Individual Response PaperOne of the things that I learnt from the experience I had is the fact that between age 12 and 14, girls go through a tremendous amount of mental, social and physical development as they get into adolescence. Since their peers have a strong influence over them, these girls will tend to be overly conscious about the image they portray in public. They strongly believe that a positive opinion by their peers will grant them social acceptance. This phenomenon is a manifestation of the Person in Environment Theory which states that an individuals behavior can only be fully understood once his or her environment has been analyzed.Elements of a persons behavior are best explained in relation to the environmental variables that exist. A key component of this theory is the influence of a persons systems on his or her behavior. These systems may include the circle of friends. Family members, religion and also academic institution attended by the person. The existence of stressors in any one of these environments will have an adverse effect on the behavior of an adolescent.Several things went well with the group projectCommunication between the members was efficient and this made it possible for us to give our material to Michelle Rollison who compiled the material and came up with the final group presentation timeline. Kelly Phucket and I studied the story of a girl on YouTube who was bullied to the point of attempting suicide. Michelle Rollison and I also looked at a story on bullying that was presented in a newspaper article. Kirsten Coulter and Savannah Ellis compiled statistics on bullying while Jocelyn Morrow brought in Research material that was important in piecing the rest of the material together. Basically the coordination between the members was great.The Strengths of the groupOne of the key strengths that the group had was our ability to adhere to the timeline set by meeting outside class in a punctual manner. The sacrifices made by each member enabled us to complete the project on time. This attitude is the same thing that made our presentation successful. The daily meetings we had brought everyone to speed with regard to their role in the project.Skills, Competencies and their effect on the groups progressThe skill of coordinating people which the group leader Michelle has helped a lot in ensuring the different members worked together. While some members were paired, others worked individually to research on different aspects of the study we were conducting. Evidence of her coordination skills were well manifested in the effectiveness of the group presentation. Joceline on the other hand is creative and this led her to propose the inclusion of a quiz at the end of the presentation. The purpose of this quiz was to make sure that all members who attended the presentation adequately understood what we had prepared. This is the quiz that focused on the 12-14 year old girls who were accused of bullying their classmate to the point of her attempting suicide. The final presentation would not have been what it is had it not been for Kristens organizational skills. She put our work together meticulously before the set deadline of November 12, 2013. Cooperativeness by the rest of the members also helped as it made the work of the leader easier.Areas that might have done better for both individuals and the entire groupThe thing that could have been done better by the group was practice prior to the presentation. Though preparations had been made, I felt that we could have done a better job in the presentation. I partly blame this on the fact that one of the meetings meant for the preparation of the presentation was poorly attended. This occurred on November the 8 when only three members showed up for the 7.30-8.30 meeting. This was the only challenge I can think of.Me as the group facilitatorOne thing that I learnt about the interest group we had focused our research on was that they have specific needs such as to be given a chance to figure out solutions to challenges on their own. Social workers neednt handle each and every challenge the girls have as their independence is increasing. This will be realized best if bullies recognize the negative impact they have on their victims.PreparationThe purpose of our exercise was to encourage bullies to learn how to deal with personal challenges and this was based on the on the fact that bullies are more likely to act on their peers instructions rather than an authoritative figure. The social worker devised a system of sharing whereby the students were divided into groups of six and each girl accused of bullying wrote her name and something nice. These were then placed in a bag at the center of the table. The social worker then read each comment aloud and the work of the group members was to reflect on what was being said so as to help make positive the negative elements that emerged.
For this to happen, the girls were supposed to write down something nice about the girl they bullied and something bad about themselves. As a social worker I was supposed to read these out but I opted to put them aside and let the girls communicate verbally as this is more effective. Later on I was commended by one of the girls for how well I did and this encouraged me to embrace thinking outside of the box as a social worker.Self-Evaluation of my performanceMy focus group was a group of girls who are accused of bullying a colleague to the point of her attempting suicide. I believe I did quite well and as such intend to meet this group later on to follow up. This will have the effect of making me more productive as a social worker. The exercise met the developmental tasks and needs of the group in the several ways such as addressing the person-in-environment theory, working towards a resolution of eliminating bullying, allowing them to work with peers who are the same as them and empowering them to improve their behavior.
This exercise is consistent with Social Work values and ethics in several ways such as Empowering clients to resolve issues on their own, not giving advice and letting the client choose their own path, showing the group the Importance of Human Relationships; working with others teaches them a better way of life in the future, recognizing Dignity and Worth of each person through respectWhat I have learnt from the entire processI leveraged on the situations at hand as a means to teach me social work. I also learnt that I need to be constantly prepared since I dont know what people go through at different points in their lives. Once I become a social worker, the experience I got from this project will help me greatly.ReferencesNotes and minutes made during the course of the group project