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Elaine Clanton Harpine, Ph.D., has published extensively on topics related to group-centered prevention, intrinsic motivation, and reading education. During her many years of experience, she has worked with children, youth, and adults.
Group-centered prevention combines learning and counseling. Group-centered prevention can be used with a variety of health prevention groups, family and parenting groups, school-based problems and community-based groups. Group-centered prevention brings about change by using interaction and group cohesion. The focus is on interventions that use hands-on activities with intrinsic motivation as an essential component. Group interaction plays an indispensable role in effective group-centered prevention. Group-centered interventions create a positive environment where children, teens, or adults can learn how to work together. The idea is to develop a working laboratory where group members can learn to solve problems and overcome failure in a supportive group environment.
Be sure to read Elaine's column, "Everyone Learns Differently," in The Group Psychologist. Her previous column about student retention and social promotion was also published in The Group Psychologist.
Also look at the review by John Dagley of Elaine's book, Group-Centered Prevention in Mental Health. Professor Dagley comments that Elaine "has contributed greatly to our understanding and promotion of prevention group work for years."
Group-centered prevention is the most effective way to bring about change and conduct an effective group program. Any group can be made more effective by increasing the interaction between group members. To be effective, the group must be cohesive. Cohesion requires interaction. The group members must work together, talk and listen to one another, and commit themselves to the group’s success.
Local hospitals with cardiac patients are organizing prevention groups to help patients prevent future heart attacks. A marriage and family counseling group working on anger management also uses prevention group interventions. Anger management groups can use prevention techniques instead of just having people sit around and listen to a lecture. It's more effective. Group-centered prevention combines learning and counseling in the same program and can make each of these group efforts more effective.
In education, research also shows that teaching is more effective when combined with counseling. The teaching strategies and counseling interventions must be combined in the same program, at the same time. It's not as effective if counseling is merely tacked on later. Group-centered prevention educational programs combine teaching and counseling in the same program. This is the approach I use so successfully with at-risk and failing readers.
Copyright 2015, 2016, 2019 Elaine Clanton Harpine
If you teach a child to read, you can change the world.
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E-mail Elaine at clantonharpine@hotmail.com
Copyright 2015-2020, Elaine Clanton Harpine
