1.- THE GROUP
In
order to carry out this course you need a GROUP. We are now going to
see wath the group consists of, its life cycle - that is to say its
birth, growth, consolidation, possible loss and many other generic
aspects.-
It is important to remember, the coordinator can bring something new and different to his GROUP, as he has greater knowledge.
The
GROUP will form having carried out different task and games. Remember
the basic principle: THE GROUP IS MADE UO OF REAL PEOPLE. Something, at
first sight this may seem obvious but the coordinators sometimes forget
this basic rule. The group is formed of people with their own virtudes
and defects, that have their own lives, besides belonging to a
determined GROUP, and which are influenced by a certain environment bet
it age, life style, society....For these people, the most important
quality of the GROUP IS THE PEOPLE. Following this are the objectives,
rules, roles, conflicts, etc.
Forming a group takes
time. Therefore, I ask the coordinators to be patient (see: monitors,
teachers, etc). It requires work and time, almost in equal parts.
Undoubtedly, it is fundamental that the people decide to form their own
GROUP, as if you force people to be together it is impossible. Once the
GROUP has been formed, in order for it to function, it will need a
series of characteristics:
-
Have common objectives
-
Unite all members of the group, including obviously the coordinator
-
Establish a series of behavioural rules
-
The
coordinator needs to be able appear as a member of the group. He needs
to know his position/job at every moment. He needs to be close to the
group.
-
There needs to be fluid communication within the group.
-
Make sure you are awaew that the group consists of real people. If necessary put yourself in your colleagues shoes.
Forming groups is
something typical of humans, we will see this happening from the first
day of class. The class will form groups according to age, for
example.These groups will sometimes consolidate or not. A group member
will look for someone with the same objectives. Groups will form and
the objectives and values of the group will coincide with their
behaviour.......there are sometimes people that try to integrate into a
ready built group for the simple fact of liking the tasks that the
group is carrying out or because they see the group as a way of
achieving a greater objective.
To summarize, people like to belong to groups to satisfy a series of
personal needs that they can not achieve on their own. Terefore, by
sharing and learning from other people, they in turn become better
people.