Teaching Group Work: Modeling Group Leader and Member Behaviors in the Classroom to Demonstrate Group Theory

Training in group counseling typically includes an academic component, although little has been written about how to teach a group course except for what specific content should be included. This article suggests that while teaching group counseling courses, instructors can intentionally model effective group leader behaviors and use these behaviors and the students’ responses to them as powerful ways to augment the didactic material being taught about group dynamics and theory. Specific techniques and examples are included along with a discussion of the ethical implications of developing a task or training group component within a group counseling course.