Reflective Essay - Working in Groups

Running Head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY – WORKING IN GROUPS
Reflective Essay – Working in Groups
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1REFLECTIVE ESSAY – WORKING IN GROUPS
Working in a group is a constructive and positive thing to do when there are common
goals to be achieved. I was recently part of a group activity, where, in class, we were divided into
small units and entrusted with the responsibility of familiarizing ourselves with the topic of
Australian politics as well as policy are connected with social work.. In this essay I analyze two
incidents that arose during group activity and my role as facilitator in them using the Gibb’s
cycle of reflective thinking (Gibbs, 1988). By utilizing the Gibbs cycle, I will analyze what
exactly happened, how I felt about it, my evaluation and analysis of the incident, after which I
conclude with my views on the incident and state what I would do should the concerned incident
ever arose again in the future.
Incident 1
At a time when group dynamics were at an all time low, which I discovered using the Tuckman
model of group development. I took on the role of group facilitator in the circumstances and
managed to lead my group out of the conflict zone using a number of strategies.
Gibbs Cycle Stage 1: What Happened
At the start of the semester, our class was divided into groups and we were told to work
with our group members on the study of the correlation between social work and Australian
public policy. The group that I was a part of comprised of members who were not familiar with
each other. To break the ice, one person in the group appointed himself as facilitator and decided
that he was going to ask us all to introduce ourselves one by one. Once the round of introduction
was over, we were asked by the person who had appointed himself as facilitator whether we had
any problems with him expressing his personal views on how to go about the group activity.
None of us wanted to contradict him at that moment so we went along with what he said.

2REFLECTIVE ESSAY – WORKING IN GROUPS
Gibbs Cycle Stage 2: How I Felt About It
There was a distinct feeling of discomfort that prevailed within the group and within my
own self after the facilitator self appointment himself to take charge of the group activity. Soon
after, the person who had appointed himself as facilitator began to decide each and every text
that we would read to understand the relationship between Australian politics and policy with
social work. Several of these texts were quite difficult to comprehend and some in the group
including myself started feeling so exasperated that we stopped reading.
Gibbs Cycle Stage 3: Evaluation of the Incident
Bruce Tuckman (1965) says that team formation and group activity are characterized by
four important stages. These are forming, storming, norming and performing. The norming stage
in particular is the stage when according to Tuckman (1965), “Ingroup feeling and cohesiveness
develop, new standards evolve, and new roles are adopted. In the task realm, intimate, personal
opinions are expressed”(Tuckman, 1965). This was the stage when things became autocratic as a
person appointed himself as facilitator and started deciding for himself what was going to be
read and what was not going to be read in order to arrive at an understanding of the relation
between social work and Australian public policy. What was good about this was that all of us
were made to engage in some serious scholarly reading for the coursework. What was bad was
that himself took it upon himself to decide what was going to be read and what was not, not
allowing others I the group to express their opinions as to what they would want to read.
Gibbs Cycle Stage 4: Analysis of the Incident