Objective:
- To enhance self-awareness in team work through reflective practice
- To reflect upon individual behaviour and practice
- To explore individual approaches to team work
- To develop approaches to improved future team working
Overview
This reflective activity is based upon 'open questioning' to encourage students to explore their own behaviour in a group. As this activity focuses upon the individual it can be run effectively in any learning space and with any group size, however there are modifications available if the group has worked together before.
Activity
Students are asked to work alone to complete the following sentences in relation to yourself when working in teams:
My greatest skill in teams is
A skill in teams which I could handle better is
My quality which team members respond to best is
I respond best to team members who
If there is one thing I do too much of, it is
If there is one thing I could do more of, it is
Team members find my manner predominantly
Students are asked to attempt this task individually (3-5 minutes) making notes for their own use.
Then they are invited to turn to the person next to them and ask them 'How did you get on?'.
This question is worded that way in case anyone does not want to talk about the specifics of what they have put down but still talk about how difficult or otherwise they found the exercise.
After they have discussed for 5 minutes or so, the tutor should ask the whole group the question, 'How did you get on?'
Individuals respond by exploring the difficulties they found in answering this and collectively the group seeks to identify three pre-requisites for developing self-awareness.
These are:
- you have to be curious about yourself: many have never really thought about their behaviour or attitude in teams;
- you have to willing and able to seek information (feedback) about yourself from others;
- you have be prepared to consider and process all feedback; many are concerned about how they will handle the information (inclined to filter out the 'good' news or the 'bad' news)
Modification: If the group have worked together before you can ask them to undertake this task in pairs. First answering for themselves and secondly answering for their partners.
Then they can discuss/compare perceptions, and hopefully learn about the accuracy of individual self-awareness.
This deepens their skill development as will require effective interpersonal skills.
Modification 2: Completing a list of prescribed incomplete sentences can be a simple but very powerful tool for getting started on the reflective process. You can issue similar open questions after presentations or group work for individuals to reflect on. For example:
- What I like most about my performance is ..
- I have most difficulty when I ..
- The bit I look forward to most is ..
- If I could change one thing about my approach it would be ..
Here are some incomplete sentences for use by a student or lecturer in reflecting on a teaching /presentation session:
The part of the session that I found most rewarding was ..
The one part I would do differently if I had the chance would be ..
I was at my most uncertain when ..
I was most relaxed when ..
I felt anxious when ..
I was pleased with ..
I felt awkward when ..
One part of what I said that I could have worded differently was ..
Skill Development
Developing effective reflective skills requires practice and repetition. These open questions, together with the opportunity to share and comment, create the space for students to review their approach and consider the future lessons for their practice/behaviour. The technique of 'open questions' supports reflective practice and can be adapted to review many of the individual and group activities that students are challenged to undertake. Collective debriefing on personal reflection is also incredibly useful in helping the students appreciate wider viewpoints or to deepen their own practice. However it may be helpful to share clear ground rules regarding personal disclosure during these discussions to ensure that individuals only share elements of their reflection that they are comfortable with.
Resources:
None
References:
Mortiboys, A. (2012) Teaching with Emotional Intelligence 2nd edition London: Routledge
Paperback www.alanmortiboys.co.uk