The experience of academics of nursing as workshop mediators with groups of adolescents

Abstract

This study reports the experience of the Tutorial and Educational Program students of the Federal University of Santa Maria as workshop instructors in teenage groups enrolled in the Project "Becoming Adolescent: growing and living". The workshop development was based in Participatory Methods. 19 play therapy and pedagogical workshops were organized in secondary schools during 2008 in the city of Santa Maria-RS. The participants were adolescents of both sexes between 12 and 15 years of age. The workshops helped the graduate students to create an open space for dialogue with the young people; it encouraged their commitment to the supervision of the group, it broadened their knowledge about adolescence and about participatory methods. In addition it assisted the graduate students to overcome challenges such as the lack of experience in performing group work during the graduation course, it helped them to appreciate the significance of all stages of group activities; and it highlighted the relevance of speech adjustments to the group context