Group Supervision
The current renewed interest in group supervision in social work education is based on the premise that the ‘traditional’ one-to-one student-practice teacher model is not sustainable in the present resource context. While the driver for this new emphasis might be resource-based, it is becoming clear that there are many benefits from working with students in group supervision. Group supervision can enhance the supervision experience for the student in many ways. Trevor Lindsay (2003) provides one of the few overviews of group supervision and notes a number of advantages for the student, including
- It offers a wider range of learning experiences
- It is a forum for sharing problems and solutions
- It can feel less intense than one-to-one supervision
- It can be a site of peer support
- It can support the development of professional identity
Conversely, group supervision can have some disadvantages for the student
- Individual needs may be overlooked in favour of group needs
- There is a potential for rivalry which may inhibit learning
- There is potential for negative peer feedback which can result in students not fully engaging in the group