AL IBTIDA: JURNAL PENDIDIKAN GURU MI (.......) VOL .... (....): .... - ....

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.24235 / al.ibtida.snj.

Al Ibtida: Jurnal Pendidikan Guru MI

ISSN: 2442-5133, e-ISSN: 2527-7227
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Journal email: alibtida@syekhnurjati.ac.id

The Implementation of Solution Focused Brief Group Counseling Using Puppet

Media to Reduce The Aggresiveness of Elementary Student

Syska Purnama Sari *

* Bimbingan dan Konseling, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas PGRI Palembang
syskapurnamasari@gmail.com

Endang Surtiyoni, M. Pd**

** Bimbingan dan Konseling, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas PGRI Palembang
surtiyoniendang@gmail.com

Abstract Children who have high aggressiveness will grow up to be disobedient

teenagers, so the role of a counselor is very crucial. The counselor can provide
intervention with a solution focused brief group counseling approach using puppet
media because the counselee is elementary school students, so that the puppet can help
elementary school students express their emotions and thoughts. This study aims to see
the implementation of solution focused brief group counseling as an effort to reduce
aggressiveness of elementary school students. The method of this research is qualitative,
while the data were analyzed using data reduction, data presentation and making a
systematic summary. The field results indicate that the implementation of solution
focused brief group counseling using puppet media was carried out with six procedures
including identifying objectives, identifying exceptions, questions detailing behavior,
identifying past success experiences, using scale questions and writing messages. This
approach was also carried out in six meetings, the duration of each meeting ranges from
25-30 minutes. The advantages of using this approach are (a) Using a group counseling
strategy (b) Using puppet media (c) Providing reinforcement (d) Using emoticons as a
substitute for scale questions.
Keywords: Implementation, Solution Focused Brief Group Counseling,
Agresiveness, Elementary Student.

