Post your understanding of task groups as an intervention for children. Use the model for effective problem solving to compare and contrast (how to identify the problem, develop goals, collect data). How does this model differ from a traditional treatment group? What are the advantages and possible disadvantages of this model? Describe how you might use this model for adults. What populations would most benefit from this model?
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Task Groups in the School Setting:
Promoting Children’s Social and
Emotional Learning
Patricia Van Velsor
San Francisco State University
Through social and emotional learning (SEL), individuals develop skill in
negotiating relationships successfully and expressing emotions appropriately.
The socially and emotionally intelligent child reaps benefits in school and later
life. Counselors are best qualified to promote children’s SEL and the task group
in the classroom provides an excellent opportunity for them to do so. In the task
group, students can learn and practice crucial skills in vivo while they work
together to complete a task. The counselor’s strategic attention to promoting task
completion while facilitating SEL can serve to highlight the benefits of group work
in the school learning environment.
Keywords:
schools; social and emotional learning; task groups
Because humans are social beings, they spend a great deal of time
interacting with others and much of that interaction takes place in
groups. As Sonstegard and Bitter (1998) so aptly stated, ‘‘to be human
is to ‘live’ in groups’’ (p. 251). The group (e.g., family, peer) serves as
the ‘‘primary socializing influence’’ in children’s development (Kulic,
Horne, & Dagley, 2004) and the nature of the social environment in
those groups leads children down a path toward either prosocial or
antisocial behavior and beliefs (Hawkins, Smith, & Catalano, 2004).
Children develop social skills and prosocial behaviors through
social and emotional learning (SEL). Although there are various definitions of SEL, Zins, Bloodworth, Weissberg and Walberg (2007)
define it succinctly as ‘‘the process through which children enhance
their ability to integrate thinking, feeling, and behaving to achieve
important life tasks’’ (p. 6). Five competency areas—self-awareness,
self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible
Patricia Van Velsor, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling at
San Francisco State University. Correspondence concerning this article should be
addressed to Patricia Van Velsor, Department of Counseling, San Francisco State
University, BH 524, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132. E-mail:
[email protected]
THE JOURNAL FOR SPECIALISTS IN GROUP WORK, Vol. 34 No. 3, September 2009, 276–292
DOI: 10.1080/01933920903033495
# 2009 ASGW
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decision-making—are basic to negotiating school, work, and life
responsibilities effectively (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and
Emotional Learning, 2000–2009).
Social and emotional intelligence, acquired through SEL, has been
associated with various positive outcomes in school and life. A socially
and emotionally intelligent child is less likely to develop aggressiveness, depression, and=or violent behaviors (Poulou, 2005). Children
who develop social and emotional intelligence are also more resistant
to difficulties related to drugs, teen pregnancy, and gangs (Elias et al.,
1997). Moreover, variations in children’s social and emotional functioning significantly predict current and later academic achievement
(Greenberg, Kusche?, & Riggs, 2004; Parker et al., 2004).
The small group in the school setting provides an excellent opportunity for counselors to enhance children’s positive mental health
through SEL. Children can better their social skills, unlearn
inappropriate social behaviors, and try out new skills in a safe
environment (Akos, Hamm, Mack, & Dunaway, 2007; Thompson &
Henderson, 2006). Generally, the small group format used with children is psychoeducational (Corey & Corey, 2006) and a common
approach to SEL in the schools is to pull targeted children out of the
classroom to learn about appropriate skills and practice those skills
in a small group. Another approach, however, is to make use of the
task group, which focuses on the application of group process principles to task completion (Corey & Corey, 2006). If used in the classroom
setting, the task group can offer children the opportunity to learn and
apply social and emotional skills and behaviors in a real life situation
as they work together to accomplish an identified task. Moreover,
when conducted in the classroom setting, all children can profit from
the opportunity to enhance their social and emotional intelligence. The
overall goal is to promote SEL for a broad range of children, which in
turn can lead to other positive outcomes.
When considering the task group in the school setting, it makes
sense that students could benefit in three ways. First, the task group
affords children the opportunity to learn about a topic as they work
together on a project of educational importance. Second, students have
the chance to acquire valuable social and emotional skills for working
in groups related to cooperation, collaboration, and mutual respect.
