Episode 1 -The first meeting

Observation points:
1.

First impressions - Imagine that you are a member of this group, what
is your first impressions of each fellow student? What did they say or do
to give you this impression?
My first impression on this team is that, I think that all the members did not try hard
to understand about each other before begin their group work. As the result, the
discussion just mess up and everyone just fed up. Shireen, she is bossy but in a
team, there must be a leader just like her so I do agree with her behavior. However,
she did not pay much attention to other members ideas, she just wanted to go with
what she had planned before. For example, Muzz had to say, Excuse me for four
times before he had the chance to speak up. On the other hand, Vikki is a very easygoing person and she could participate well in a team. She did listened to other
members and she does not get angry with other members. Muzz is a nice team
member, he would say what he wanted to share, just like the time he interrupted the
conversation between Shireen and Vikki. Rob did not participate a lot during the
discussion and he was really rude. First of all he came late but he left earlier than
others, for me, leaving before the time is not important but you have to include the
reason for the members too. He was talkative person, and he was angry after
Shireen interrupted the joke. Furthermore, after that joke, Rob seemed to be angry
and just pulled out his phone and started doing staff with his phone. Lastly, Dilea was
a silent person, but I do believe that she is a well-organized person. The reason that
I say like this because her face showed that she was confident with the task and she
would speak out as long as the team needed. To sum up, I still love to work in this
team and I think that it would be more easier for us to work with each others as time
go by.

2.

Barriers to communication - What are the barriers to communication

experienced by this group? How would you suggest they overcome
them?
Some members did not respect other members and think that they were right just
like Shireen, she did not listen to other plus she did not let other talked. It seemed
like everyone have different strategy for doing presentation, however, they did not
combine it all together but they try to keep going with their own strategy. As a result,
each of them cannot accept the others ideas, which make them very difficult to
communicate with each other.

In order to overcome this situation, I think they all have to understand about each
other first, and try to be patient and analyze the ideas of the members without have
to interrupt during they are speaking. If you get bored or disappointed with other
members, you also have to participate in the discussion so that the team working is
still keep going, otherwise they will not be able to complete task.

3.

Reading body language - Watch the video clip again and make a note
of instances of body language that give some indication as to how the
students might be feeling.

Shireen: at the beginning she looked happy and hopes everything going fine.
At the moment that she brought up the idea of deciding what they are going to
do during the presentation, she spoke up in an action of a bit anger and
important, but soon after Vikki wanted to share ideas before deciding that
task, Shireen just become angry. Until Muzz interrupted her, she just feel like
hopeless and breath deeply in order to keep calm.
Vikki: same as Shireen, at the start of conversation she looked happy, but
after Shireen interrupted Robs joke, she just turn her face immediately from
smile to normal as she started to concentrated on her work again. After
Shireen brough up the idea of deciding what to do during the presentation,
Vikkis mouth shown that she was a bit surprise about what Shireen said, she
think that Shireen should not have said that.
Muzz: while he was speaking, his hands always do some actions in order to
make others concentrate on what he was saying. After Rob said something
about Muzz idea for written thing down on the white board, Muzz become
angry as his voice become louder and his fore finger was directly show to his
head which is a sign of strong argument.
Rob: At the beginning his face looked so happy especially when he was
making a joke, however after Shireen stopped his joke, his face just turned
into a bit angry and up sad with her. He acted just like a relaxing time, he sat
back and relax on his chair and look only to his phone without caring about
the teamwork.
Delia: She just sat and her face just looked a bit bored and we could see that
we was thinking about something during the meeting.

4.
Group composition - This group was selected by the tutor. In
your opinion what are the benefits and disadvantages of the group being
selected in this way.
In my opinion, groups selected by the tutor would have a lot of benefits such as

getting to know new people with different culture or behavior. If they have never
worked with each other before so now they can share their experiences and we also
can learn a new strategies for completing the task. Although they faced a lot of
problems during the first meeting but they also have learn how to solve those
problems, moreover, it will grow better and better as long as they keep going along
their project. On the other hand, there might have some disadvantages of this group,
for example, it takes long time until they get used to work with each other so the
speed of their work at the beginning was a bit slow.

5. Assumptions and opinions - What assumptions are the group

members making about each other and what opinions are they forming?
At the close of the meeting how do you think the students feel about
each other?
Each member in this group may assume that their teammates do not know how to
succeeds for this project as they just bring up different ideas that are too far from
their own ideas. On the other hand, at the close of the meeting, everyone seems to
be disappointed. They think that their members do not have will power to do this
project so it is hard for them to convince them to follow their own procedure.

