Reflection On Group Work

Working in small groups is either welcomed with excitement by individuals or dreaded with apprehension. However, group work is a fact of life. Whether in a classroom setting or workforce collaborating within small groups are experiences many will interact at some point or regularly participate in. According to the 2010 third edition of the book A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking by Dan O’Hair, Hannah Rubenstein, and Rob Stewart, small groups can be defined as “a collection of between three and twenty people” (321). Small groups, though, are interesting in that while a small collection of people communication role is imperative to the success of the group, but also demonstrates individual’s behaviors when interacting. During small groups, they way in which the member communicates with each other illustrates how individuals perform by taking on specific roles as well as exposing their leadership style. During participation in group work, there is a set of expectations individuals hold for themselves as well as members of the group. Individuals will subconsciously take on a specific role as to how they will help the group achieve their goal, whether that be cohesively or disconnected. Subsequently, the recognition of these acquired roles provides an insight into the individual’s corresponding leadership style. Depending on roles and leaderships style group work can be a consistency of either individual challenging or complimenting one another.

I believe our group work is going well. We haven’t had many meetings concerning bringing all the work together, but people have been working had individually as noted in the annotated bibliography. One complaint is that in the agreement we said that the annotated bibliography would be completed by the Sunday before the due date, when in actuality two members did not add their work to the group until the day the assignment was due. However, this is minor in the larger scheme since it was completed and submitted on time. We have made plans to come together next week to work on the project together and how and where everyone’s contribution will be placed. Overall I don’t have much to complain about as communication and work ethic are good. I

At the beginning, I took it upon myself to configure the essay, turn in the project on time, and share a Google Doc file with each partner. By creating the presentation on Google, this allowed every group member access the presentation and work on their slides whenever they needed to do so. Choosing the categories came easy, respectfully we gave each other the chance to voice our opinions on why we should have that specific topic. Lance was a huge help getting everything rolling, he offered to drive to Happy Trails to interview Josh Devault and not mention set up the meeting. Ryan kept me updated with his work and asked many questions that added to my confidence that he will get the job done correctly. Eddie hammered down on his section as well as kept everyone up-to-date with his progress through the journal feature on Blackboard. Char Dai’ got her section done before everyone else did and that was astonishing. She influenced the whole group to get their work done quick and efficiently. Every member worked hard and finished on time, I’m quite happy with our group’s

I believe that everyone was satisfied with the project, however I do think there were more effective ways to layout and complete the dictionary. A general feeling that consumed the team was confusion. There were a lot of grey areas that created a cessation in our productivity. As a resolution our group put together a group message that helped us communicate our ideas and stay on track. Our group decided that it was most effective to separate the work into what we all believed was an even workload for everyone.  Monday, the team came together to read, brainstorm and split the work evenly.

Group work has been a cornerstone of the social work profession and requires a variety of facilitator skills and awareness of group processes. The SSLDTM Group Program for People with Difficulties in Social Situations (Socialwork1914, 2017) provides an excellent example of a psycho-educational group co-facilitated by two female social workers, Jane and Karen. After viewing the 6th session of this 8-week program, I began to understand how the concepts of group formation/development, interpersonal dynamics, and leadership styles contribute to successful group work outcomes.

of the members were given and we were asked to finish a project on a

In this essay I am going to reflect on my experience working as part of a team and the preparation on an oral presentation I had to do in class with people from different courses, as part of the Foundations for Practice in Health and Social Care module. Reflection is educational and is used as a means of self-knowledge and to develop using a process of feeling and learning by thinking about what happened and what could have been done differently. (Rolfe, 2011, p.8-12) I will be using the Gibbs (1988) Reflective Cycle to do this. In this model there are 6 different stages to look at to help structure reflection, the description of the event, your feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and an action plan. There is more than one model

During this trimester, I was a member of two diverse five member groups. Superficial analysis based on composition and output (successful assignment submission) would suggest that these groups had every opportunity to succeed and evolve into effective teams (Fisher, Hunter and Macrosson 1997; Hackman 1998). However, closer inspection suggests otherwise. As Hackman (2004) recommends, teams should measure effectiveness from multiple perspectives: quality of team outcomes (client perspective), quality of team life (individual perspective), and increased team productivity over time (team perspective). Using this model, it is apparent that despite a happy client, both teams performed poorly.

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

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.

To further understand Belbin Team Role Theory, I, together with four students formed a team and simulated as being authorized by the Songjiang Government Bureau to investigate into the current situation and the prospect of the higher education industry in Songjiang District. Through unremitting team efforts, we successfully demonstrated our findings and recommended several ideas via a formal presentation. Reviewing the three-months-long process of cooperation, I really found this experience of learning meaningful and fruitful. This reflective essay is a conclusion of my sympathetic introspection of the

In my undergraduate work, almost all of my classes that were directly related to my major required at the least one group project. In the beginning this was not something I was very fond of mostly because I had some bad experiences when it came to working with others on projects. Usually it was the problem of people not pulling their own weight, and doing their parts to help with the tasks. When it came time to have the assignment complete it was even harder to give a grade to those people. I did not want to be the guy who caused someone to throw someone under the bus. However, after I thought about it, I did want to be that guy because in the real world on a work project if there was someone who did not pull their weight in the job projects would not be successful. So, when it came time for grades, I was always honest, and usually if a person did not do their part I told it how it was.

I am Zeeshan Ali; I am working as a Computer teacher for Classes VI-X-M in Canal Side Boys Campus. I have done Masters in Computer Science (MCS) from Punjab University College of Information and Technology (PUCIT) Lahore. The students are the main focus of every teacher and our entire teaching efforts circle round our students to achieve the set targets. Effective Teaching includes many useful teaching strategies that a teacher chooses according to the requirement of his/her respective subject and topic as well. In result of my years of experience and as a Computer teacher I find Group Work as the most effective and fruitful technique at every level.

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,

“Group work is a form of voluntary association of members benefiting from cooperative learning that enhances the total output of the activity than when done individually”.