Abstract
This study begins to bridge that gap in the hope that theory and practice may be brought closer together. The goal of this study, then, was to identify ways school social workers monitor and evaluate their school-based group work practice. The survey in this study was a mixture of 53 short answer, multiple-choice, and checklist quantitative questions and eight open-ended, qualitative questions. The quantitative questions asked respondents about group recording, communication, control issues, and goal setting for individual members and for groups. Qualitative responses were analyzed without the aid of software using open coding and grouping responses by themes. School social workers in this sample rarely identified group dynamics and processes such as social interaction and mutual helping as qualities they wished to see in a successful group. The finding that record keeping is often done by group rather than by individual records is complicated by the finding that goals are generally determined for individuals rather than for the entire group. Although many school social workers are evaluating their group work practices, most are evaluating individual performance using subjective means. It is imperative, therefore, that school social workers take the opportunity and use their own voices to document the worth and value of this important social work methodology.