Personal Reflection On Group Work

In my small group for the film project analysis project I worked with four other students, Deonte, Frank, Osama, and Stephen. The specific purpose that we came together for was to analyse the film, Oz, The Great and Powerful and identify the different properties of communication in the film and how they were used. We held our group meetings after class three times and once before class. Our group had no clear leader, and instead each member was self-directed, and instead our group came to a general consensus at each meeting as to how tasks should be divided and what should be done before the next meeting. While there were significant setbacks to our group’s progress, aside from one anomaly our group worked well together and had only one major conflict.

Learning how to work effectively in a group situation is key to success in many professions as well as in social situations. Groups vary from each other based on the individuals that make up each group, all of us belong to various groups at one time or another. The roles that we fulfill vary from group to

This sometimes leads to conflicts and collaboration problems. Tuckman and Belbin’s theories helped me identify potential strengths and weaknesses within the group, overcome conflict between group members and understand and appreciate every members’ contribution in the group. Tuckman and Belbin advocated in their theories that several problems or obstacles can ruin the successful completion of a task. However, in the group task, we encountered several problems in the aspect of making contacts within group members, differences in ideas, and opinions of group members on the case study, group members not working collaboratively with other group members as well as the delivery tasks given to each members timely. However, as a group, we were able to overcome these obstacles by using diplomacy in certain areas of the group discussion, identifying each other’s potential strengths and weaknesses so that the group task can be completed successfully. In areas where a group member fails in a given task, other group members were there to provide knowledge and skills to cover up its

Next time I think I would like to push a little harder with the collaboration and have more of a deadline set with the other group members as to when things have to be finished by . It felt like the most collaboration we had was via email instead of on the group wiki, which was a little disappointing. A lot of the time I felt like I was talking to myself on the wiki and discussion board.

One of the things that worked well in our group was the willingness of those in the group to listen to each other and entertain various viewpoints. I think that mutual respect is the key when working with groups. Each of us played different roles in the group: some of us were listeners, some of us were leaders, and some who were initially listeners became leaders as the group went on. Within our group we had different personality types and communication styles.

Working in a group to achieve a high quality group project can be one of people’s most difficult school experiences. Working in a group is tough because there is often someone who does not pull their own weight. “There are five stages to group development, adjourning, forming, storming, performing, and norming” (John & Wiley pg 166). Christine’s group from the Case Study the Forgotten Group Member is in between the Storming and Norming Stages. The Storming Stage “is dealing with tensions and defining group tasks,” while the Norming Stage is dealing with high emotionality and tension among the group members” (John & Wiley pg. 166). Christine and her group could have had better

Two things that could have gone better in our group. We did not have a gatekeeper so members that were quiet and not putting forth effort to the group messages and conversations on their opinions we would just use people's opinions who did speak up and were more vocal. The book states "A gatekeeper encourages less-talkative members to participate and tries to limit long-winded contributions by other members". In 'Ulu Maika long-winded contributions occurred frequently in conversations since others had very little input that they wanted to put in conversations most people just wanted to go with the flow of things longs as they knew we as a group was taking the correct precautions to prepare for the final product. We did not have agendas for each meeting. Some meeting were just put together when it was a time we felt one was needed. The book states "According to research, groups that engage in free-range discussion without an agenda change topics about once a minute". This would occur very little but at times when it did conversations would get so intense with whatever the topic of discussion was that we would trail away from the meeting about our assignment and into our own conversation longer than expected then we would have to restart the whole meeting

My role in the project was make sure all our ideas followed within the guidelines of the instructions.  I would occasionally throw an idea out to my peers, but with an introverted group I usually wouldn't get much feedback.  As the project came to expiration I learned that even though sometimes being in a group makes the work load lighter it can also occasionally make the work harder since it's more difficult to mold multiple individuals preconceptions into one

My experience with my group could be considered a bit of a wild ride. At the beigining there was trouble contacting everyone and getting a messaging group formed. It’s understandable that not everyone could have seen the email right away, being busy college students and everything. As time went on and the deadline got closer eventually responded and stepped forward to see what they could help with on the project. Because I was a over worried that no one would respond at first, I had already done essays on cinematography and changing the theme of “Stagecoach” ahead of time, so everything was going smoothly. The last night before the project was due I was putting the finishing touches on my two word docs for the project when disaster struck.

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,

Working in a group can be beneficial but it can also come with hardship that is if others lack the drive and ability to work together. Working in a group takes effort; it takes psychological support, and cooperation. The foundation of group behaviors is something that can come and go but it takes a lot of effort to keep it going after so long. Although these efforts may come and go it is important to consider what it takes to work within a group, successfully. The article I chose to report on deals with the consequences that can come from those who are working in-group settings. It is important to understand what it takes to be productive and this research does the best it can to tackle those issues. It gives us the information we need to succeed and avoid anything that would go against those successes. One of the biggest concerns within group settings is the

Some of us took more leadership roles than other but everyone was able to contribute and get their ideas across. We decided to do this topic because we felt that it had the most info for us to reflect on. Our process was very successful in this project. First we read the document and took notes. Then after we read we reflected on what we read and then took that conversation into the situations. When we had conflicts we were able to make rational decisions and compromise. Even though all of our conflicts we not handled well are group worked very well and there's not much to be changed.

When doing so the other group members were active listener, by using their whole body verbally and nonverbal. Like facing the speaker and giving eye contact and try to avoided interruption. The group also acknowledges the thoughts of the speaker by giving constructive feed back. Due to the effectiveness of the group communication, we were able to build trust, respect and understand the issues and make decision for effective change. We illustrate this by coming together as a group one again to accomplish the goal we initially wanted to accomplish. Since the first organization that we had chosen was incorrect, so we had to make the necessary changes to accomplish our goals. The other effective feature is the purpose of the group. Kozier et al (2010) stated that the effective group purpose is when “goal, task, and outcomes are clarified. Understanding and modified so that members of the group can commit themselves to purposes through cooperation” (p.401). For instance, each individual was assign a task and knew what was to be accomplished. As group we all decided to meet at suitable day and time which was beneficial to all team members, because we could commit to the group and focus on what needed to be achieved.

It was clear from that point forward there were large personalities in the group, which caused friction between the group members. By the third group meeting on Moodle, one of the group members decided to leave as they felt that no conflicts should be occurring during the planning stage. The remaining four group members were confused by the departure, as many group projects will often experience conflicts, as it is part of the process (Liu & Tsai, 2008). On reflection, during the beginning stages of the group’s decision-making process our group had similar ideas and opinions and within the first online group chat; a target group was agreed

I used to believe that I did not perform very well in groups. I am an observer who likes to learn alone. I thought I learned best when I worked on my own. Even though I always knew group work had many positive values, I was more comfortable with the lecture-based approach and resisted group work merely because it involved change, not because it had a collaborative learning approach. However, during the learning community project, I came to realize that I learn more effectively when I work in groups. Working in a group was like an adventure for me; there were both exciting and challenging times while preparing for the learning community project.