Positive group dynamics can make a mundane job enjoyable; by contrast, negative group dynamics can make a dream job miserable. Unfortunately I am stuck in the latter situation. I work as a 1:1 special education aide in a classroom with children with severe disabilities. It is a job with a population that I enjoy very much; in fact, it is a job that I thought I would be happy with for a while. At the start of this current school year I was in a different class with children of a higher cognitive ability and while it was okay, I missed my severely involved kids. A few months into the school year I was offered a chance to return to the classroom I enjoyed the previous year and quickly agreed. The teacher was the same, but the other …show more content…
Basically, if J didn’t think of it, it was no good. Even P, who had taught all these kids the previous year, can’t offer a suggestion without being interrupted with a “better idea”. His response to J’s behavior is to think of any reason possible to leave the room.
Berko, Wolvin, Wolvin and Aitken (2016) describe aggressive behavior as behavior in which the goal is to dominate and get your own way. J’s statements about her way as being “they way we do it now” is in line with Berko et. al.’s description of direct aggression (pg.195). She is overly direct and forceful with her opinions in such a way that makes it hard to disagree or even discuss the issue, to the point of her walking out of the room after she states her opinion’s, leaving others with no way to discuss anything. When I first arrived in the classroom, recognizing that I had been out of the room for five months I deferred to J and A’s schedule and routines. I reminded myself that no one like the “new person” to come in and make changes right away. What I was met with in return was a negative response to everything that had been in place for the prior two years I had worked with these same children. I was told that everything had to be changed, and it was “all better” now that J was in charge.
The leader of the group, P, had been new to this particular group of kids the year before, but by the end of the year had a good system in place and was very active in the classroom. This year, he is
I chose to visit an Alcoholics Anonymous group for my Understanding Group Dynamics project. I went on March 20th 2016, to an open discussion group titled Pass it On Group for Beginners that are Living Sober. It was held at the First Congregational Church at 14 Brookside Road in Darien, CT 06854 at 6:15 p.m.. I chose to go to this group as I felt it was a group that I could most strongly connect to, as I am a recovering alcoholic. I have been cold turkey for two years now. I choose to live a sober life as the hangovers, pain that myself and loved ones endured and the constant need to escape from reality was taking over my existence. Going to this group reminded me that I am not alone in this journey of recovery and in the journey of figuring out how to live life sober with my friends, family and strangers drinking around me. The group was friendly and one that when you first enter, they make sure that you are there for the right reasons as confidentiality is important. Then right after, they welcome you with open arms and if you choose to just sit and listen that is fine, but I am a vocal person and I spoke and applauded. I am glad that we got to do this assignment, for I think without I would have never gone to an AA group meeting. I would have kept on my journey by myself and just praying when times got hard, now I have people I can reach out to.
The child incorporates this aggressive mindset into it's mannerisms and applies this aggressive behavior to other aspects of their life." If I'm aggressive, I can get my way."
What is groupthink? There is a simple definition for it, but is it truly that simple? The term groupthink refers to the inclination of group members to have the same opinions and beliefs; it frequently leads to mistakes. It often occurs without an individual being aware of it. Conflict is considered to be a harmful element when related to groups, but conflict is good when considering groupthink because it helps to eliminate the existence of a groupthink. The explanation sounds simple enough, but it is more complex than the description given.
Whether groups are formed for social or task oriented purposes, the ability to produce and maintain a sense of affiliation, peer support and collaboration is important for overall group functioning. The cohesion of a social group is produced through the establishment of a set of group norms, which are later defined as a guide for conduct accepted within a group of individuals. However, in order for a group to perform and produce results, the team leader should guide his/her team through the proper stages of group development, which includes the following steps: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Although teams should follow all these stages of group development, the forming and the norming stages are the most important,
Through the last two weeks I noticed some behavioral changes in my first grade class; to be more specific I noticed increased rate of violence, increased rate of conflicts, increased rate of complains from two students, increased rate of bulling and increased rate of crying and screaming.
Aggressive children usually direct the behavior of others on those they think are against them. Helping the child to know that their action hurt the victims they verbally assault.
Jayden’s class consisted of seven boys and one girl. The classroom was very small and can hold up to twelve students. Towards the front of the classroom, was a SMART board, calendar, classroom rules, behavior chart and a clock. Above the SMART board, was a list of the
There are both general and special education teachers who have reported that they “aren't adequately trained to deal with the aggression, defiance, and sometimes even violence that they witness daily which seems to be increasing in children at younger ages (Ruef, Higgins, Glaeser, & Patnode, 2009). Teachers' lack of time planning, there being a high number of students in the room and only one or two teachers, and lack of administrative support to apply behavior changes in general have all been noted as problems related to
An important part of our learning and growing experience must stem from our ability to analyze and reflect upon the groups that we have been members in. This reflection can define our understanding of the weaknesses both in ourselves and in the others within our group; and it can help to shape the way that we act in future groups. Adjusting ourselves to compensate for our weaknesses, based upon an honest and thorough examination of our actions within a group setting, is one of most important thing for any person to do. It is only through this evaluation that we can improve ourselves and our interactions with others. This paper will examine a group that was required to make an important decision about adding a new member
As people, when confronted with a problem where a solution must be found, our ideal situation is to come up with the best possible one. To do this, we ideally gather the most knowledgeable, intelligent individuals into a group and attempt to derive the best solution to the problem. With the collection of these people, one would think that finding the best possible answer to the problem would be a rather simple task. However, what has happened in many situations is the complete opposite. Rather than finding the best possible solutions, many ideal, cohesive groups arrive at the worst possible answer largely due to problems in communication within the group. This is what we call the radical theory of
The teaching profession is unique. How so? Think about it: It educators are responsible for the learning of his or her students. Remember, his or her students eventually go on to become contributing members of society. Yet, before teachers can prepare his or her students for the workforce, he or she must teach his or her students that today’s society depends on an educated citizenry—human beings that respectful. Now, consider the following scenario: Mr. Cooper, a tenth-grade teacher, witnessed a fight between two of his students disrupt the productive classroom learning. Therefore, now, Mr. Cooper is required to cope with aggression. O’Donnell, Reeve, and Smith (2012) define aggression as the following: “Any intentional behavior designed to
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Working within a group or team is unavoidable for most people. We are involved in sports teams, assignment groups, work teams, social groups and a variety of other groups and teams. Each of these groups share one thing in common, that is each requires us to communicate in some way in order to reach a shared goal or target. Therefore, it is imperative to know and understand how to work and communicate effectively with others to maximise outcomes and productivity.
Each individual is categorized into a group from the day they were conceived. According to Kozier et al (2010) a group is “two are more people who have shared need and goals, who taken each other in account in their and who, thus, are held together and set apart from others by virtue of their interaction” (p. 400). The communicate that takes place between members of the group is group dynamic (Kozier et al, 2010). Motivation for participation and similarity of other group members and the goals of the group will affect the group dynamic (Kozier et al, 2010). The type of group that was created was a task group and Kozier et al (2010) stated that “the focus for such group is completion of a specific task, and the format is defined at the
In conclusion, this class has changed my perspective about working in a group. Since my prior experience with groups was so unsettling, I believed that all groups were going to be the same. However, this class has made it possible to believe that there are groups that respect and take into consideration other members’