Third, students may well gain a sense of accomplishment when the
task is completed, hopefully bolstering self-esteem.
The purpose of this article is to encourage counselors to embrace the
task group model in the classroom setting to promote the SEL of
students in vivo and to help equip all students with the social and
emotional tools necessary to work cooperatively and collaboratively
in a group. In order to implement the task group, counselors must
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develop a clear understanding of this approach and its multiple
benefits in the classroom setting. With this knowledge, counselors
can then determine ways to identify appropriate tasks for school
groups, and develop strategies to facilitate both task completion and
group process for optimal SEL.
UNDERSTANDING THE TASK GROUP MODEL
AND ITS BENEFITS
Before initiating the task group in schools, it is important to understand the goals of a task group. The main goal of the group is completing
a task (e.g., a work project, event planning) rather than changing the
individual for therapeutic reasons or personal growth (Gladding, 2008).
However, successful functioning of the task group requires attention
to the principles of group dynamics aimed at accomplishing the task
and improving interpersonal interaction in the process (Corey & Corey,
2006; Gladding, 2008). Although teachers may already assign tasks to
small groups or make use of small group learning in the classroom, they
may lack the necessary skills to facilitate SEL in the group process
(Elias, Bruene-Butler, Blum, & Schuyler, 1997). Counselors, however,
have training in group dynamics and process and can utilize that knowledge to promote SEL as children work together to complete a task.
The task group in a school is different from the typical one in an
organization where each member takes responsibility and is accountable for his or her own contribution to the overall effort (Katzenbach &
Smith, 2003). Instead children in the schools can benefit from the task
group that operates like a team. Although teams, like other task
groups, focus on results and develop individual products, teams are
more interdependent and more collaborative (Brown, 2009: Gladding
2008; Stanley, 2006). In the team model, there are shared leadership
responsibilities and accountability for the team product; that is, the
team members do ‘‘real work together’’ (Johnson & Johnson, 2009,
p. 527). All students in the schools can benefit from working together
and developing the abilities necessary to function as part of a team.
Because all students can profit from refining their social and
emotional skills, the task group in the school does not necessarily
target students with difficulties. Use of this approach is predicated on
the idea that a primary goal of counseling is to help all children ‘‘learn
to deal with life’’ (T. Gutkin, personal communication, December 2,
2008). Task groups are indeed a part of life; they are omnipresent in
American culture and part of everyday experience (Conyne, Crowell,
& Newmeyer, 2008) in schools, churches, work places, and community
settings. The skills learned can help children fulfill their roles
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successfully in family, school, friend, and work groups (Goleman,
1995). Promoting SEL for all students aligns with the Executive
Summary of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA,
2005), which directs school counselors to ‘‘identify and deliver the
knowledge and skills all students should acquire’’ (p. 1). Additionally,
SEL aligns with the public school’s mission to ‘‘assist in the socialization of the young,’’ identified in a U. S. Supreme Court case (i.e.,
Wisconsin V. Yoder) (Adelman & Taylor, 2003, p. 85).
Another noteworthy benefit of the task group in the classroom is
that it allows students to learn skills in vivo. Although teaching social
and emotional skills is important; providing children the opportunity
for ‘‘real-world application’’ of those skills is critical (Elias, 2004).
During transactions to complete a task, interpersonal exchanges happen naturally in the classroom, that is, authentic interaction occurs.
As differences in ideas and issues related to completing the task
surface and accompanying affect emerges, counselors can facilitate
the interchanges quickly (Barratt & Kerman, 2001). The counselor is
at hand to help children manage their emotions, effectively navigate
their interactions, and successfully negotiate their differences for optimal SEL. For students with behavioral concerns, who may not be able
to transfer skills from the counseling group to the classroom (Clark &
Breman, 2009), this real world experience may be essential to their
social and emotional development.