INTRODUCTION
Aggressiveness is a form of individual behavior with low social skills. Individuals who have
aggressive behavior usually cannot control themselves. Currently, a lot of elementary school
students display acts of violence, so aggressive behavior is not a new problem for parents and
teachers in elementary schools. We are familiar with the violence that has been carried out
either en masse or individually. The violences occur in schools, homes or communities.
Forms of violences done are verbal (insulting) and non-verbal (hitting or attacking).
Moreover, in modern times like today violence is also carried out through social media.
According to Schick, Andreas, Cierpka & Manfred, they argue that during middle or
elementary school age, children often engage in negative behavior such as aggressiveness
(Schick & Cierpka, 2016)
According to Ali and Utami, aggression is an act that can be classified as aggressive
behavior if the action is intentionally done to hurt or harm others(Ali & Utami, 2013). In
addition, according to Baron & Byrne, aggression is deliberate torture to hurt people(Ageng
Suseno, Sri Hartati, 2014). So it can be concluded that aggressive behavior is a form of
behavior in the form of torture and violence that is deliberately done to hurt others.
According to Buss & Perry, there are four forms of aggressiveness, namely physical
aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility(Buss & Perry, 1992).
A phenomenon that has just happened in India told that an elementary school child killed
his own friend because he lost playing a game (Pangajouw, 2020). Another phenomenon in
Balikpapan, a child in sixth grade of elementary school killed his friend in the second grade
because his friend insulted his parents with nicknames (Supriyatin, 2006). In addition, in
2014, a first grade child at Tamalanrea V Makasar Elementary School, South Sulawesi, was
attacked by three of his school friends (Syafirdi, 2014). The Indonesian Child Protection
Commission (KPAI) received reports of 24 cases in the education sector with children as
victims and perpetrators from January to February 13th , 2019 (Abdi, 2019). From this
phenomenon we can learn that the behavior of elementary school children is very worrying
and special attention are very necessary.
According to Alhadi et al, aggressiveness that is carried out consecutively and over a
long period of time is predicted to have a negative impact on both the perpetrator and the
victim (Alhadi et al., 2017). The high level of aggressiveness possessed by children and
adolescents must be resolved from an early age in order to prevent more dangerous behaviors
in the future. As from the results of research that aggressive behavior during childhood and
adolescence is a predictor of subsequent anti-social problems (Setiowati et al., 2010). Thus,
elementary school students who have displayed violent behavior can immediately be
provided with responsive services in order to reduce their aggressiveness which can interfere
with their self development.
One of the efforts that could be given to solve the aggressive behavior of elementary
school students is by providing guidance and counseling services to elementary school
students. Currently, there are very few teachers of guidance and counseling in primary
schools. Ideally, elementary schools should have a counseling teacher or counselor to help
the homeroom teacher facilitate the development of students or counselees in achieving
independence. According to the Indonesian Guidance and Counseling Association, Guidance
and counseling teachers or counselors can collaborate with classroom teachers to help
students achieve their optimum development in personal, social, study, and career fields as a
whole (Kemendikbud, 2016). Furthermore, the effort that could be done is to provide group
counseling with a brief solution-oriented counseling approach using puppet media to help
reduce the aggressiveness of elementary school students.
The group counseling service was chosen because the research subjects were elementary
school students. One of the characteristics of elementary school students in the social aspect
is that the child has begun to become interested in working with groups. As stated by the
Indonesian Guidance and Counseling Association, elementary school children began to show
interest in peer group activities, and their desire to be accepted as group members grew
stronger (Kemendikbud, 2016). For this reason, it is appropriate that the service chosen is to
use group counseling services.
The approach used is solution-focused brief counseling. According to Wiyono,
solution-focused brief counseling has several characteristics, including: Concise, solution-
focused, goal-oriented and targeted on the present and the future (Wiyono, 2015). The
results of the research from Putri et al stated that there were differences in the level of
student aggressiveness before and after being given treatment with creative arts-based
solution-focused brief counseling (Putri et al., 2019). So from the results of these studies it
can be said that student aggressiveness can be reduced by solution focused brief group
counseling using puppet media.
The counseling that has been carried out uses puppet media and group counseling
strategy. Due to the research subjects are elementary school students, who are eager to play
and especially play in groups, it is expected that by using puppets and group counseling
strategy, the counselee will be more interested and enthusiastic in following the counseling
process. According to Burn, puppets have great potential to be used by elementary school
teachers because they can help improve communication, overcome language barriers and
teaching self-control (Wallace & Mishina, 2004). Self-control is needed by children who
have high aggressiveness. It is relevant to what Hastuti has mentioned, self-control can stop
the emergence of aggression and vice versa. If the self-control is not there, it can strengthen
the appearance of aggression (Hastuti, 2018). Therefore, the solution-focused brief
counseling approach, with group counseling strategy using puppet media can be an
alternative treatment that could be given by counseling teachers or elementary school
counselors and working with homeroom teachers to reduce aggressiveness of elementary
school students.

