Reflective Writing Report on Group Formation and Collaboration

This reflective writing report discusses the challenges and experiences of group formation and collaboration. It explores the importance of effective communication, digital collaboration, technology for collaborative working, social dynamics, and task completion. The report also reflects on the concept of blended learning and the author's personal growth and learning outcomes.

REFLECTIVE WRITING
REPORT
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Table of Contents
Section 1. Reflection on group formation and articulation..........................................................3
Section 2. Reflection on digital collaboration and how we fail...................................................3
Section 3. Reflection on technology for collaborative working..................................................4
Section 4. Reflection on social dynamics and task completion...................................................5
Section 5. Reflection on blended learning...................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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Section 1. Reflection on group formation and articulation
I think that it is difficult to work in a group as it requires in depth understanding and proper
assigning of roles and duties. In my group there were 4-5 people. As I was sitting next to my
friend, we decided to create a group. In that I was invited. But I think that forming group was not
an effective process (Alrashidi, Joy and Ullmann, 2019). It is because we decided to form group
just for completion of common goal. So, in this we could have use a theory or model of team
forming. It would be useful in forming team and assigning roles and responsibilities. Moreover,
we can have given title to each one of them. In addition to it, we behaved with each other with
respect and dignity.
My role was as a leader. This is because I was having capability and skills to lead team. I
am highly privileged that I was assigned the role of leader. I think that I will be able to lead my
team in effective way. I can perform my role by communicating with each member easily. As I
am having a little experience of how leader lead and encourage team.
I think that our group were having better understanding with each other. This is because we
mutually decided that who will do what task. Besides that, in my view as we understood better,
we also recognise abilities and skills of one another. So, it was easy for me to assign them roles
and responsibility. I was having a better relationship and understanding with them. But I was
expecting more from them. We discussed and developed a plan that when we have to do task. I
requested everyone to participate in it. Each of them shared their views and with mutual
understanding we divided work (Carter, Creedy, and Sidebotham, 2017)
The group was clear that how we have to complete task. Here, a schedule was developed
by me with them. Also, I asked to them regarding choice and interest of area. I am very well
organised in my work. Moreover, I know that how to communicate with others. As I already
have interacted with them and know their behaviour. In addition to it, I personally know them so
it is easy for me to handle and manage them.
Section 2. Reflection on digital collaboration and how we fail
In my opinion I think that it is important to have a proper communication between group
members in order to work effectively. This is because if there is no proper collaboration then
overall groups efforts done gets fail.
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I realised that in group, individual needs to understand their roles so that he or she can
work collaborate. But I analysed that many times digital collaboration fails. The main reason
behind this is ineffective understanding between members. The message sent by them in
misinterpreted. It is not understood by others (Fan and Wipf, 2017)
My group was struggling with what type of digital technology to be used. As we were
having a lot of options but some member was not having digital resources. So, we were not able
to collaborate. I also struggled as I have to find out different way to collaborate. So, it was time
consuming process as well. This also affected our work and completion of tasks. In order to
mitigate this, I am planning to select only one digital tool. I decided to call a meeting and took
suggestion from them.
I analysed that there are several barriers that is influencing group work. Due to it, members
are not able to communicate and work together. The barrier that I think is long distance learning
and completing tasks. It has been difficult for me and members to work. There is a lot of time
wasted. So, to overcome this barrier I am trying my best to use strategy or plan so that long
distance learning can be improved. This will enable group to work in effective way by proper
communication. I think that in future we can use Skype as technology to collaborate in learning.
it will be easy for us to interact effectively with each other.
Section 3. Reflection on technology for collaborative working
As there are different technologies used for collaborative working, I decided to use e
learning. In order to select that I used certain criteria. The first one was effectiveness of
technology. Other criteria was sharing knowledge, per person learning, etc. These all criteria
enabled me to identify technology and select appropriate one. I was able to eliminate those
technology which do not fulfil these criteria (Gibson and Knight, 2017). I selected only those one
in which there is more than 4-5 per person learning at one time. I think that I made right decision
in it.
The e learning technology met our requirement easily. As it was highly effective and
simple to use, we worked together. Also, its user interface was easy to understand as its working
was simple.
In Skype we created a common group through which we interacted with each other and
completed tasks. By doing video call we were able to plan what we have to do. In this way social
interaction was done.