Students at risk for difficulties may benefit in other ways by cultivating social and emotional abilities in the classroom. In a counseling
group for social skill development, targeted students may have similar
difficulties and inadvertently learn inappropriate behaviors from each
other. In the classroom setting, however, students with less developed
social and emotional skills interact with students at higher skill levels
and can learn informally from the modeling of other students. Lopes
and Salovey (2004) identified informal learning, where students learn
behaviors through ‘‘experience, modeling, and observing’’ as a
valuable way to promote SEL (p. 78).
The task group as proposed here may also serve to highlight the
usefulness of group work in learning. Social factors often influence
learning, because effective learning frequently involves the ability to
communicate, interact, and collaborate with co-learners as well as teachers, peers, and families (McCombs, 2004; Zins et al., 2007). The task
group offers a fertile environment for students to develop positive
social relationships as they develop their academic skills. As children
learn to collaborate and function interdependently in the task group, a
better fit or ‘‘improved ecological concordance’’ between students and
their school environment emerges, which in turn can improve student
success both in and out of schools (Conyne & Mazza, 2007). Successful
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use of the task group by the counselor may then motivate teachers
to adopt the small group as part of the learning environment for
children.
IDENTIFYING A FOCUS FOR THE TASK GROUP
Although a significant goal in utilizing the task group is to promote
social and emotional learning, it is critical for the counselor to identify
a project that clearly incorporates an aspect of the school mission. For
example, a project might focus on an academic goal of a particular
classroom or grade level (e.g., meeting a specific curriculum objective),
or a school or community goal (e.g., conducting a service learning
activity).
The list of projects that could be implemented to address SEL in a
task group is endless and any activity that requires student collaboration in a small group could work. As an example, the literature circle, a
language arts activity designed to engage students in reflection and
critical thinking about reading (Daniels, 2001), could provide an excellent opportunity for incorporating SEL; because it can be adapted for
all age levels, already uses a small group format, and has been applied
in both mathematics (Kridler & Moyer-Packenham, 2008) and science
(Straits, 2007). In a typical model, the teacher assigns roles (e.g., facilitator, illustrator) and has students work on their tasks independently
before coming together for discussion. In the task group model, however, the teacher extends the process by assigning a project. The task
can be as simple as making a poster to represent the feelings of different characters in a story or as involved as creating a video to explore
character identity development related to the events in the reading.
The students then decide on what roles are necessary and how they
need to work together to complete the task. Although schools most
likely will already have designated readings within their curriculum,
the counselor may want to suggest books from the Bibliotherapy Education Project (http://library.unlv.edu/faculty/research/bibliotherapy/),
which offers an excellent list of books that focus on both counseling
and education topics.
Counselors who have not been teachers may balk at the idea of
focusing a group on an academic task; however, the counselor need
not be an expert in an academic area. The teacher provides the academic expertise while the counselor promotes the social and emotional
development. The logistics will require close collaboration between the
counselor and the teacher to create a suitable arrangement. After the
task has been identified, the counselor may circulate among various
task groups or work with one group at a time while the teacher works
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with the remaining students. In the task group, the counselor can
serve as a co-learner while he or she weaves SEL skill development
into the process and facilitates group interactions aimed at successful
task completion.
Working in the classroom may represent a paradigm shift for
counselors. However, it is consistent with a new ‘‘inclusion’’ model of
school counseling suggested by Clark and Breman (2009). This model
requires that all students receive counseling support through innovative interventions in classroom settings and requires counselors to collaborate and consult closely with teachers. The task group model
proposed here complements the Clark and Breman model, because it
necessitates collaboration with teachers and other school personnel
to identify a suitable project and involves implementation of the task
group in the classroom.