METHODS
The method used in this research is qualitative, whom the subjects are parents,
counselors, students who have a high level of aggressiveness. The data collection method is
through document review, observation and interview techniques. While the data were
analyzed using data reduction, data presentation and making a systematical summary.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results showed that solution focused brief group counseling using puppet media to
reduce aggressiveness of elementary school students was carried out by means of several
procedures. According to Sugara, there are six brief solution-focused counseling procedures
in a group setting, namely: identifying objectives, identifying of exceptions, questions
detailing behavior, identifying past success experiences, using scale questions and writing
messages (Sugara, 2019).
1. Identifying Objectives
The first procedure performed in brief solution-focused counseling is to start introducing
yourself as a counselor and creating a good relationship with the counselee and asking
questions about aspects of the counselees’ life that have nothing to do with the counselees’
reason for attending counseling.
2. Identifying Exceptions
The exceptions are identified using the miracle question technique. The purpose of asking
miracle questions is to clarify goals in concrete and specific forms, to create a picture of the
life of the counselee, how they will look like in the future when they behave properly and
find no problem. It’s also used to provide practice in order to achieve the goal.
3. Questions detailing behaviour
In this procedure the counselor can give more detailed questions than the second procedure,
the question is a reciprocal question.
4. Identifying past success experiences
In this procedure the counselor asks about the success that has been done. The counselor
helps the counselee find three successful experiences in the past.
5. Using Scale Question
The next procedure is to ask the counselee to assess the current condition in achieving the
goal which uses a scale of 0 to 10 to establish a basis for measuring progress. In the previous
researches that have been done, counselors use emoticons to change the scale questions. The
saddest emoticon represents the number 0 and the happy one represents the number 10.
6. Writing messages
Before writing a message, the counselor needs to find out more relevant information about
the counselee as part of the resources to be prepared in the message.
The research method of solution-focused brief group counseling using puppet media
to reduce aggressiveness, which has been carried out by the counselor for six sessions,
including the following:
1. The first session, the counselor conducted the opening of the first meeting by providing
brainstorming to the counselee. The counselor invites the counselee to dance together.
 This was done to create comfort for the counselee, then the counselor asked why the
counselee should actively participate in the group. After that, the counselor asked the
counselee to identify the aggressive behavior they have been doing, such as fighting,
attacking, insulting friends, saying rude and swearing, and even someone running away
from home because of fighting with their siblings. Next, the counselor and counselee
make an agreement to try to reduce the aggressive behavior. Furthermore, the counselor
invites the counselee to play hand puppets, the counselor gave miracle questions to the
counselee to identify their behavior if they were no longer resentful, easily insulted,
fighting with friends and saying harsh words and become better children. According to
Sugara, the miracle question was given with the aim of clarifying goals in concrete and
specific forms, creating a picture of the counselees’ life that can be seen in the future
when they behave properly and find no problems and to provide mental training of what
the counselee does to achieve the goal (Sugara, 2019). Furthermore, the third procedure
for counselors was to give questions detailing behavior. The counselee answered the
question. The question is complementary, the counselee answered the question by still
using a hand puppet. In the fourth procedure, the counselor helped the counselee identify
experiences of the counselees’ success in controlling his aggressive behavior in the past.
In the fifth procedure, counselors asked each counselee to rate themselves on a scale
based on their current condition. The scale used in the study was the emoticon puppet.
The counselor gave 10 emoticons to the counselee. The sad emoticon represents a scale
of 0 and the happy emoticon represents a scale of 10. Each counselee was asked to
choose an emoticon that represented their feelings when they were given miracle
questions, and they were asked to provide a reason for choosing the emoticon. Then the
counselor invited the counselee to make an agreement with themselves and their group
friends to become better children and control their aggressive behavior. The counselor
asked each counselee "what they would do if they wanted to get better emoticons". The
counselor recorded every response from the counselee on the miracle card and the card
is handed over to the counselee. The last procedure is to write a message to the
counselee. The counselor wrote a message to the counselee about what they should do
while at home and will report it at the next meeting. Finally, the counselor closed the
session by inviting prayer and singing together.
2. The second up to sixth sessions are basically the same procedure. However, at the
beginning of the meeting, the counselor asked the counselee about the positive changes
that had occurred. Then, the students were asked to assess themselves through sad
emoticons until they were happy. The counselor then gave them encouragement to
achieve the success that each member wants and uses detailed questions to explore the
