Last October 13's class activity on the "decision making process" was 100% chaotic! When I look back during that time, I can't help but shake my head. I remember almost getting a migraine during the whole entire decision making process. Thirty minutes is not enough time for a group of approximately 60 (?) people to come together with a proposed solution to our midterm problem.
Though there was one brave person who stood up and tried to lead the class, everyone was talking at the same time so it made it really difficulty to come to a consensus. I was thinking to myself that we will never get anything done with the rate that we were going. After 5 minutes or so, a couple of people walked up front and then before the 30 minutes is up, there's like I think 4 or 5 people running the entire show.
I personally chose to be "accomodating" because I was honestly cool with whatever grade I got from the first midterm. Although I didn't get an outstanding grade (I barely even passed), I feel that I deserved whatever grade I received. I'm just relieved that everyone agreed on having the curve, which is more than I could have bargained for. I didn't really join in as much as most people did in class because I really wasn't that much concerned as most people in class were. I did vote though, because I think that the proposal that the class had agreed upon was also to my advantage.
I've observed during the activity, there were definitely a few people who behaved aggressively ("compete to win"). For example, the first person who stood up in front of the class definitely set the pace of the discussion. He spoke in front of everybody, strongly proposed for a curve and dropping the lowest grade for the first two exams. I also observed that there were also some people from the audience who chose to withdraw from the class discussion and just sat there looking at everyone else go throat-to-throat. One example is this girl who was sitting right next to me. I feel that she was confused about everything that's happening. I think that majority of the class tried to "compromise" so that everyone can at least get something out of the activity.
If I was chosen to handle the conflict, I would have broken up the class in groups, give them around 10 minutes to chose a representative and discuss the issues amongst themselves. Then, after the 10 minutes is up, I would ask the representatives to go up front and write their proposed solutions for the whole class to see. We would go over those solutions as a class and vote on whichever proposition is the best. This way, I think that each person will have a chance to voice out whatever he/she wants to say.
It's funny because I was in a similar position. My grade wasn't great, but I fared comparatively well. The curve was enough to put the class in an above average situation. After that, I felt that it was pushing the limits. It still doesn't sit easy with me - having a curve and the option to drop. Other classes might have either one, but I've never seen both.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right, it was either to agree for more than we wanted or have nothing at all because of the time constraints. Perhaps the greatest contributor to the chaos was that everyone had absolute power - it only took one vote against the proposals to turn them down.
I agree that our decision making process was chaotic. It was really difficult to come to a consensus when everybody was trying to overyell others in order to be heard. The best solution in this case would be to write all suggestions and then vote on each proposal.
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely a chaotic decision-making process. Also, when I think about it more, there were ranges of intensity within the "compete to win" mode too, as some people very strongly put their points across and were more "aggressive" than others. Then, I feel that I was also in that group of wanting the grade improvement, but I was definitely not as loud and intense or "aggressive" as some people were.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would have been better to break into groups and then discuss all options. That would probably have worked better. Even if we hadn't been put in groups, we should have had the possibility to calmly voice our opinions, put them up on the board, and then discuss those and make a decision and vote. However, the final outcome turned out well, and the decision we made benefits everyone in our class.
I completely agree with you about dividing class into groups. It would have made the whole process much easier and we would have handled it much better. And yes, I did get a headache as well. The entire room was very noisy and I was forced to "accommodate". I felt like the class didn't need another person standing upfront and yelling what he/she thinks would be the best fit for the entire class. What a chaos it was!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the decision-making activity was chaotic. I also chose the method of accommodation because I was kind of happy with my grade. I agree that the best solution was to divide the class in groups and have everyone participate.
ReplyDeleteI think that a lot of people were accommodating. I mean, every single proposition we came up with purely benefited 100% of the class, so why wouldn't we be accommodating even if we were satisfied with our grades. I was surprised to see that some kids didn't feel right accepting some of the propositions because they thought we were taking advantage. I feel that the more advantages we were able to take just meant a better performance for this experiment.
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