The best way to identify an appropriate task is through familiarity
with the school context. The school counselor who has been in the
school will already have intimate knowledge of school culture, but will
still need to spend time observing school activities and soliciting input
from others. The counselor new to the school, on the other hand, must
become well acquainted with the school environment by getting to
know, first students and school personnel (e.g., teachers, administrators, teachers), and then parents and community members. What
are the educational goals that the teachers share? What is necessary
to promote the achievement of the student body? For example, if there
are a large number of students living in poverty, what projects would
support their unique needs—in the classroom, the school, and the
community? Immersion in the culture—both school and surrounding
community—allows the counselor not only to identify projects that
support the school mission but also to design tasks that are sensitive
to values of the population served. Service learning projects that
require collaborative efforts offer excellent opportunities for addressing community needs and, at the same time, enhancing students’
social and emotional abilities. For example, small groups of younger
students may decide on a gift appropriate for a local senior center,
design the necessary steps to make their gifts, and finally, create
the gifts. Older students may research community needs and then
work together in small groups to design and carry out community projects. Although there are a variety of websites that describe school
service learning projects, one particularly comprehensive list for both
elementary and secondary levels comes from Mesa Service Learning
(http://www2.mpsaz.org/msl/about/).
The most important school personnel with whom to collaborate are
teachers, because counselors will need their support to carve out time
and space for the task group. Common complaints of teachers are that
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SEL activities take time away from an already overloaded academic
schedule (Elias, Bruene-Butler, Blum, & Schuyler, 2000; Mildener &
Keane, 2006). Careful selection of task group focus, however, helps
sidestep the criticism that time spent on social and emotional skill
development usurps valuable academic time. Rather, teachers view
the task as supporting their efforts rather than auxiliary to their
academic goals. At the same time, working closely with teachers in
the classroom may stimulate more positive attitudes toward SEL
activities and small group learning.
With a task identified, a counselor must not only assist children in
completing the task, but also help them to understand the importance
of the group process in task completion. Effective SEL in the task
group requires that children learn cooperation, social skills, and
prosocial values (Johnson & Johnson, 2004).
FACILITATING THE TASK GROUP FOR OPTIMAL SEL
A counselor facilitating a task group with children for optimal SEL
must perform a variety of functions. Unfortunately, in a recent survey
of 802 school counselors, many participants reported a lack of group
training aimed at working with children and adolescents in the
schools (Steen, Bauman, & Smith, 2008). Although the following information is not meant to substitute for group training, it does provide an
overview of functions that school counselors should feel comfortable
performing in order to facilitate a task group successfully for SEL.
The primary functions involve fostering positive interdependence
through team building and promoting interpersonal process by setting
appropriate structure and bolstering skill development. The literature
on process in children’s groups is scant (Leichtentritt & Shechtman,
1998; Shechtman & Yanov, 2001); however, along with the literature
on task groups with adults, it provides some direction for the counselor
carrying out these functions.
Building a Team
Simply assigning a task and asking children to work together
does not assure that they will become a team (Prichard, Bizo, &
Stratford, 2006). Therefore it is the responsibility of the counselor to
incorporate ways to build group cohesiveness. In an investigation of
children’s groups, child participants identified group cohesiveness—
encouragement, support, and acceptance from others—as the most
important factor in their group experience (Shechtman & Gluk,
2005). Thus, it is important to help children build new relationships
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or strengthen existing relationships around working on the task. So,
although task completion is primary, failure to attend to relationships
of students could result in negative outcomes for task completion and
learning.
Students in a school may already have formed relationships; however, counselors will need to develop activities focused on building
interdependent relationships and identifying appropriate norms of
behavior. Effective task groups devote time to learning about one
another, to culture building, and to nurturing collaboration and cooperation (Hulse-Killacky, Killacky, & Donigian, 2001). Because team
building involves learning prosocial behavior, norms should include
discussion of respect for others and promotion of other members’
efforts. Clear expectations for task completion and group behavior will
enhance student learning related to completing the task and acquiring
interpersonal skill in doing so.
Establishing Appropriate Structure
To promote SEL through the interpersonal process of the group,
counselors must establish appropriate structure. Counselors can do
so by attending to the developmental level of the children in the group
(Rosenthal, 2005); younger children need more structure. For all children, counselors need to provide more structure early in the group’s
development. Group facilitators optimize children’s experiences in
groups when they provide a safe environment for children to try out
behaviors (Mayerson, 2000) and the appropriate level of structure
helps provide that safe space.
