Impressions of the group

I am using this as an opportunity to record my impressions of my students in their group work at different stages of the project. Although this data is more of a musing than scientific or quantifiable it is representative of the conditions which all teachers must respond to in their day to day practice. We continuously read the behaviour of our students, the atmosphere in the room or between one another, and adjust our teaching in response. Therefore although this is data which is not necessarily meaningful to anyone else, it is a useful exercise of reflection for myself and a way to revisit my experiences with a higher level view in order to adjust and improve.

Having now completed their group work I noticed the students effectiveness as a collaborative unit, their seeming enjoyment of the task, their responsiveness to feedback and their assessment of their own successes differed at different stages of the project.

The students were given the task of creating a ‘food play machine’ which would interactively and playfully educate pupils from a local primary school in the origin and preparation of food. They had three weeks to design and make their machines in groups of six or seven, then on the third week present them to the school pupils.

Initial design discussions

It was noticeable that in the early stages many students were working individually to develop ideas in their own interest then present these to the rest of the group. This felt more like a competition within the groups than actual group work as it was more about there being a winning idea that could be taken further than one which was developed collaboratively. It was very noticeable at this stage that some were working harder than others but also that those with more confidence were having their voices heard, disadvantaging those who might be having good ideas but weren’t so comfortable speaking up. There was a lack of effective communication at this stage which in one group led to two separate ideas being developed over the course of a week without knowledge of one another. Given the tight timeframes this was very inefficient and meant the project wasn’t benefitting from the skills and insights of everybody collectively.

Developing the design

I assisted each group in settling upon a design path to focus on. This muddies the waters somewhat in truly assessing their abilities to work collectively because it could be argued there was a reliance upon an outside body (me or other tutors) to make a final call rather than allow them to make it themselves. However truly removing myself from the situation would not be possible and the timescales dictated we as tutors gave a lot of guidance. I encouraged each group to name itself in the hope that this would form a level of unity amongst the members and ensure those who weren’t so confident felt a part of the collective. This was somewhat successful though I could perhaps have been clearer as the students named their proposals rather than their groups, I could perhaps introduce this sooner in future.

I also encouraged the students to discuss one another’s strengths together in order to divide up tasks with everyone working where they felt comfortable. This was good in that it helped the students understand one another’s skills and preferences better and I feel helped the process of them getting to know each other on a personal basis.

Overall this stage was still somewhat disjointed in that smaller groups within each group would form with distinct and visible disparities in engagement. I culminated the week’s session with encouraging students to first think about how they could help someone else before helping themselves.

Using their creation with the kids

On the morning before the school pupils came to play with the machines some, but not all, of the students were enthusiastic in setting everything up and preparing their welcome. It took a lot of work to ensure everyone was participating and I was very concerned about what would happen when the pupils arrived. However when presented with 30 very excited 8/9 year olds I saw an incredible transformation in my students. Every one of them without fail became enthusiastic, participatory and engaged. They worked incredibly well as a team, responding naturally to the unpredictability of the pupils and visibly enjoying themselves. For some it was a very stark contrast to the engagement I had seen from them in tutorials and it showed me that the energy the pupils were bringing was being reflected in my students, something which I can learn from in my own teaching practice.

Group reflection afterwards

After the school pupils left I gathered my students together for a session to critically reflect upon the successes of their proposals. It was noticeable that for many the rush of entertaining the children had taken a lot out of them and their engagement in discussion about the project was very minimal. Almost unanimously the students were extremely positive about how they thought they had done, in many ways stating that they had fulfilled the requirements of the brief and had nothing to be critical of. It was interesting to me that it appeared to the result of the positive experience with the students that they felt everything went perfectly, and I felt that I didn’t want to bring down their impressions of the event with the areas of improvement I had observed. I noticed that although some of the students were very unengaged at this stage they were very sociable. I consider this a success as the social aspect of group work is a key benefit I want to be facilitating in future.

Overall it was interesting to see the ebbs and flows of effort and engagement between the students but my impression was that through the whole process their relationships with one another consistently grew. If nothing else that is valuable and is the basis upon which I want to improve my facilitation of collaboration in future.