Personally, I feel that my behavior most resembled the Accommodation perspective. Initially, the class agreed on a curve, as well as extra credit. These two changes were enough of a boost to my grade to leave me satisfied. As far as changes to the next test, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted. Since my first priority was to improve the grade on my first test, the second test's composition seemed less important. For the next test, I simply planned on studying more, but others in the class thought the format needed to be changed, so I let them decide. Furthermore, there was no way of knowing if a change in test format would have helped me in the future, again making it a less important decision.
Collaboration was the most predominant form of decision-making in our class discussion. For example, many class members either gave their ideas, or their opinions on others' ideas. Although Collaboration was most common, Compromise was also necessary to mediate between classmates. To begin with, one student came to the front of the classroom and took a leadership role in the discussion. She acted as a mediator between others' ideas and opinions so that each one could be properly heard. Towards the end of the discussion, it was easy to see that many students displayed Avoidance. This may have been because it was difficult to reach a unanimous decision. Based on how students performed within different sections, they had different ideas about the specific format of the test. For insance, it seemed futile to continue discussion about inclusion of the essay portion since large portions of the class were in disagreement. Again, causing Avoidance in some students.
In hindsight, I would have broken the class down into small groups that could collaborate more effectively. From each group, a representative would be chosen to compromise with other group representatives. This approach would eliminate problems spawning from too many people speeking concurrently. It would also help to allow more reserved individuals to share their opinions in a more inviting atmosphere. Group representatives would speak for and vote in favor of their groups ideas and opinions. This approach would allow the majority of the class to be heard, and wouldn't allow a single classmate to be greedy and overlook the classes best interests.
I would also add that it is important to know how far you can go with your ideas. I did not know what would be a good decision and what kind of decision would be way far from what could be accepted. I think if we had limits in the beginning, it would be less problems and disagreements.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with the fact that studying more seemed like a lesson for the future, but don't you agree that the test was a little bit of a shock considering the post statistics? I studied A LOT, equivalent to the level of some of the finals from previous classes. 7 chapters with a format that seemed foreign to us cannot be taken lightly. I do agree that studying would help, but in order to get a nearly perfect score, there would have to be at least 1 to 2 weeks of advance studying. Who knows, for the next test we might be stuck without a curve.
ReplyDeleteI feel that I took on the accommodation approach as well. I felt that perhaps I should have just studied more, making the test format decision unimportant to me.
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