The individual and group reflective practices are a qualitative tool that in a group context allows to analyze how the members develop more awareness and group skills that favor the implementation of individual and group empowerment. Regarding “group skills,” literature means those essential characteristics that a group must have for its proper functioning such as communication, leadership, creativity, organization, and collaboration (Tarricone and Luca, 2002). Reflective practices are defined by some authors (Schön, 1993; Perrenoud, 1994; Pescheux, 2007; Nuzzaci, 2011) as the ability to make inferences, consciously using previous experiences, theorizing the practice through a formalization of knowledge of action. In particular, the literature has highlighted those reflective practices are considered a qualitative tool useful in groups. The group has also been defined as a learning tool (Bruno and Dell’Aversana, 2018), a place par excellence that favors learning methods and complex training, as each member of the group brings different skills and qualities that are comprehended through comparison, discussion and conflict during the construction of an articulated competence (Pojaghi, 2005). Small group work, in particular, facilitates social well-being, social connection and self-motivation, all of which influence the development of professional growth (Dari et al., 2021). The group-work methodology is an experiential learning tool that initiates social and cultural change processes that can be implemented throughout professional fields, such as school, social, health, work, etc. (Bolocan Parisi et al., 1988). In general, the objectives of a working group include the achievement of a sharing of the issues discussed, a common purpose and a mutual commitment to action. The role of the facilitator is fundamental not so much for the content treated by the group but for maintaining the structure of the group and the success of the process. Groups have their own emotional life that influences and is influenced by their members, as each participant experiences the pressure of achieving what they want and balancing what is good for the group (Phillips and Phillips, 1993). Small group work, also referred to as cooperative learning, is a methodology that involves small groups of individuals working together on a common task (Villalba, 2007; Steen et al., 2008, 2014). As an example, teamwork is an important component of school curricula (Paisley and Milsom, 2007), and the participation of young university students in such teamwork is crucial for career development, especially as it is linked to higher academic achievement (Thanh et al., 2008; White, 2011). This methodology also improves peer interactions (Akos et al., 2007) and is comprised of processes like those encounters in the workplace. For example, teamwork in school requires many of the same skills as teamwork in the work environment, such as effective communication, brainstorming, collaboration, trust building, and conflict resolution (Tindale and Kameda, 2000). Group settings offer students the opportunity to observe and develop new skills through peer interactions and allow a safe and therapeutic space to practice those skills (Perusse et al., 2009). This allows them to gain strength and confidence, which carries over to other aspects of their lives, while also enhancing their advocacy skills (Diemer et al., 2010; Dari et al., 2021). Finally, as supported by Vinatier (2006), working and talking with others about lived experiences allows one to process and understand the facts and events experienced and to thereby formulate interpretations that are useful as one reconsiders certain practices.

The members of the group, reflect on and compare themselves within the contexts of their professional practice and question the sense of self in practice as they develop their own professional identity (Bruno and Bracco, 2016). Reflective practices concern reflective doing or operating, referring to the complex of modalities, strategies, procedures concretely implemented in reflection. For Perrenoud (2001) in particular, reflective practice is connected with reflexivity, as an identity that measures reality in nature or in the consequences of reflection on daily actions in one’s professional environment. In fact, such reflective practices are used in different contexts, including the supervision (Heffron et al., 2016) of work and learning, which then promotes the construction of new knowledge that allows for the creation of meaning and new actions, as well as more familiar contexts (Boud et al., 1985; Nuzzaci, 2011).

Reflecting on action allows an analysis developed from experience, a learning based on the “circularity between action and reflection” on which quality also depends (Bruno and Dell’Aversana, 2018, p. 346). Furthermore, reflection improves the quality of practice and service delivery (Heffron et al., 2016). The use of reflective practices is experimented in different contexts such as work and/or training, where the use of group work is a fundamental tool. According to Ghaye (2001), reflective practices allow workers (both as individuals and as groups) to develop empowerment with respect to tensions in the workplace. Empowerment is achieved through reflection, a critical analysis of one’s working reality to transform it and improve individual and working group well-being and satisfaction. Moreover, the group’s reflective practices in social work have also been redefined in online mode following the pandemic: Parrello et al. (2021) report a study on the use of the multi-vision group for the first time used in online mode, reflective group that aims to protect the well-being of workers.

