The second “best practice” for group work is to look for the best in people. Refrain from going into the project with negative expectations of the assignment or members of the group. In addition, bar yourself from masking your own insecurities by pointing out faults in others. Look for and expect the best from every member of the group, including yourself. Ask yourself how what each person’s strengths are and what makes them a valuable contribution to the group (Hunter,
I have never been in a group project that everyone did an equal amount of work and did it right. I tend to always be the group leader, doing everyone’s work. I know if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. Another probably important and frustrating thing is that I don't have Microsoft Word, I have a new Apple Computer, so I have whats called “Pages” instead of “Word” documents. I am still working out how to use it properly and to its full extent. Another fault of mine is trying to make everyone happy to the extent that when i can't i feel pretty bad about
Something that we learned as a group was that cooperation helps a lot. Certain tasks were accomplished faster and this showed us that one person does not have to do the entire project on their own. Procrastination is also detrimental, causing cramming on days before deadlines. This can be stressful and force meetings to be postponed. Our group has also learned to follow a set schedule. Following a schedule allows us to complete all of our work on time.
Reid Hastie, in his book “Wiser,” discusses many of the common points of how groups succeed and fail mainly due to group think. Throughout his years of research, he found a number of attributes that effective teams have in common. From his book, we have extracted ten important lessons that we believe are the most important for teams to learn and implement to be high performing. These findings also relate to the “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” that are outlined by Patrick Lencioni. Teachings taken from “Wiser” are symptoms, or indicators, of dysfunctions within a team, and many of his solutions help teams to overcome certain dysfunctions.
We take on several projects at one time and are successful due to our communication skills, support for each other and we accomplish the job and it is completed effectively and efficiently. If there is a problem in the group, we stop and discuss it, right then so we put everything out on the table, work through it, so the work can continue without fail. There is no fear, so communication flows freely. This group is by far one of the best I have ever worked within an organization.
The method that I used was the encourage member to member because I wanted everyone to feel like they were a part of the group and I wanted them to share freely without feeling like they had to monitor their responses because there was a leader present. I think that this was helpful to me because to have a team, you must first make everyone feel at home and assure them that there are no judgments or criticisms within the group and assure everyone that they can speak freely. If everyone feels like they are an active participant in the group, they are more likely produce quality work and be team players. When people feel like they are being judged or that people aren’t listening to them, they tend to not want to follow through
As a group, our goal is to work cohesively to complete our tasks. We also hope to do well on said tasks, while completing them in a timely manner. In addition, we hope to avoid “groupthink” in times of deliberation and planning. Going along with our goal to avoid groupthink, each of us hope to learn and expand our horizons on new perspectives shared by our group members. We can accomplish this through encouraging each other to show up to class as well as constantly acknowledging and validating everyone’ opinions. This will contribute to the team climate because we expect everyone to be open and respect other’s ideas, remain on task, and participate. Next, it is crucial that we establish and practice a laid-back, open, and fun environment for ourselves in which we still get the work needed to be done completed. Lastly communication is essential. Our group’s use of the GroupMe app, allows for constant communication between the members. Through the groupchat we created, each of us are able to notify group members if we cannot make it to class or a meeting, or if we are running late to either. We are also able to help each other with the individual tasks set for us to complete the assignment as
The topic that I covered for Teaching/Learning group assignment was ‘teach for pregnant indigenous females about the causes and effects of low birth weight or underweight newborns. My group went through all group process, which Kelly (2010) explained it is composed of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. We are assigned each other from random draw, so we had to start with introducing ourselves. During completing group contract, we had conflict about each member’s task and making teaching/learning plan. Fortunately, we collaborated and solved the conflict step by step. We delegated each other’s task and finished each task within deadline that we set up together. Also, we had to change our plan few minutes before the presentation, which was a huge challenge, however, we could successfully present the topic for another group. I was glad and proud of my team that we could complete the 2-week group work together.
