/alcohol, and sports stars with numerous extra marital affair scandals.

They told us, that those celebrities were successful and free and we should aspire to be like them. Some of us started pumping iron, getting tattoos, and injecting steroids in order to look as manly and as ‘successful’ as our role models.

We started seeing fidelity as a sign of weakness. And just like our ‘role-models’, we started going after everything in skirt.
We equally tore off pictures of our successful and ‘sexy’ looking role models off celebrity magazines, and pasted them on our mirrors. We started dieting
like mad so we can lose weight and look like them. We noticed that they hardly wore any clothes, so we followed suit.
When we became bored, they introduced us to their clubs and night parties.
They told us to throw caution to the winds and just have fun. Even when some of us got raped, they encouraged us to shut up and keep having fun.

Some of us became addicted to alcohol, but we were told not to worry that it was one way to prove our manhood, so we continued.

At a time we noticed that we had lost our will. We had become their slaves without knowing it. We noticed that we didn’t have any reason to live again, and life was no longer purposeful.

In the bid to look sexy, some of us became victims of anorexia nervosa.
Those of us in relationships found it impossible to be faithful. Many started contemplating suicide. Many more had STDs. Some of us experienced series of psychological traumas and mental breakdowns. A lot more dropped out of school as a result of unwanted pregnancies, drugs, or an abortion that went wrong.

At this point we saw our future get dashed before our faces. We started looking for whom to blame. After a fruitless search, we had to admit that we didn’t even know who ‘they’ were. Then reality dawned on us.

We remembered our fathers telling us that “unlimited liberty is slavery in disguise”. We also remembered when our mothers told us that “freedom without checks and balances is tantamount to advanced bondage”. By then it was too late for us. We had bought ‘their’ freedom lie.

Maybe for you, it is not yet late. Then please don’t be deceived by their lies and evil propaganda. Do not be swayed by their subtle message of freedom.
They’re all lies! We can prove it with our relationships, drug addictions, unwanted pregnancies, violent tendencies etc.
Beware, and please warn other youths so the menace will not colonise all of this generation.

Why Not INDIA GRAVITATE THE WORLD WITH AN INTERNATIONAL CURRICULUM FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION?

Why Not  INDIA GRAVITATE THE WORLD WITH AN INTERNATIONAL CURRICULUM FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION?

“Let Noble thoughts come to us from every corner of the world.”

However, I had never been a pessimist. I had been raising this question in many platforms for the last several years. I believe we can; and rather we should. We have the capability, may be our infrastructure is not as best as it could be. That is indeed a very poor reason for our refusing to think big.  We can think differently.

When we have raised airports which are globally competitive in just a few years, when we have built medical and health care competitive to global standards, when we have built hospitality industry which claims international quality, when our communication and media industries have set global standards, when our automobile industries export their products to global portals, when our software industries compete with their global competitors successfully, can’t we have an educational system which is globally attractive? It is not a far cry; there is enough substance and strength in the Indian education system- its philosophies are built on human needs addressing not to temporary consumerist values, but values that have proven credibility and acknowledged worldwide, its objectives have always touched the empowerment of human inner strength. Yes, we derailed and articulated our content and methods to fit into the consumerist needs and engaged into the rat race of setting unrealistic competitions between the learners. But we can reengineer and design the curriculum based the international values advocated since several centuries into the outfit of the modern thought architecture. We have a large number of positive thinkers in several walks of life whose wisdom can help in the design of this international architecture of a global curriculum. This can well be framed within the framework of the policies of the Government without any deviation. I wonder, why we shouldn’t address to this issue. It is unfortunate that most top educational institutions in the country engaged in policy administration have been only managers of the policies and programs without providing leadership that would impact. It is time, a country like India, should stand up and provide leadership in education instead of fire-fighting with trivial issues.

A few years back, when one of our national boards came with a pilot project, I really felt elated that we would set a new pathway. Unfortunately, like the proverbial statement that a bad workman fights with the tools, we could find reasons to give it up. One of the State Governments has recently come with this idea of International curriculum and I believe it should indeed survive the time and the onslaughts of routine thinkers whose ‘learned helplessness’ encourages them to build roadblocks to any new edventutre.

If our educational architecture, can allow international curricula imported from other countries, there is no reason why we cannot have an international curriculum competitive to them or that would find markets at global platforms. Possibly, the Government should let private entrepreneurs to examine this idea – if we can have private universities in this country doing well, why not private interventions at school level? It may be a difficult proposition to accept initially, but I think with the dynamics of education opening up in all possible directions, and the very idea of ‘learning’ becoming increasingly informal and with greater demands for ‘personalized learning’ – such initiatives are worth examining. I have always been an optimist…

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Schizoid Personality Disorder

People diagnosed with this disorder can be cold, distant and reclusive, shying away from closeness or intimacy. They can get caught up in their own thoughts and hold back from getting involved with other people. This pattern is indicated by four (or more) of the following (from DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Association, 1994):

1) neither desires nor enjoys close relationships, including family relationships

2) often chooses activities that don’t involve other people.

3) has little interest in having sexual relations with another person

4) enjoys few activities

5) lacks close friends other than immediate family

6) appears indifferent to praise or criticism

7) shows emotional coldness, detachment, or little emotional expression.

Group counseling

Group counseling provides a unique forum for individuals to make changes in their lives. Unlike individual counseling groups provide a realistic social setting in which the client interacts with peers who may be sharing the same or a similar concern and have some understanding of the problem. The counseling group allows members to be open, honest and frank about their problems and provide a situation in which it is safe to test ideas and solutions to problems. Moreover through the group process and its interactions and sharing of experiences, clients learn to modify earlier behaviour patterns and seek new, more appropriate behaviours in situations that require interpersonal skills.