With respect to the use of reflective practices with university students, some studies (Esposito et al., 2017, 2021) have highlighted the importance of using the narrative mediation path in an innovative group counseling method to favor the reflection or the development of the capacity for reflection and mentalization. In addition, reflective writing encourages students to express personal emotions, and through this, the learner has the opportunity to reflect on the entire learning process (Rué et al., 2013), thus giving way to a transformation of learning through a process of metacognition (YuekMing and Abd Manaf, 2014). Parrello et al. (2020) highlight how reflexivity is fundamental for practice in the context of studies related to social educational work.

The aim of this work is to highlight how individual reflective practices and group reflection contribute to the development of group skills. The effectiveness of relevant group dynamics is investigated, with the aim to create a space for reflection, discussion, and implementation, evaluating their effects with respect to how the tool of reflection of the group is used by students.

The participants are 130 students (86% females and 14% males), lived in northwestern Italy and had a mean age of 27.5 years (22–56 years, SD = 7.52). Furthermore, they enrolled in the master’s degree courses of the Department of Social Sciences (Psychology and Educational Sciences). The participants already had experience of online groups, as, in the midst of an emergency crisis caused by the COVID-19, the educational courses, in which the students had taken part in the previous semester, had been organized and conducted on the Teams platform.

Each participant at the end of the activities proposed weekly during the course wrote an individual reflective practice in the form of a diary structured by thematic areas, highlighting the positive and negative aspects of the group experiences, their involvement in the various activities, what worked or not in the group and the reactions of the participants to the empowerment experience. Group reflection practices were then carried out within the group, together with the researcher, which allowed to reflect on the group dynamics created during the various training activities, focusing on the most relevant ones, with particular attention to factors such as the climate, participation and the role played by each one. Each group reflection produced a collective written practice. In both modalities, individual reflective practice and group reflective practice, there were no limits of space, everyone was free to follow their own narrative modalities in the individual level while in the group dimension there was a group negotiation on how much to produce in the group narrative.

Participants joined the study on a voluntary basis with formal enrollment in a group training course, held during October and November 2020. The participants were randomly divided into 23 groups of 4–9 members. The students participated in several online training activities using the Teams platform, according to previously established rules: all participants had to have their screen on, they spoke one at a time. Groups were self-managed and there was no formal role of conductor. Each group completed a group work assigned by the teacher linked to the theoretical contents explained previously (for example designing a structured role playing, analyzing a film segment from the point of view of leadership styles and roles that emerged, designing a focus group). At the end of each activity proposed by the teacher, each participant in the group filled out an individual reflective practice and at the end of the course each group filled out a collective reflective practice after a group discussion, managed in this case by the teacher. There was no minimum or maximum writing limit for these practices. Only the research group had access to both individual and group reflective practices. The researchers assigned each individual reflective practices an individual code (IPP1 = Individual Practice Participant 1, IPP2, etc.) and a group code for collective practice (CPG1 = Collective Practice Group 1, CPG2, etc.).

The data collected through individual reflective practices and the transcripts of the group reflection on the several activities were analyzed through grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Two independent researchers analyzed the qualitative data following the constant comparison analysis technique (Leech and Onwuegbuzie, 2011). The approach is based on grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) and is supported using the software Nvivo12 (2018). The grounded theory, through a systematic and flexible methodology, helps to build models based on empirical data. The software was used to create a graphic representation and define a model based on the previously identified categories. The model is composed of nodes and sub-nodes, and their labels represent the categories and sub-categories identified by the researchers that exemplify the main themes that emerged.

This study analyzed 130 individual reflective practices and 23 group reflective practices. The total body of text individual reflective practices was 413,821 words, while that relating to group ones was 18,238 words. The total textual corpus was 432,059 words.

From the analysis of the practices, some sub-categories have been identified for each category, some that unite both types of practices, others specifically referring to individual practices and finally others still only referring to collective ones. For each subcategory, some significant sentences that best represent the subcategory itself are reported.

