Group-Centered Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students


Book Description

School psychologists, counselors, and educators in the K-12 setting face the daunting responsibility of finding balance between mandated testing, students’ mental-health concerns, and additional academic help for at-risk students. One solution to this dilemma is to implement a school-based mental health approach that combines learning and counseling needs into a single program. Several types of successful programs are available, though week-long intensive programs have recently increased in popularity. Group-Centered Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students focuses on the development of such a week-long prevention program, and provides professionals with step-by-step directions to create their own program. It also focuses on the use of group-centered interventions as an opportunity to prevent at-risk behaviors as a means of correcting or changing dysfunctional behavior. This highly readable volume addresses such challenging issues as: Using self-reflection to teach writing skills. Increasing interpersonal interaction while honing etiquette. Enhancing group acceptance and reading comprehension. Rebuilding self-efficacy by increasing word recognition and decoding skills. With its solid research foundation combined with clear, practical program descriptions, this volume is an essential addition to the libraries of researchers and practitioners alike in the disciplines of school psychology, education, social work, psychotherapy and counseling, and clinical child psychology.




After-School Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students


Book Description

After-School Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students offers professionals a detailed framework for developing and enhancing after-school programs. Emphasizing a prevention focus and a group-centered interactive approach, the book's year-long model combines education and counseling, incorporating key therapeutic objectives to foster academic and behavior skills and reduce problems in and outside class. Practical step-by-step guidelines for creating and implementing programs include clear rationales, instructive design and case examples, and ready-to-use interventions. The author also provides guidance on developmental, gender, and cultural considerations, the challenges of maintaining progress over the course of the school year, and the handling of severe learning and emotional problems. Among the topics covered: Organizing a group-centered after-school program. Combining learning and counseling into one curriculum. The role of motivation in an ongoing year-long program. Group process, self-efficacy, cohesion: applying the principles of change. Interaction in a year-long program. Solving problems and conflicts. After-School Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students is an essential reference for scientist-practitioners, clinicians, and academics in such disciplines as school psychology, childhood education, social work, psychotherapy and counseling, and learning and instruction.




Group-Centered Prevention in Mental Health


Book Description

This book presents the concept of group-centered prevention and provides explanations and exercises for learning the method and teaching it to others. Detailed studies offer evidence for the continuing importance of prevention in mental well-being and distinguishes group-centered prevention from other group interventions by its ability to resolve incipient mental health issues and emotional problems. Case examples with adults, children, couples, and others demonstrate successful uses of group-centered techniques as well as illustrate the problems that arise in group settings. The book's ready-to-apply training exercises give prospective group leaders practice in starting new groups, fostering cohesion, integrating therapeutic factors into sessions, and other core skills. Featured topics include: Group-centered prevention in contrast with other group interventions. Characteristics of effective leaders in group-centered prevention. Benefits of prevention groups as opposed to those gained in counseling and therapy. Key constructs of self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation in group-centered prevention. Stages of development in new groups. Formats for developing training exercises. Group-Centered Prevention in Mental Health is an essential resource for scientist-practitioners, clinicians, and researchers as well as graduate students in such disciplines as school psychology, social work, and public health. Its educational uses span classroom, workshop, and training settings across the health and healing disciplines.




Teaching At-Risk Students to Read


Book Description

This Brief provides the theoretical foundation of the Camp Sharigan program, while discussing its practical applications and summarizing research studies. It addresses the question often raised in literature and in school-based settings: What is the most effective way to teach children to read? Chapters explore a group-centered approach to correcting reading failure and offers research-based field studies to demonstrate the success of the Camp Sharigan method. The group-centered theory combines learning and counseling into the same program to strengthen education and mental health. In addition, creative-art therapy techniques are also explained and demonstrated. Featured topics in this Brief include: Vowel clustering and its use in improving phonemic awareness. Why group-centered prevention is better for teaching. The importance of cohesion and cohesive-learning in group-centered prevention. The use of individualized rotation to increase motivation and instruction in children who struggle to read. Teaching At-Risk Students to Read is as an essential resource for psychology and educational professionals as well as researchers and graduate students who are interested in improving teaching methods with at-risk students, reducing school dropout rates, increasing intrinsic motivation for struggling readers, changing to an effective method for teaching children to read, improving student engagement, and strengthening self-regulated learning.




