Group+formation+and+field+research

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** Group formation and field research: Challenges for service-learning ** Sharon Shields, Professor and Associate Dean of Professional Education, Vanderbilt University [sharon.l.shields@vanderbilt.edu]

Heather Smith, Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University [heather.l.smith@vanderbilt.edu]

Neal Palmer, doctoral student, Vanderbilt University [neal.a.palmer@vanderbilt.edu]

Laurel Lunn, doctoral student, Vanderbilt University [laurel.m.lunn@vanderbilt.edu]

Suzanne Pratt, doctoral student, Columbia University [suzanne.pratt@vanderbilt.edu]

**Keywords:** Group development, collaboration, participatory research, student researchers

**Track:** Higher education student outcomes

**Format:** Research/Scholarly paper

This presentation outlines how a participatory research project (conducted during the summer of 2009) originally designed to assess obstacles to healthy eating and living in a rural community also provided an opportunity for a professional counselor to explore process-oriented evidence connected to group effectiveness. A group development and dynamics framework is used to report on the process of collaboration and the understandings and meaning-making of student researchers and community partners.
 * Summary **

Suarez-Balcazar, Harper, and Lewis (2005) define a community-university partnership as an “explicit written or verbal agreement between a community setting (community-based organization [CBO] in this case) and an academic unit to engage in a common project” (p. 85). Such relationships also increase the likelihood of true consent from the community, rather than only from those individuals directly involved in a project (Minkler, 2005). As of the submission of this proposal, no literature on community-university research partnerships has identified a participatory research group’s (group level = meso) pattern for growth and change across the group’s lifespan. Furthermore, no research has been reported on the meaning-making of student researchers and community partners at the individual (micro) level of analysis in such a project.

Participants engaged in this presentation will be able to:
 * 1) Explain how a professional counselor served as consultant for a community-university partnership using a participatory research model;
 * 2) Understand how a professional counselor assisted in the analysis of one research team's group-oriented functioning (e.g., attention to product and process);
 * 3) Explain the importance of group-oriented processes for student meaning-making of early research experiences; and,
 * 4) Improve collaboration among clients, practitioners, and researchers using evidence-based research and best practices in group work.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The presentation will conclude with implications for future professional counselor consultation and for the practice of facilitating groups of researchers.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There were no references provided with this proposal.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">References **


 * To access materials from this session please click on the file link(s) below:**

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