Effective Group Work with Young People

1 The role of youth support workers with groups of young people
2 Applying learning theory to personal learning and development group work
3 Assessing needs and identifying a topic
4 Setting aims and objectives leading to positive outcomes
5 Activities to enable personal learning and development
6 Getting the structure of sessions right
7 Skills to facilitate personal learning and development
8 Group dynamics
9 Managing challenging behaviour and attitudes
10 Evaluating personal learning and development

This essential, step-by-step guide is ideal for anyone involved in planning, preparing and delivering group work to young people. Written in a practical style, the book contains case study examples and suggests questions and activities to assist learning whether in a school or another learning context.

It explains what is meant by ‘Personal Learning and Development’ (PLD) group work and guides the reader through the process from identifying a focus and setting session objectives, to planning activities and evaluating the session outcomes.

This book offers practical advice on all aspects of group work with young people. Topics covered include:

• Learning theory
• The impact of group dynamics
• Advice on how to improve facilitation skills
• How to deal with challenging behaviour

This book aims to improve the confidence of those working with young people and ensure that the ‘group experience’ is a positive one for both the practitioner and the group of young people.

Effective Group Work with Young People is the essential handbook for all youth support workers including teaching assistants, learning mentors, personal advisers, classroom assistants and careers advisers.