Group Size:
Ideal size of counseling group is seven or eight members with an acceptable range of five to ten members. In small group (three or four members), member interaction diminishes, and counselors often find themselves engaged in individual counseling within the group. On the other hand in large groups the intimacy and comfort diminishes and groups become less personal and more mechanical in their process. Larger groups also increase the risks that some members may be inadvertently overlooked to the extent that their needs are not satisfied.

Group Process:
The elements of the group counseling process share much in common with those of individual counseling. These may be separated into their logical sequence of occurrence.

The Establishment of the Group:
The initial group time is used to acquaint the new group membership with the format and processes of the group, to orient them to such practical considerations as frequency of meetings, duration of group, and length of group meeting time.

Additionally the beginning session is used to initiate relationships and open communications among the participants. The counselor also may use beginning sessions to answer questions that clarify the purpose and processes of the group.

The establishment of the group is a time to further prepare members for meaningful group participation and to set a positive and promising group climate.The group counselor must remember that in the initial group sessions the general climate of the group may be a mixture of uncertainty, anxiety, and awkwardness.It is not un-common for group members to be unfamiliar with one another and uncertain regarding the process and expectancies of the group regardless of previous explanations or the establishing of ground rules.It is important in this initial stage of group establishment for the leader to take sufficient time to ensure that” all the groups’ members have their questions and concerns addressed; that they understand the process and begin to feel comfortable in the group. Of course, the impression that the group counselor makes in this initial stage is of utmost importance to the smooth and successful process of the group.

Group Role and Goal:
Once an appropriate climate has been established that at least facilitates a level of discussion, the group may then move toward a second, distinct stage:identification. In this stage, the group identity unfolds, the identification of individual roles emerges, and group and individual goals are established jointly by the counselor and group members and are made operational. All these develop simultaneously at this stage of the group counseling process.

The early identification of goals in group counseling facilitates the group’s movement toward a meaningful process and outcomes. Goals are stated in objectives that are not only measurable but are also attainable and observable and are likely to be realised in view of the group strategies planned. It is also important in this process that the sub-goals of each individual group member is recognised and responded to in turn.

Counselors need to be aware of the probable, or at least possible, conflict and confrontation that may emerge during this stage of the group’s development. Yalom (2005) labels this second phase “the conflict, dominance, rebellion stage.”

He considers it a time when the group shifts from preoccupation with acceptance,approval, commitment to the group, definitions of accepted behaviour, and the search for orientation, structure, and meaning, to a preoccupation with dominance,control, and power. The conflict characteristic of this phase is among members or between members and leader. Each member attempts to establish his or her preferred amount of initiative and power. Gradually a control hierarchy, a social pecking order, emerges.

As members attempt new patterns of behaviour and new approaches to group goals, different perceptions as well as differences in solutions generated by the individual members may lead to a range of behaviours from normal discussions to active and open confrontation. In this stage, the counselor needs to keep the discussions relevant and prevent them group members from making personal attacks on individuals’ values and integrity. The counselor should also remain alert to the possibility that silence of certain group member may be a signal of resistance rather than group compliance. At this stage the group members might express their dissatisfaction with the group process or leadership when controversial issues are discussed or when there is a difference between the way a group member sees himself or herself and the way the group stereotypes the individual, leading to the member’s challenging the reactions or impressions of the rest of the group.

However, when conflicts and confrontations occur, a more cohesive group usually emerges, resulting in increased openness in communication, consensual group action and cooperation, and mutual support among the members.

Productivity:
As the group achieves some degree of stability in its pattern of behaving, and the members become more deeply committed to the group, and ready to reveal more of themselves and their problems productivity process begins.This sets the stage for problem clarification and exploration, usually followed by an examination of possible solutions. In this regard, the group counselor clarifies the individual and group concern.This clarification includes a thorough understanding of the nature of the problem and its causes. Next along with the group members the counselor identifies what the group desires to accomplish, examines all possible solutions in terms of their consequences and also whether it is capable of being realised (obtainable). Finally the group members employ the chosen solution to achieve the desired outcomes. In this entire process, by making their own decisions members establish their ownership of the problem and the chosen solution.

Realisation:
By the time group members reach this stage they recognise the inappropriateness of their past behaviours and begin to try out the selected solutions or new behaviours, making progress toward realising their individual goals. They take responsibility of acting on their own decisions. The counselor at this point encourages the sharing of individual experiences and goal achievement both inside and outside the group. Although success with the new behaviours may provide sufficient reinforcement for many members to continue, for others a support base of significant others outside the group needs to be developed in order to help them maintain the change once the counseling group is terminated.

Termination:
Termination may be determined by the counselor or by the group members and the counselor together’.Termination, like all other stages of the group counseling experience,counseling, requires skill and planning by the counselor. It is most appropriate when the group goals and the goals of the individual members have been achieved and new behaviours or leanings have been put into practice in everyday life outside the group.

At times the group members resist termination of a counseling group and continue indefinitely as the counseling group provides a base for interpersonal relationships,open communication, trust, and support. Therefore it becomes important that from the very beginning the group counselor keeps on emphasising the temporary nature of the group and establish, if appropriate, specific time limitations and reminds the group, of the impending termination as the time approaches. Under less favorable circumstances, groups may be terminated terminated when their continuation promises to be nonproductive or harmful, or when group progress is slow and long-term continuation might create over dependency on the group by its members.

The point of termination is a time for review and summary by both counselor and clients. Some groups will need time to allow members to work through their feelings about termination.Even though strong ties may have developed along with pressures from the group to extend the termination time, those pressures must be resisted, and the group must be firmly, though gently, moved toward the inevitable termination.