changes made by group members. Group members also reflected on the impact of their
behavior to themselves and others. At the end of the meeting, group members were
asked to share with each other the improvements they have felt and it was expected to
motivate each other. In addition, researchers also provided rewards in the form of praise
and prizes to group members who showed better behavior changes. The punishment was
also given to group members who show aggressive behavior during the counselee
process. The third to sixth sessions follow the same procedure as the second session.
From the counseling process that had been carried out from the first to the sixth
sessions, there was a change in aggressive behavior towards the seven counselees who had
high aggressiveness. From observations made during the counseling process, counseling also
showed changes in behavior. For example, in the first session, on average, students insulted
their friends who were talking, some liked to interrupt their friends, some even almost hit
their friends because they felt annoyed with the friend. However, in the second session they
were able to control these kinds of behaviors, although in the second session there were still
some who tried to interrupt their friends and lie. However, the aggressive behavior they
displayed was not as frequent as in the first session. The third, fourth and fifth sessions of
aggressive behavior gradually decreased, even if someone accidentally got angry or annoyed
their friends, they immediately realized this and changed their behavior for the better, even at
the last meeting, they looked better at behaving. Observations were also carried out by
researchers in the home environment of each counselee. At home, most of students was able
to control themselves to be less resentful, not to fight, and to be more patient. Besides, in the
social environment around them, they can control themselves better.
Apart from making observations, researchers also conducted interviews with parents,
friends and neighbors around the counselees houses. According to the answers from the
interviewees, the counselees were able to reduce their aggressive behavior. The counselee be
more patient and control themselves from behavior that hurts others. Researchers also
conducted interviews with counselees, they said that after attending brief solution-focused
counseling, they could become better individuals, they were also more liked by the people
around them. They also said that they felt happy attending the counseling, because they did it
while playing and it wasn't boring. Some of them even asked for another counseling.
The advantages of brief group counseling strategy with a solution-focused counseling
approach using puppet media to reduce aggressiveness of elementary school students are
1. The counseling strategy used is group counseling, because in group counseling there are
group dynamics. According to Prayitno et al, the group dynamics in the group approach
aims to foster the ability to control oneself. Thus, in the group it is required to have an
attitude of respect for friends, tolerance and togetherness, accompanied by
considerations of which one is better and acceptable to others. It becomes the guidance
of self-control behavior (Prayitno, Afdal, Ifdil, 2017). In addition, according to
Nusantoro and Turniati, group counseling can be carried out to provide assistance to
students, especially elementary school students, to solve their problems (Turniati, 2015).
2. Using puppet media. The use of puppet is considered to be an advantage in this approach
because the counselee can attend the counseling while playing with dolls, so that the
counseling does not seem rigid. As expressed by Hurlock, the elementary school age
children are at the stage of play (Hurlock, 1999). In addition, Istati and Rahmi mention
that playing can encourage children to be able to interact and having adventures (Istati &
Rahmi, 2017).
3. The existence of providing reinforcement to students. Students who show that they can
control their aggressive behavior are rewarded with praise and prizes. Reinforcement is
given to motivate students to eliminate the aggressiveness they have, leading them to
form better behavior. As expressed by Wahid et al., Appreciation has a positive effect on
human life and can encourage individuals to improve their behavior (Saputra et al.,
2017).
4. The scale used in this study are emoticons, because elementary school children have
difficulty assessing themselves using numbers. As stated by Bujuri, the cognitive
abilities of elementary school aged children are still concrete and real.They still have
limitations in abstract thinking (Bujuri, 2018). For this reason, by using emoticons, the
counselee will be able to easily assess themselves.

Figure 1. The counselor is providing students with solution focused brief group counseling
CONCLUSION
Based on the analysis and discussion above, it can be concluded as follows:
1. The implementation of solution focused brief group counseling using puppet media to
reduce aggressiveness is carried out with six procedures including identifying objectives,
identifying exceptions, questions detailing behavior, identifying past success experiences,
using scale questions and writing messages. This approach is also carried out in six sessions.
The duration of each session ranges from 25-30 minutes. The first session began with
creating comfort to the counselee and continues according to the procedure. The second to
sixth sessions were basically the same procedure. But at the beginning of the meeting, the
counselor asked the counselee about positive changes they experienced.
2. The advantages of using solution-focused brief group counseling using puppet media to
reduce aggressiveness are (a) Using group counseling strategy (b) Using puppet media (c)
Providing reinforcement (d) Using emoticons as a substitute for scale questions.

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