Prevention Groups


Book Description

"This book is part of the 'Prevention practice kit : action guides for mental health professionals,' a collection of eight books each authored by scholars in the specific field of prevention and edited by Dr. Robert K. Conyne and Dr. Arthur M. Horne. The books in the collection conform to the editors' outline to promote a consistent reading experience. Designed to provide human services practitioners, counselors, psychologists, social workers, instructors, and students with concrete direction for spreading and improving the practice of prevention, the series provides thorough coverage of prevention application including a general overview of prevention, best practices, diversity and cultural relevance, psychoeducational groups, consultation, program development and evaluation, evidence base, and public policy. This book is endorsed by the Prevention Section of the Society of Counseling Psychology of the American Psychological Association. Fifty percent of all royalties are donated to Division 17 of the APA.."--Back cover.




After-School Programming and Intrinsic Motivation


Book Description

This book examines the eight-year development of the Reading Orienteering Club after-school program, showing how to develop, test, change, and adapt an after-school program to fit the needs of the children who attend. It includes case studies and data reports for each year and presents the theory, application, and program evaluation steps that workers in the field or students learning about program design must follow. Chapters present first-person accounts as well as statistical evaluations of the effectiveness of the reading program with each group of children. In addition, chapters highlight the changes that were made in program design and why each change was implemented, giving practitioners the insights needed to adapt interventions and strategies to their own programs. The book concludes with recommendations from the authors on how to run a successful after-school reading program. Topics featured in this book include: The effect of intrinsic motivation to mental wellness in the classroom. The importance of oral reading in correcting reading failure. Group-center approaches to teaching reading in the classroom. How to select the best evaluation tool. The challenges of mixing inner city and rural students in a reading program. After-School Programming and Intrinsic Motivation is an essential reference for scientist-practitioners, clinicians, researchers, and graduate students in such disciplines as school psychology, childhood education, social work, psychotherapy and counseling, and learning and instruction.




Service Learning in Higher Education


Book Description

Zusammenfassung: This practical guide assists university faculty in developing and implementing service-learning courses and projects across multiple disciplines. It examines how embedding academic service-learning projects into the core curricula benefits not only the students, but also their universities and communities. The book describes ways in which service learning becomes a powerful teaching method using step-by-step explanations, real-world examples, and instructor checklists and handouts. Chapters detail how to integrate academic service-learning projects into classroom pedagogy and evaluate student experience. Key areas of coverage include: Strategies for ensuring that students engage with academic service-learning projects from the initial stages through completion. Guidance on embedding an academic service-learning curriculum into traditional coursework to supplement students' textbook knowledge and classroom experiences to address real-world problems in the community. Research confirming the ways in which students learn more and score higher on end-of-the-semester tests when courses incorporate academic service-learning projects. Steps to incorporate service-learning projects across various disciplines and coursework to enrich student learning and produce positive outcomes for universities and communities. Service Learning in Higher Education is an essential resource for professors and graduate students as well as teachers and educational professionals in such varied fields as school and clinical child psychology, educational psychology, social work, pedagogy, educational practice and policy, sociology, anthropology, and all related disciplines




Group Interventions in Schools


Book Description

Tapping into the therapeutic potential of groups, this volume presents the theory and practice of cognitive-oriented group-centered counseling – combining intrinsic motivation, efficacy retraining, and targeted play therapy and social role-playing – that can be implemented to help children build core social skills and emotional regulation to complement their classroom instruction. In addition to providing a complete framework for developing, facilitating, and evaluating group interventions with children in their natural learning environments, this book offers observational exercises to assist readers in gaining a deeper understanding of group interventions.




Handbook of Group Counseling and Psychotherapy


Book Description

The most comprehensive and thoroughly researched text available on this topic, Handbook of Group Counseling and Psychotherapy, Second Edition underscores the notion that group work is improved through increased collaboration between researchers and practitioners. Edited by renowned leaders in the field, this thoroughly updated and revised Second Edition explores current literature and research and offers suggestions for practice in psycho-educational, counseling, and therapy groups. The Handbook is divided into five main sections: current and historical perspectives, best practices, multicultural and diverse groups, groups in special settings, and an introduction to special topics.




The Fast Track Program for Children at Risk


Book Description

"The authors conducted a prevention program called Fast Track, consisting of multicomponent, home-school prevention activities carried out with at-risk children from first to 10th grades over a 10-year period, to prevent serious antisocial behavior and youth violence and achieve positive social, emotional, and academic outcomes. They describe the research that informed the design of the program as part of their Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, how the study was implemented, and outcomes up to 20 years later. They discuss the context for youth violence prevention in the US; the developmental and intervention research that informed the design of the program; the study design and the children and families who participated in it; interventions and impacts in elementary, middle, and high school years; early adult outcomes of the program; implications for developmental theory and research on the prevention of violence; and how communities can address the problem of future violence by focusing on high-risk young children."--Provided by publisher.