Auvrei A.

Martin
MAEd – GC
Journal Review
Effectiveness of Group Counseling with Problem Solving Approach on Educational
Self-efficacy Improving

I. SUMMARY
A. Bibliography
Sohrabi, R., Mohammadi, A., and Aghdam, G., (2013). Effectiveness of group
counseling with problem solving approach on educational self-efficacy improving.
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013), 1782 – 1784.

B. Problem
Researches have stated that self-efficacy is an important factor in educational
progress. Students who have high self-efficacy exert much effort to accomplish their
homework, persevere in school, and are more successful than their peers. Self-efficacy
drives students to work on achieving their goals, boost their self-esteem, and learn
with enthusiasm. However, studies also found out that a great number of students have
poor educational self-efficiency.

C. Review of Literature
The short-term problem-solving method was introduced in the 1990s and became
a trend back then. This method is believed to be a speedy way to solve problems and
at the same time directs clients straightforward to their goals. It is most effective
during group counseling sessions as students can relate with one another and can use
others’ efficiency cases as basis to improve their own.

D. Hypothesis
This research study hypothesized about affecting students’ educational self-
efficacy through problem solving counseling in a group session.
E. Methodology
The method used was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test and control
group. The participants were 2nd Grade girl high school students of Tabriz City from
the year 2010-2011. The researchers identified the students with low educational self-
efficacy through multiple-phase cluster accidental sampling. The participants were
divided into two groups: experimental group and control group. The study was
conducted during the 3rd term of the school year wherein the participants’ mean age
was 16. The instrument used for the experiment was an educational self-efficacy
questionnaire entitled Morgan-Jinks Student Efficacy Scale (MJSES). The
questionnaire was created by Morgan and Jinks. It contains 30 items with 3 subscales
(Talent, Context, and Effort). The items are designated by likert-scale with 4 options
(1-completely disagree to 4-complete agree). Scoring and interpretation was simple as
the higher the scores mean the higher the self-efficacy.

F. Results and Discussion

The result of the study showed that group counseling with problem solving
approached is an effective method to improve students’ educational self-efficacy.
Specifically, subscales such as Talent, Context, and Effort are also identified to have
significant positive changes after applying the said method.

II. OVERALL CRITIQUE

Discovering an alternative method from the traditional one counselee per session
is indeed an advantage for the counseling profession. Counseling practitioners are fully
aware that there is a unique approach for every client during counseling sessions. With
this new concept, it can be considered as a new technique especially with students who
are having difficulty coping with the demands of the school. Aside from other factors that
affect students’ performance in school, now we can also take a look at their talent,
context and effort, which also contribute to their low educational self-efficacy.

Another gain from this method is the speedy management of the problem. It
would be like hitting two birds with one stone – counseling multiple clients in expedited
sessions. From the group counseling session, clients will also build new relationships
with their peers and they can help each other in improving their educational self-efficacy.
In handling group-counseling sessions as such, I believe that counselors should be
properly trained in this specialization to avoid mishandling of the situation and the
clients. It is important to always consider the principle of nonmaleficence when
conceptualizing a way to assist our clients.

I noticed that our course usually focuses on the one-counselor-one-counselee

method more often than not. Although it is the usual set-up, it might be helpful to also
inculcate techniques and skills needed to facilitate a group counseling in our academic
discussions. It would be like thinking outside the box as we are able to explore more of
our options in handling clients. Yes, group counseling is also discussed in the course, but
the discussion is not really in-depth as there is so much more emphasis on micro skills
and techniques in the traditional set-up. Updating the course of the alternative ways to
deal with clients is an advantage to the aspiring counseling practitioners as they will be
have diverse knowledge, thus, making them prepared to face real world counseling
sessions with competence.

Personally, I think that the article has enlightened me that I can also come up with
new ideas to make counseling sessions more fun and at the same time still on the path of
achieving the main goal of our profession. Although I wish that the researchers of the
article made some comparison too between students with low-efficacy who joined the
group counseling session and those who underwent the usual counseling set-up. Maybe
we can compare from there, which is a better way to address educational low self-
efficacy. I find the method to be similar to team building because they work together as a
group towards a common goal and that is to improve their self-efficacy at the same time
building a healthy relationship with their peers. If given the chance, I would like to adopt
this method in my current work. I would also be strongly recommending it to be a
practical way to deal with clients and if I am already in the counseling profession I would
definitely give it a try to students who are facing difficulties in school.