COSC 512 Group Counseling

This course focuses on group work in a school setting. A variety of small groups are explored as well as the counseling techniques that fit best in the school environment. Standards blending is a key element of focus as it relates to group design and development. This is a competency-based course with an experiential emphasis where students are required to demonstrate their small group counseling skills that align with a variety of theoretical approaches.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Persons involved in both professional counseling and helping ministries find that group work can be an important strategy for conducting their daily work. Therefore, knowledge of group theory and the development of group leadership skills are essential to their becoming more effective practitioners in either setting.

Textbook readings and lecture presentations/notes

No details available.

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Quizzes (18)

Each quiz covers one chapter of the Gladding text and consists of 10 multiple-choice questions. Each quiz will have a time limit of 20 minutes and will be open book and notes.

Quiz: Emergency Contact Information

In order to participate in the intensive portion of this class, students must complete the Quiz: Emergency Contact Information, located in Module: Intensive Week.

Quiz: Group Disclosure and Consent Form

In order to participate in the intensive portion of this class, students must upload the Group Disclosure and Consent Form in the Quiz: Group Disclosure and Consent Form, located in Module: Intensive Week.

Quiz: Group Leader Feedback

During the Intensive, the student will participate in the role of the process observer. This role requires the student to observe and provide verbal and written feedback to the group leader. The student will need to print 12 physical copies of the Group Leader Feedback Form to bring to the intensive. Each day, the student will take a picture of their completed form, upload it into the Quiz: Group Leader Feedback, and hand the completed physical copy to the group leader.

Quiz: Intensive Attendance and Participation

In order to pass this class students must attend the intensive week portion of the class. During the week, students will be graded on attendance, punctuality, preparation, and participation. Points are lost for being late, missing one or more hours of class, being unprepared and not participating. Students will participate in a small (personal growth) group as a group member, group leader, and process observer. Each day of the intensive week, students will be assigned to the role of a group member, a co-leader, and a process observer. On the first day of the intensive students will be instructed on the expectations of each of those roles. Participation is graded for these activities. Simply sitting without contributing, in any of these roles is not enough to pass the course. For this quiz, students will provide a self-evaluation on the Quiz: Intensive Attendance and Participation Grading Rubric, based on their participation during the intensive week. Professors will determine the students’ final grade for attendance and participation during the intensive week, but will take the students’ self-evaluations into account. 

Students will work in a small group to develop one group session that presents a psychoeducational topic. 

Allender Journal Assignments (5)

During the intensive week, students will complete the assigned reading and journal questions as per the intensive week schedule. Journals are due each day of the intensive by 8 AM. Because these journals are the basis of class, no exceptions will be made for late submissions. The student must bring a hard copy of their journal each day to the intensive.

Discussions (3)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences in which both the student and the instructor interact to bring more content and learning to the experience. Therefore, the student will create a Discussion Thread in response to the provided prompt for the assigned Module: Week. The student will post an initial thread of 200-250 words, and post a reply to 1 classmate in 100-150 words based on the provided reply prompt. The thread and reply must incorporate a minimum of 2 scholarly sources each. The initial thread is due on Thursday of the assigned Module: Week, and the reply is due on Sunday of the same Module: Week.

Benchmark Critical Incident Paper Assignment

The student will choose 1of the 2 ethical scenarios provided in the Benchmark Critical Incident Paper Assignment Instructions, and apply the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics to the scenario. The student’s response must be 300 words total.