Tuesday, February 2, 2010
#1 Groups living systems based on interdependence and interrelationships.
Our first thought when we are ask to do a group assignment is "I don't want to be the one doing all the work in the group". In this situation we tend to find people that we have previous experience in group assignments or feel most comfortable being around.Based on my experience i learned that when everybody as a whole is producing equal amount of work it makes the project easier to get finished. However, when one group member is relying on the other to get the assignment done, it tends to not work out to well. What i realized is when their is not a bond of a whole where everybody is on the same page, projects turn out bad. Small groups that do not function well produce negative energy which can cause half of the group production or even bad thoughts. If the chemistry is off on a small group it will lose its interdependence and can cause insufficient work.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Casper,
ReplyDeleteIn the spring semester last year, I had the bad experience as your mentioned example. When the professor assigned the group, most of the students wanted to have their friends in the same group because the friends can adjust their schedule and help them to finish the project quickly. Mostly, the purpose of the professor assigning the group is to let the students with different ages and backgrounds have the interaction and cooperation to prepare their projects. In the group project, I was assigned in a group with another four people that three of them were good friends. When we prepared the project, three of them isolated the rest of us that made me frustrated. Hopelessly, our project could not complete on time and got the low grades at the end.
I fully agree with you mentioned, "When everybody as a whole is producing equal amount of work it makes the project easier to get finished". In this sentence, we understand that every member has the responsibilty to share equal amount of work to complete the project. More importantly, the small group funtion well must base on the good interdependence and interrelationships.
Hi Casper
ReplyDeleteI totally have the same though when we are asked to do a group assignment. However, I always end up doing most of the work. There are not many wonderful group experience for me because there always one or two people in the group that can’t be depended on. However, I still very much like group work because I think working in groups is a rewarding experience and it also gives me a sense of accomplishment. I think for a group to really function well, is that everyone needed to be on the same page and identify their common goal. Not only that, the sense to accomplish that goal has to be somewhat equal among the group.
-Sogo
Hello Casper,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on this post. I just posted my response to this question and I gave one of my past experiences as an example. Basically what ended up happening is that 3 out of the 4 of we group members did all of the work. Therefore our interdepence had a negative effect on our load of work. When interdepence is at hand I believe the everyone needs to understand that their participation is essential. The only thing I would add is that you did not really address interrelationships and the importance of those. If you would have included that and perhaps given an example, it would've made your post that much stronger. Otherwise, good job!
Hey Casper,
ReplyDeleteI remember a couple of semesters ago we had to do this group speech on hookah and whether it should be viewed as a gateway to begin smoking. There were 4 people in the group and we decided to divvy up the work expecting everyone to do their part. One of the girls and I were the only ones to do our part and we only had a week to do it and two class meeting to meet. They missed the next class and showed up on presentation day with nothing but excuses. Needless to say the speech was much shorter than it needed to be and I was left winging it to try and fill the void. Working in groups is un-avoidable for the most part in regards to school, you just have to hope that you get matched up with people willing to pull their own weight.