Six Makes a Group

This week in class Carly and Michael went over problem solving. I found their lesson to be particularly interesting as I found out my conflict management style. My style is competing. I can see how this would as when I get into arguments or talk about solving a problem, I tend to only see my side of things and often refuse to compromise. I believe this shows that I am always dedicated to my solutions, but I can understand how it would be a problem as well. I tend to be too stubborn, and I often ignore important issues because of this. I hope I can keep this style while fixing my minor problems, so that I can employ it when I handle a class next semester. In addition to Carly and Michael’s lesson, Silas had us pair up and gave us different situations to go over together. I was paired up with Darcy Bohner, and we played twenty questions. It was pretty challenging figuring out what she was thinking of, but it gave me great insight into what goes on in her head. Also, it helped me figure out that in order to solve problems with another person, it would help if they came out and told you what they wanted you to know. However, this rarely happens, and you sometimes have to guess at what problem needs solving and hope you get close.

For this week, we also had to read Chapter 6 in Students Helping Students. This chapter was about groups and how they work. I was fairly familiar with some of the information in the chapter such communication being very important in groups and positive attitude improving group atmosphere, but I was happy to learn some of the ways that group communication and group atmosphere could be improved. For example, it is important to be clear on instructions and messages in a group, and it is important to ask questions and talk about feelings in the group. In addition, group atmosphere can be improved by giving recognition when cooperation and support is shown and by addressing negative energy before it can harm the group. I believe that understanding how to improve the overall function of groups can help me greatly. It can help the UST 311 class as we are group. Also, it can help me when I am working in project groups and when I teach the recitation class next semester.