Observation points II (the analysis video clip):

1.
Your experience - Think about your own experiences as working
as part of a group. How did the first meeting go? How did you contribute
to the group? Did you act in a similar way to any of the students in the
group?
According to my own experiences as working as part of a team, it is similar to this
team situation. However, we were never going into that trouble just like Shireens
group first meeting. If we do not know each other and we were assign as a group,
first of all we will introduce to each other and get to know each other first before we
begin our task. Moreover, we always have some jokes during the meeting as we can
say it is a part of culture that during the meeting we always make some jokes in
order to relax some time. In the group, mostly I am a timekeeper and I will lead the
group as long as I feel family with it and I think I can do better than others. I always
share my ideas to the team members and ask them back what do they think about

that idea. Moreover, I like critic other people ideas but I still agree with that idea.
Whenever we need to decide on something, we always ask who is really sure about
their idea, if not we will vote. Most of the times I act like Shireen in a group because I
just feel that I have to make sure for myself that our project have to keep going. If I
decide to do something I will try my best and I will not drop it half way.

2.
Managing the discussion - In what ways do various group
members encourage discussion? What additional strategies do you
suggest?
During the second meeting, they all just speak in more polite ways and most of the
time they smile at each other, which make other members, feel more comfortable to
work as a group. Furthermore, they did not interrupt each other during speaking as
before so each member have enough time and confident to explain what they are
thinking of. I did not see anyone of them show their work to other members, I think
just speaking out is not enough yet. So I would suggest that everyone should have
shown their work to other members for checking it up.

3.
Ground rules - Identify the group rules the group suggest to
help them work together. Can you see any problems with the rules and
how they have been agreed? What are the benefits of having ground
rules.
Group rules are timing, be sure to do some research before coming to discussion
and share ideas or information that you have been researched. I do not think they
have big problems with these rules except timing because Rob always came late
and left 10min before. Ground rules have many benefits such as keeping team going
well and the performance of the team is strong. Furthermore, it can make a good
relationship between each member because if they follow the rules they all would
have stays in the same situation without any jealousy.

Episode 2 - Getting started Observation points:

1.Inclusion - Without consultation, Shireen has produced a document

allocating tasks and in general the reaction is negative. Why do you
think this is?
I think Shireen should have inform other members before she allocate each task to others
because maybe she does not know who is best at what. On the other hand, if she already
prepared that document, she should ask to other members whether they agree with this task
allocation or not. I think she was a bit over bossy, she though that she was the best person in a
group that can arrange everything for the presentation. However, she forgot to think about
team works and how other people are going to think.

2.Democratic planning - This group move on to plan the tasks that are
needed to meet their objectives. Is their planning process democratic?
How would you ensure a democratic and inclusive planning process?
I think that their planning process is not democratic because Shireen act like a boss
that can set the task to each member according to what she think. Furthermore, she
did not ask other members for accepting the task or not which is quite disappointed
other members. To ensure a democratic and inclusive planning process, I think that
all teammates have to set up a list of task and then let each member choose their
task that they want. After that all group members have to decide and make sure
whether each of them choose the right task or not.

3. Failing to listen - Consider the interaction between Shireen and Muzz

towards the end of the clip. How does their failure to listen to each other
impact on the discussion?
This failure really impact on the discussion because Shireen still believe that the task
allocation that she prepared was still valid, but actually other members did not agree with it.
As a result, no one pay attention to what she has said anymore. Also other members just
spoke up that they did not want to responsible to that tasks and it is better if they just
rearrange the task again.

Observation points II (the analysis video clip):

1.

Democratic allocation - How does Vikki handle the meeting? How

does this differ from Shireen's approach?

Vikki handle this meeting very well by listing all the tasks that they are going to do during the
presentation on the board. After that she ask in the group that who would like to respond for
which task. Finally they agree and happy for the task that they will responsible for. It is
totally different from Shireens approach because the way that she did is not democratic and
she just decide based on her own seeing not the from everyone ability.

2.

Contributing to the discussion - What examples of good practice does

each member of the group demonstrate in contributing to the
discussion?
During the discussion, Muzz did give a good practice example as he want to
take responsibility for taking note, and then Vikki just added more detail about
taking note. Moreover, he asked others for clarifying what is action point, which
he did not understand and after that Shireen just tried to explain him. On the
other hand, each member tried to speak out what he or she think and what they
did not agree.

