Amazon.com description: Product Description: Firmly based in social science literature and research, this basic practice text provides students with a good practical model of group growth and development that is easily comprehended and applied. The second edition is organized, as was the original, around the concept of skill as knowledge in action, with four dimensions of social work knowledge about groups and people in groups interacting and intersecting to dictate worker action to be taken. These four dimensions (stages and phases of group development, contract form in effect, role and location of worker vis-a-vis the group system, and program media utilized to enhance group social focus) are shown to apply in work with direct service groups as well as in groups beyond direct service (training boards, committees, task groups, etc.).