I think that the group I had for this project worked pretty well. There was no dominant leader in the group, and I don’t think the work in our group was balanced equally. I feel that some people in our group did more work than others. Also, I was the only girl in this group, so it was good to have another girl in the next literary year in pictures assignment. From working on this assignment, I learnt many things. One thing that I learned is when we do these assignments, you really need to balance out the time you spend on each panel. My group spent way too much time on the first panel, causing us to have to rush on the last panels. We were limited on time to finish, so it would have worked out better if we spent the same amount of time on each panel. Also, involving working together, I learnt when we are doing this assignment we cant spend much time making sure everyone is doing their job perfectly. We should let people do their role by themselves and not focus on their job or else we spend too much time on one job, which is what happened in my group. At the beginning, everyone was too focused on the drawing of the first panel and this wasted a lot of
Working as a personal para at Cuivre Park Elementary has helped me establish a personal teaching philosophy that will be implemented into my future classrooms. I want to teach students at various levels and watch them develop together for the edification of each individual. Group work is vital to having a successful class and is something I advocate. The impact group work is astonishing to me. When students help fellow students, it changes each child and transforms the atmosphere of the class as a whole. Albert Bandura's social learning theory stressed the importance of observational learning, imitation, and modeling. "Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their
Working as part of a group, was a lot more complicated than I had expected. Specifically I learned that not every member of the group approaches the project with the same degree of seriousness and interests. Some members of the group, like myself enjoyed doing the research and gathering information on our topic. Other members, hated doing the actual research, but totally enjoyed making the video and webpage. Still other members, chose the dreaded path of procrastination. These were the member who kind of soured me on group work. I felt it wasn’t right for some members to do a lot of work and others
Being successful is always challenging as part of a group or team. There are number of reasons why this is challenging, such as a number of people involved and everyone’s cooperation, agreement, commitments, contribution, combined effort and shared values are required (McClean & Collins, 2011). Group work demands common goals and agreements, mutual understanding, more discussion which is sometime hard to manage to some extent (Détienne, 2006). Recently, I got the opportunity to become a part of MGT210 assessment group of four members. Personally, I feel that our group work was successful to some extent. We managed to develop relationship which is a criteria that indicates successful group work (Ismail Al-Alawi, Yousif Al-Marzooqi, & Fraidoon
Compromise is the single most important aspect of group work. As a social person, collaborating with newfound friends has never been a problem for me. I actively participate in programs involving group work , such as MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science, and Achievement), and have been to state-level competitions with other team members. I have come to realize over years of projects and assignments that working alone is difficult. Though one may be dedicated and hardworking, these massive undertakings are more efficiently and precisely done when distributed among a group. Conflict is inevitable when working with others that are equally creative and innovative. However, keeping an open mind is essential when doing projects that require a
As educators, in order to support our students' needs in reading and writing, early detection is indispensable. Some interventions that can be utilized in supporting struggling students are small groups, literacy circles, self-regulated strategy development for writers, and RTI’s. Small groups’ aids in increasing student comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and writing skills, in addition, it ties to Read Aloud instruction ( Fien, Santoro, Baker, Park, Chard, Williams, & Haria, 2011). Two small group methods that aid in increasing growth in students are quick thinks and cognitive scaffolding. Quick thinks examined by Cooper and Robinson (2014) are the types of classroom evaluation in which the address what's more, or other presentation configurations are punctuated by inquiries or issues that oblige students to process data exclusively or in sets or groups. Cognitive scaffolding conversely, is assistance briefly offered by educators when presenting additional material
Hello Dr. Harris, and classmates’ actions that can be considered active participants in the classroom can be grouped strategies small-group work has many advantages; this is an opportunity for students to participate in active learning. Students who are struggling or need explanations can get feedback from their classmates or teacher faster. Furthermore, students who participate and do the explaining can strengthen their own understanding as well as learn actively. Furthermore, a group discussion will allow students an opportunity to talk and discuss their beliefs and opinions about the material being taught. Yes, active, participating means all collaborative, physical, and progressive because much information is separated into group learning and students have to use their minds to critically think and problem solves as well as learns.
Teamwork can be complex and challenging given task and interpersonal issues, level of group motivation and expected performance standards. The concrete experience spoken about in this reflection piece is in reference to the effectiveness of myself as a group member and the group, working to write a report outlining the organisation and structure of Volkswagen. Dennison (2009) applies Kolb’s learning cycle (1981, 1984) which suggests that learning moves through a continuous cycle, between having an experience, and then reflecting on that action. This cycle has been developed from Lewin’s (1951) model for experiential learning. Reflection termed by Boud, Keogh and Walker (1985) ‘is a forum of response to the learner to experience’(p. 18). On reflection, the early set group dynamics was a defining factor in the experience, and how the team conducted themselves throughout the task. Meyerson, Wick and Kramer (1996) note that ‘such rapidly converging groups require methods for developing “swift trust”’ (p. 8), which can explain why initial group dynamics are so important. I took on multiple team roles, including group leader, which could be translated into the team not performing collectively on a high level, however, I could view this as a personal ineffectiveness of my leadership style.