An ideal structure for a task group involves balancing content and
process (Hulse-Killacky, Kraus, & Schumacher, 1999). The content
component of a group refers to the information shared; in a task group,
the counselor should make sure that all children clearly understand
the purpose of the group and the goals related to the task. Additionally, the counselor should pay attention to the content that children
share to get a sense of each child’s strengths and how he or she can
contribute to task completion. Too much attention to content in a task
group, however, may actually interfere with progress toward completing the task (Hulse-Killacky et al., 1999). The process component of a
task group deserves equal attention. Yalom (2002) defines process as,
‘‘the nature of the relationship between the people in the interaction’’
(p. 109). As it applies to the task group, process refers to the relationships between and among children and how those relationships
promote or inhibit task completion. By attending to the process, counselors can make sure that all children share their ideas, experiences,
and thoughts and contribute to accomplishing the task.
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In a successful group, the counselor does not attend to the process
alone; he or she makes sure that participants also attend to that process. From the onset of the group, the counselor structures a reflective
environment in which children evaluate the interactions and
dynamics of the group (Barratt & Kerman, 2001). The counselor frequently encourages children to examine their relationships to identify
how well they are working together and how they can better their
effectiveness (Johnson & Johnson, 2009).
Although structure is essential to group work with children, facilitators can best promote children’s SEL by knowing when to allow freedom within the structure. An important value of group work—that it
reflects real life most accurately (Akos, 2000)—is lost if a group is too
structured. A challenge is finding the balance between permissiveness
and appropriate structure and limits. In an exploratory study of
dynamics in children’s therapy groups, Mayerson (2000) found that
facilitators’ willingness to join the play process, when appropriate,
contributed to positive outcomes. Applying this to the task group, a
counselor must be flexible and fluid in stepping forward to take the
leadership role and stepping back to let the children lead. Johnson
and Johnson (2009) maintain that facilitators must decide when to
direct the children’s group, be ‘‘a sage on the stage,’’ or to be their
assistant, ‘‘a guide on the side’’ (p. 497). Children can lead their own
group when they have developed the ability to reflect on their individual and group behaviors and the skills necessary for working with
others.
Bolstering Skill Development
Important for the task group is development of skill in giving feedback, making decisions together, and solving problems and resolving
conflict. The ability to give constructive feedback sets the stage for
the other skills. In a task group, timely feedback fosters team development; because it increases member motivation and provides data to
help members work together effectively (Birmingham & McCord,
2004). In a study of interpretative responses—confrontation, interpretation, and feedback—of preadolescents in groups, Shechtman and
Yanov (2001) found that high quality feedback (i.e., direct and honest
personal reaction) precipitated productive responses (i.e., exploration,
insight, or change) while high quality interpretation (supportive
explanation of one’s behavior, feelings, or thoughts) or confrontation
(highlighting incongruencies) precipitated unproductive responses
(e.g., resistance, agreement). The authors concluded that minimizing
confrontation and maximizing high-quality feedback was most helpful
in group work with children.
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The challenge in the task group lies in helping children learn to give
constructive feedback (i.e., direct and honest personal reaction) that
supports task completion. This begins with counselor modeling; simply
by listening, paraphrasing, asking open questions, that is, using basic
counseling skills, counselors provide a positive example for children
and promote SEL. In using these skills, it is important that counselors
attend to the age of the children in the group to adapt those skills
appropriately (see Van Velsor, 2004). If children learn these skills,
they help to create a safe environment and set the stage for giving constructive feedback to each other related to task completion. Drawing
from several task group models, Hulse-Killacky et al. (1999) suggest
that members create guidelines for giving and receiving feedback,
reflect on behaviors and interactions that support or inhibit the group
work, and give clear feedback (i.e., using ‘‘I’’ statements, speaking
directly to others). Initially the counselor will model and direct appropriate communications, but children should eventually learn to
provide their own feedback. According to Sonstegard and Bitter
(1998), accurate feedback from children may facilitate the group process better than feedback from counselors.