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I felt that I chose Skype because it is easy to use and people can connect together and
work. Also, its range is long and via video practical learning can also be given. So, a person can
be understood what he has to do. With these benefits I chose Skype.
In my view there are some other technologies as well that can be used for social
interaction. For example- video conferencing. This would have enables in social interaction and
completing tasks (Hodges and Gould, 2019)
Skype was also useful for me to interact with my friends and other people. I used it to
communicate with them. I also communicated with my family members. So, it fulfilled my
personal needs as well.
Currently, I can identify a variety of technology based collaboration such as online distant
learning and e learning, and so on. This learning atmosphere is professionally designed based on
the learning experience of others. These learning experiences may consist of several things, such
as sharing knowledge, problem-solving, and reasoning with other student development. So, after
considering that there are several technology based collaboration such as computers only a
person at a time can display his or her work via the projector in the room. These days interactive
whiteboards are the best way to increase one's cooperation where anyone can create, modify, and
share their information. For me this is a chance to contribute to teamwork.
Section 4. Reflection on social dynamics and task completion
Belbin theory
Belbin theory is basically the framework which helps to assess the strength as well as
weakness of team. In short, this framework predominately helps to understand the ways through
which team performance could be improved. There are nine roles in this theory namely shaper,
implementer, coordinator, finisher, team worker, resource investigator, plant, monitor evaluator
and specialist (Hodge, Beauchamp and Fletcher, 2018).
There are various social factors which influences the group. The first one is group size.
When the group contains small number of members then it eventually becomes easy to stimulate
interaction. Another factor is similarity between attitudes and beliefs. When the attitudes as well
as opinion of people are somewhat same then this influences group work in positive way (Chen,
Chang and Chang, 2017).
These factors have influenced my group to a great extent. My group consist of around 4
to 5 members and this made easy for us to easily interact with each other. On the other hand,
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although group was small but the opinions and the beliefs of people was highly contrasting. Our
views were somewhat different regarding topic and this somewhere influenced my group in
negative way (Collins and et.al.,2019).
The dynamics of my group was highly imperative. The nine roles which were being
played in my group affected the final decision-making. For example- the coordinator who was
leading the group was highly effective and assessed all the aspects while making decision.
However, some of the shapers were not strong enough to drive the discussion in positive
direction. They were somewhat introvert and was not argumentative regarding some of the
assumptions (O'Neill and et.al.,2018).
When the group work initially started, my group members were somewhat nervous as
who will start the discussion. Few group members were highly anxious and was thinking from
where to start and how to introduce themselves. Even I was apprehensive in starting the
conversation. Amidst of this, a group member finally started by introducing him and lead the
discussion. Once this member started talking of the topic and communicated with others,
remaining team members one by one started to interact with each other and the communication
proceeded further with each and every member presenting their views (Hodge, Beauchamp and
Fletcher, 2018).
As in the starting I was anxious to start conversation, but as the discussion moved further
and begin to take shape, I also opened up my mouth and interacted with team members. With the
time, my engagement in topic increased and my communication with other team members began
to take positive direction.
Yes, my perception about the group members has influenced the way in which I work
with them. Before the commencement of group work I used to think that each and every member
have a similar view on an aspect or may be somewhat different but working in group compelled
me to recognize that each and every individual have their own personality and have their own
style of working (Chen, Chang and Chang, 2017). Sometimes the aggressive personality which
dominates others is not necessarily bullying or distracting other person but that person is actually
performing his or her work seriously and is highly detail oriented. In addition to this, my
perception about leading team also changed and I realized that sometimes how difficult it
becomes to lead people having varying beliefs.
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As the group work proceeded, the relationship between the team members began to take
shape and transformed to a great level. The group members began to understand each other role
like coordinator, shaper, implementer etc. They started to develop the bond of trust and
confidence among them and began to realize that in order to successfully complete the group
work, it is highly essential to have a constructive relation rather than destructive (Collins and
et.al.,2019).
Besides this, my relation with other team members also changed. I began to step into
their shoes and understood their views and beliefs. I started respecting the suggestions of other
team members and this created a mutual understanding between me and other members.
Trust plays an important role in group dynamics. Without trust, a team become
destructive and is not able to derive positive outcome. As the group work proceeded, team
members began to trust each other. Not only does the team members but I also began to build a
sense of trust and confidence for my team members. This trust came from understanding their
viewpoints and suggestions (O'Neill and et.al.,2018). This trust developed within me because I
began to respect the different roles of team members. This trust level however changes during
the group work. Sometimes when the attitude of group members is not in congruence with other
member then they began to neglect their suggestions. But at the end this trust strengthens when
they understand each other responsibility.