An analysis of the content indicates that the participants, due to the construction of individual and group reflections, paid greater attention to the dynamics that occurred within the group during the various activities. This enhanced their awareness of the various factors that affect the importance attributed to the different roles, the climate, and the degree of active participation. Combined, these factors allowed them to get to know each other better and strengthened the cohesion of the group.

In particular, there are some interesting aspects that emerged from the analysis of reflective practices, and which constitute the three categories identified by the researchers, that are represented in the model shown in Figure 1.

The first category refers to the use of reflective practice as an awareness tool for the group. The second category identified reflects on how individual and group reflective practices have been a tool for analyzing the dynamics of the group. Through the drafting of reflective practices, the participants identified salient points relating to the dynamics that occurred during the performance of group activities, touching both positive and critical aspects. A final aspect to consider is the way the activities were conducted. In fact, individual reflective practices proved to be a tool for analyze group dynamics online, from which some critical issues emerged, but also unexpectedly positive implications.

This study reports the findings of both individual and group reflective practices, with regard to the analysis of dynamics that occur within a group and the challenges confronting online groups. From the analysis of a textual corpus, it emerges that these practices are experienced as tools that accentuate the importance of the group’s ability to develop new reflections on an individual level and increase cognitive and social skills on a collective level. Furthermore, data highlights how both individual and collective practices are a tool that facilitates not only greater awareness of group dynamics but it also facilitates change thanks to the memory of the writing of a previous reflective practice, they had implemented a different behavior and role within the group. As reported by Mezirow (2003), the process of acquiring awareness may promote change. More specifically, the experience is translated, through reflection, into a changed conceptual perspective that forces the education professional and his community of belonging toward continuous identity crises and the loss of dogmatic temptations. That said, awareness comes from the action of the subject and the representation that he has created for himself (Nuzzaci, 2011).

The research highlights the use of reflective practice as a tool for self-reflection within the group and for the interpretation and processing of activities, and as such, it is fundamental for the group itself. The literature (Boud et al., 1993) gives credence to the importance of the group as a powerful training tool, particularly in the context of team and problem-based learning where learning is socially and culturally constructed and influenced by the socioemotional setting in which it occurs. In particular, the collective reflective practices, on the other hand, allow the group to reflect on its behaviors, thereby activating a more competent analysis of the contents learned and the behaviors implemented and providing greater awareness of the roles embraced within the group.