3.Checking understanding - Following Shireen's explanation, does Muzz

understand what an action point is? Have the group checked his
understanding and clarified?
I do not think that Muzz understand what an action point is because during the
explanation Rob was not happy what Shireen said, so she just stop at that point
without any further explanation. On the other hand, no one in the group asks Muzz
about his understanding and clarified on this issue. Muzz also did not continue to ask
for further explanations, which leave him to be a bit sad at the end.

Episode 3 -What is our approach?

Observation points:

1. Democratic decision-making - The students vote on using

PowerPoint or role- play. What are the advantages and disadvantages
of this method of decision- making in this situation?
I think the advantages of this method of decision are that they could save time and they could
agree with the result as they took the majority, so they could move to other topic. However,
the disadvantages of this method are some members did not quite happy and they still though
that role-play is more important. Moreover, group members did not try to analyze for the best
solution by listen to Vikki or Delia explanations.

2.Loss of Focus - The group have become engrossed in details, such

as the colors used for the slides, and have lost the focus of the
project. What are the dangers of getting side-tracked and what
interventions would you suggest?
After they become engrossed in details which cause a danger of getting sidetracked.
As they just focus on the design of the slide but they did not pay attention to the
contents in their slides and other thing such as the order of the speakers or who is
going to presents what. So they would not get a great result for their Power Point
Presentation. The interventions that I would suggest to this team are try to complete
the contents of the slides first and after that they can decide which color will be the
best. The reason that I suggest like this because the contents in the slide are more
difficult than choosing the right color, also they should organize the orders of the
presenters as well.

3. Discord within a group - Why did Vikki lose her temper towards the
end of this clip? Was it justified? How did Shireen respond? Was it an
appropriate response?
Vikki lose her temper because Shireen interrupt Muzz while he was trying to explain
his ideas of teams personalities and experiences. I think it was justified as Shireen
should have listen to Muzz first before starting to bring up question again and again
which is not polite and the process can not be continue. After Vikki lose her tempter,
Shireen did not say anything more and she was surprised. According to her face, I
think she also would think that she was wrong that she interrupted Muzz. In my
opinion it was an appropriate response, as Shireen did not reply back to Vikki, which
keep the team relationship not to go worse.

Discussion points (the analysis video clip):

4.

Managing difficult situations - Uncharacteristically it is Rob who

attempts to calm the situation between Vikki and Shireen. Consider
ways in which everyone could have used their interpersonal skills to
smooth the situation or to have prevented the outburst.
I think that everyone could just calm down the situation between Vikki and Shireen.
For example, Muzz, he could have just said, Can I finish my explanation first? so
that I am sure Shireen will wait. Moreover, after Vikki just lose temper, Muzz should
have been the first person to calm down the situation as he could have said
something to agree partly with Shireen. Delia also would have said something during
that time by bringing new ideas or other thing.

5.

Individual viewpoints - Consider the individual reviews; how do the

viewpoints differ between the students? Why do they have different
outlooks?
The viewpoints differ between students because everyone think that they all
corrects, the problems were because of other members did not listen to them. For
example, Vikki and Delia though that role-play is the best idea, however other
members did not agree with that idea, as the result Vikki was a bit disappointed.

6.

Politics and hormones - Competitiveness, gender and moods were all

mentioned in these video clips. What impact do you think these issues
have on group work?
In my opinion, the issues of competiveness, gender and moods have some impact on group
work for some advantages and disadvantages. For example, competitiveness can help the
group to improve or develop the ideas to be better than the original but if the group members
do not agree to an idea so they will face with some difficult situation. Moreover, moods are
very important factor for teamwork, because if all group members are in good moods then the
group will go well, unlike if they just in bad moods so the group work will not going well.
Lastly, gender is another factor that also have good or bad impact on group according to the
situation. Some groups that involve male and female members may have some disadvantages
because they may get shy to speak up. However, some groups may work better than the group
that involve only male members or female members as they know to work and share idea
with other people without thinking of different in genders.

7.

Intercultural communication - There are several comments about

Muzz and what he can contribute to the group. How could you make

group work more inclusive for international students and students with
English as an additional language?

In order to make group work more inclusive for international students and students
with English as an additional language, I think first of all members in the group
should introduce ourselves to other members so that we all can know each other. As
the result, after we get to know each other, we all feel more comfortable to talk with
each others, which I found it is very important or working as a team. On the other
hand, students with English as his or her first languages should speak in a way that
can help international students to understand better, also they mention to them that
they should ask for clarify any point that they can not understand. As international
students, I think they should prepare some work before coming to the meeting so
that they can get the point more easily. Furthermore, they should not afraid to ask for
the explanation on any point that they cannot understand, no one no ourselves just
like we do.