Section 5. Reflection on blended learning
I learned that the best way to get things done is by communicating, as one must learn from
other's mistakes. Moreover, trusting and understanding one another is also vital success in a
group; it is because when people know how to support each other efforts, the person will be
highly motivated to increase his work efficiency (Ottenberg and Pawlina, 2016).
I strongly feel the importance of teamwork and the quality that it may bring through task
achievements. It taught me to coordinate with other individuals and put the group interest first.
Additionally, learning the individual’s strengths also help reduce the weakness to achieve the
team's goal.
The most challenging task for me was to lead the team. This is because I got nervous
when I have to assign task and take decision in critical situation. So, role of team leader was
challenge for me. I think that there is a lot of different in distance learning and learning from
classroom. In my opinion in class learning can be given in practical way. It also allows student to
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interact with each other and identify their behavior. So, they learn from them and inherit skills
and knowledge. Whereas in distance learning it require proper communication. The learning is
not given in proper way and there is no approach used in it (Shum and McWilliams, 2017)
I came to conclusion that there are some areas that I want to explore further. These are
leadership models, business concepts, communication. This will help me to identify that what are
various leadership model and theories. Also, I will learn that how that models are applied in
business situation. I will gain knowledge about how leader communicate in critical situations.
Thus, I will be able to lead a group of 10-15 people. In this way I will be able to become a great
leader.
I have learned a lot about myself. I got to know that I possess leadership traits and skills.
Moreover, I learned I am capable enough to lead a team but I get nervous when face any
situation. So, this impact on my performance. I need to work on my critical thinking skills.
Along with it, I want to improve my problem solving and decision making skills. It will help me
to grow in my career (Stough and Cappuyns, 2018)
I would have changed the spaces by conducting meeting and allowing to work together
with each other. I would allow them to take mutually take decision. This will be helpful in
sharing experience with one another and learning. I would also give them particular task and
goals to be achieved.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Alrashidi, H., Joy, M. and Ullmann, T.D., 2019, July. A Reflective Writing Framework for
Computing Education. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Innovation and
Technology in Computer Science Education (pp. 295-295).
Carter, A.G., Creedy, D.K. and Sidebotham, M., 2017. Critical thinking evaluation in reflective
writing: Development and testing of Carter Assessment of Critical Thinking in
Midwifery (Reflection). Midwifery, 54, pp.73-80.
Chen, M.H., Chang, Y.Y. and Chang, Y.C., 2017. The trinity of entrepreneurial team dynamics:
cognition, conflicts and cohesion. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior &
Research.23(6). pp.934-951.
Collins, C.G and et.al.,2019, July. Explorations of Team Dynamics: Advances in Theory and
Methodology. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2019, No. 1, p. 15775).
Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
Fan, Q. and Wipf, D., 2017. A generic deep architecture for single image reflection removal and
image smoothing. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer
Vision (pp. 3238-3247).
Gibson, A. and Knight, S., 2017. Reflective writing analytics for actionable feedback.
Hodge, K., Beauchamp, M. and Fletcher, D., 2018. Group and Team Dynamics. In Sport,
Exercise, and Performance Psychology (pp. 341-363). Routledge.
Hodges, T.S and Gould, C., 2019. Developing Pre-Service Teachers' Critical Thinking and
Assessment Skills With Reflective Writing. In Handbook of Research on Critical
Thinking Strategies in Pre-Service Learning Environments (pp. 146-173). IGI Global.
O'Neill, T.A and et.al.,2018. Team dynamics feedback for post-secondary student learning
teams. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.43(4). pp.571-585.
Ottenberg, A.L. and Pawlina, W., 2016. An analysis of reflective writing early in the medical
curriculum: The relationship between reflective capacity and academic
achievement. Medical teacher, 38(7), pp.724-729.
Shum, S.B and McWilliams, M., 2017. Towards reflective writing analytics: Rationale,
methodology and preliminary results. Journal of Learning Analytics, 4(1), pp.58-84.
Stough, T. and Cappuyns, V., 2018. Assessing sustainability in higher education curricula: a
critical reflection on validity issues. Journal of cleaner production, 172, pp.4456-4466.
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