More specifically, an analysis of the results indicates that both individual and collective reflections are capable of leading to a greater awareness of the functioning and importance of the group as well as to the development of collective reflexivity and individual and group empowerment. Both from individual and collective practices, it became clear that a collaborative climate, the presence of different roles and high levels of motivation are fundamental to group success; as claimed, in fact, by Tarricone and Luca (2002), organization and collaboration are fundamental pillars of group skills. The literature (Fonagy and Target, 2005) speaks of reflective functioning as the process by which the behavior of others is understood, interpreted, and given meaning on the basis of thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and desires that motivate that behavior. From an analysis of the results, it is concluded that individual reflective practices are a qualitative tool that allow people who are part of a group to activate a process of introspection, interpretation, and functional elaboration of the group itself. Infact, in many case the writing is dictated by having experienced a wide range of conflicting feelings and reactions throughout the group activity. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that the writing of group reflective practices has allowed us to highlight that group activities increase cognitive and social skills and that, within the group itself, there is positive interdependence and co-responsibility in achieving the group’s shared goal/s. In this regard, a review of Høyrup and Elkjaer (2006) indicates that from an individualized perspective, collective reflection is perceived as an individual cognitive learning process that occurs in social contexts. Again, the role of conversation is fundamental and is defined as a dimension that stimulates dialog and reflexivity (Collin and Karsenti, 2011). Reflection on action also includes the notion of reflection on the relationship, that is, on how to create and maintain links with others and on the dynamics of groups and organizations (Nuzzaci, 2011). Individual reflective practices have also highlighted certain criticalities that working in a group entails a dimension that has not emerged in collective reflective practices. In fact, it is highlighted that, while on the one hand, circular communication can lead to an increase in interactions between participants, and thus favor comparison (Rania et al., 2021), on the other hand, there is the risk that discussion times will be increased, thereby risking the ability to fully achieve the task. Consistent with this, Brown and Miller (2000) underscored that the pressure of time to achieve results can be a source of stress. Other participants stressed that the activity of the group strictly focused on the task can lead to a lack of attention toward its members or, in general, toward the individual perspectives of the other group members. Bavelas (1950) and Leavitt (1951) proposed a model for describing communication networks and how they affect the productivity of the group. More specifically, the members of a group are conceived as beings in a relationship joined through the bonds of communication, where distance and centrality are quantitative indices to describe the different types of networks. According to the authors, centralized groups complete their tasks more easily than those groups arranged in a decentralized way. However, the latter are more satisfied with the work performed. Brown and Miller (2000) differentiate the types of communication based on the complexity of the task, showing that groups working on simpler tasks tend to use more centralized communication modes compared to groups engaged in more complex tasks. Finally, the participants, through their individual and group reflections, identified the particularities of the relational dynamics of groups that meet only through online platforms. It is, in fact, a new form of online interaction, which is increasingly widespread due to the COVID-19 pandemic and which, as highlighted in the literature, allows the individual to have positive experiences that enhance social and relational skills (Saldanha, 2020; Rania et al., 2021). In fact, interacting with unknown people in a virtual environment naturally resulted in change. However, the participants explained that the collaboration and group commitment to achieve their goals remained unchanged. In this regard, it has been found that the construction of a reflective group constitutes a protective factor for the well-being of workers (Parrello et al., 2021). The implementation of the group through the online mode was experienced by some participants as a critical issue, as there were, at least initially, difficulties linked to both emotional involvement and personal interactions, particularly for those who experience challenges speaking and interacting with strangers. The literature further suggests that the use of online platforms can present challenges, for example, with respect to non-verbal communication (Rania et al., 2021).

The analyzed results highlight that individual and collective reflective practices foster a greater awareness of the knowledge learned (Sabtu et al., 2019), the dynamics that occur within the group, and the emotions experienced, all of which, together, provide the opportunity to reflect on the learning process in its complexity (Rué et al., 2013). Furthermore, the writing of reflective practices compels students to accept co-responsibility in the learning context, which is fundamental in the development of meaningful and reflective learning (Bruno and Dell’Aversana, 2018). Among the limits of the research, it is evident that the participants would be students of the humanistic-social area, therefore more inclined, due to the type of training, to reflect on relational aspects and group dynamics. It would be interesting to use this type of reflective practices in different training contexts to verify how they can become tools of individual awareness also in other contexts and can allow the analysis of group dynamics even with subjects with scientific training.

Despite the limits highlighted, this research has also underlined some strengths; in fact, brought out as learning from experience, through reflective practices and using the group as a training tool, albeit online, can be an effective approach when used in a variety of contexts. For example, its use can stimulate reflection and comparison with one’s own context, questioning both oneself in practice and one’s own identity (Bruno and Bracco, 2016).

Among the implications related to this study, we highlight its usefulness in training professionals who work in teams or even for groups of operators who use the online mode in the workplace. as well as for professions that work mainly online. As Parrello et al. (2021) point out reflective group work can be an organizational tool to maintain the well-being of workers, even more useful during the lockdown period linked to COVID-19.

Finally, although group reflective practices have received little attention (Collin and Karsenti, 2011), this research allows us to affirm that the writing of these practices allows the participants to become more aware of their roles during the learning process in a group context that favors the development of both individual and group empowerment.

The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because the data cannot be shared for ethical reasons related to privacy, but the authors undertake to make the data available if requested for a valid reason. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to NR, nadia.rania@unige.it.

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. However, the research was carried out in accordance with the Ethics Research Recommendations of the Italian Association of Psychology and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Participation was entirely voluntary, confidential and anonymous. The participants were informed that they were free to withdraw from the study at any time. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

NR conceived the original idea of the study and supervised the results of this work. NR, IC, and LP contributed to the data processing and analysis, and wrote and organized the manuscript, presented the methodology, procedure and the data section. All authors discussed the results, presented the conclusion, and reviewed the manuscript and approved the final version for submission.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.