Along with communication skills, children need to develop the
abilities necessary for decision making in task groups. Because good
decision making depends on effective processing of emotions (Bechara,
Damasio, & Bar-On, 2007), an important step is helping children
to develop skill in monitoring emotions that arise when differences
occur. In the task group, counselors can guide children in regulating
their emotional reactions and applying self-control in interpersonal
communication. Regulating emotion and gaining control gives children access to the clear thinking needed for problem solving (Elias,
2004). Johnson and Johnson (1995) identified a helpful process for
problem-solving negotiation, in which children (a) describe what they
want and feel along with the rationale for those, (b) listen and communicate understanding of other children’s perspectives, (c) formulate
three optional plans, and (d) select a plan from those options. This
model provides the opportunity for children to practice perspectivetaking, which is foundational to the development of empathy (Shapiro,
1997).
When problem solving among children breaks down and conflict
arises, the counselor will need to serve as mediator allowing time for
cooling off as necessary, ensuring commitment to mediation, and guiding children through the problem-solving process (Johnson & Johnson,
1995). Formalizing the agreement (e.g., with a handshake) is part of
both problem solving and conflict resolution procedures.
Once counselors have provided strategies for decision making,
problem-solving, and conflict resolution, they must decide when to
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let children direct the process and when they need to intercede. Some
group facilitators may tend to intervene quickly in any disputes,
conflict, or disagreement among children (Rosenthal, 2005) denying
them the experience of solving issues on their own, and in turn inhibiting their SEL from the process. On the other hand, an environment
that encourages creative and collaborative decision making, problem
solving, and conflict resolution by children promotes their optimal
social and emotional development.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Designing a task group for the classroom will require considerable
collaborative planning to identify what works with which students
based on academic learning objectives as well as student developmental level and culture. The counselor, in collaboration with the teacher,
must decide how much advance psychoeducation the students will
need related to decision making, problem solving, and conflict. It is
always best to discuss conflict resolution procedures before a heated
emotional situation arises.
Implementation would typically begin with a teacher describing an
academic assignment. Using the literature circle example, the teacher
asks students to rank a list of stories or books based on their interests.
The teacher divides students into small groups determined by their
choices and, after students have read the literature, they discuss their
reactions to and understandings of the reading. Next, the teacher
assigns a task for the group focused on student discussion. The scope
of the task (e.g., a map of the events of the story, a presentation on the
themes in the book) will depend on the age of the students and the
teacher’s learning objectives. This assigned task could take place
during one class period or over the course of several weeks.
As students begin work on the task in their small groups, the counselor’s expertise is tapped. If students are new to teamwork, the counselor conducts team building exercises and explains how students
must attend to the process as they complete their task. Schmuck
and Schmuck (2001) provide some simple process observation sheets
for younger students, which could be adapted in various ways for
many ages. These questionnaires ask students to identify specific
instances of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors evident in the group
and promote student analysis of their own experiences and actions
(SEL self-awareness competency) and those of others (SEL social
awareness competency). The observation sheets serve as stimuli for
discussion on group process as students work on their project, and,
in turn, the discussion serves as a learning ground for students as
Van Velsor/TASK GROUPS IN THE SCHOOL SETTING
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counselors help them give constructive feedback to each other (SEL
relationship skill competency).
Eventually, disagreements will arise in some groups over
procedures, goals, and relationships (Schmuck & Schmuck, 2001),
and such controversies offer, perhaps, the most valuable opportunities
for SEL. When students are involved in a passionate discussion that
appears to have the potential for escalation, the counselor must decide
when, and if, to step in and what intervention might facilitate optimal
SEL. Early in a disagreement, the counselor may ask students to
listen to each other and then verbalize the opposing perspective,
promoting student empathy and sensitivity to others (SEL social
awareness competency). If emotions are already heightened, the counselor may direct the students to self-monitor and share their feelings
related to the interaction before tackling a problem solving procedure.
This helps students to accurately assess their feelings (SEL selfawareness competency) and to regulate their emotions (SEL selfmanagement competency). As students become more skilled in
decision making and problem solving, the counselor may need only
to refer students to the steps of these processes.
There, of course, will be times when conflict arises and students
need a cooling off period. In facilitating student cool down, the counselor must use a course of action that works harmoniously with the teacher’s approach to de-escalation. When students have regained their
self-control sufficiently, the counselor secures the commitment of all
group members to the negotiation process, leads students through proble