Reflecting on a Group Project – And Group Dynamics
(Words: 1007)
Our group of five presented to our fellow Prof Ed peers on the topic of ‘Safeguarding Their Future: Well-being & Welfare in Education’. With regard to the work involved prior to the presentation, this reflective account will bear witness to the processes involved in performing a complete model to show to the audience. Henceforth, the pre-presentation period being from the tutor’s project instigation to the day of presentation and the salient points within – for this account – will be called the ‘Critical Incident(s)’ that recognizes the 1954 article on the Critical Incident Technique (reflective) model of John C. Flanagan.
First of all, the Critical Incident has to be recognised that ‘To be critical, an incident must occur in a situation where the purpose or intent of the act seems fairly clear to the observer and when its consequences are sufficiently definite to leave little doubt concerning its effects,’ (Flanagan, 1954:327). I feel I did this as an observer and group participant by analysing occurrences and situations that arose during the pre-presentation stage which would identify behaviours of positive and negative performance within our group dynamics to complete the project. The occurrences and their effects led me to question the qualitative effectiveness of the group’s progression and the positive potential results of all the group’s participants including timely interventions by the tutor. This leads to asking the Critical Incident question: what were the difficulties? To the fore came time scale and the apparent success of having a time scale of eight weeks to complete in what encapsulated each individual’s five to ten-minute window in the presentation. This was critical as essentially most work and eagerness as a group to complete the project was done in the days that saw the presentation day rapidly looming. From Flanagan’s model which suggests posing questions and answering from the perspective of another such as regarding ‘the emotions felt in that situation’ (Hitching, 2008, p.23) – the situation being pre presentation – I (as another) would have said ‘I felt I had a lot of time to spare before the actual day of presentation so there was no rush – per se – albeit showing a general weekly progression towards the goal’. Thus, here lies the fact that time scale is less of a Critical Incident for others than had been for me and therefore the effect of being overly concerned during the event varies in the group dynamic.
Moreover, another factor of Flanagan’s model gets the reflector to put themselves in the learner’s position. Jeanne Hitching says ‘you would need to take yourself back to a time when you were learning something new and unknown, just as they are’. In relation to this, there was a time when I was studying and I had a big project to complete, I always felt at the time that as long as I complete a part of it each week, this would culminate in – when collated – the project just about finished bar the finishing touches, and I feel this may have been the case with our group project because the days before the presentation members work did come together. Hence, I do empathise with our group members completing their work towards the collaboration within the final presentation.
Furthermore, we were asked to contribute to an online group’s forum. This never got off the ground, and seeing as we only met once a week at college, it was the only way to communicate. While this medium was not used to its fullest, some weeks group members came into the classroom to spend time solely on their own presentation, so again communication and group production was limited. So, referring back to the earlier point of posing questions from another’s perspective – in relation to this forum and weekly class discussions, would be: what did their behaviour signal to me (Hitching 2008, p.23)? I feel another would say ‘this was not a problem as everyone works during the day and we study at night, so you need to give people time and space’. Flanagan’s model highlights that empathy to this kind of situation would lead me to support this situation. At this juncture, although I feel this was the case nearer to the presentation date, time may still have been lost along the way and better and proficient communication on the forum and timely constructive meeting would have shown a healthier progression that would have put the group at more ease.
Moving on to nearer the presentation commencement, I could see people getting their part completed and longer discussions making better contribution to the effect of the finished product. Referring back to Flanagan’s model, it should also be recognised that it not only looks at negative aspects and as such our group’s contribution to a finished article was notably praise worthy. Posing another question, at this point, of Flanagan’s Critical Incident analysis is questioning what the group’s actual behaviour signals to me (‘me’, the perspective of another). I would have been pleased that we came together with positive productive material and a readiness to perform and smooth out inconsistencies in the presentation.
To conclude Flanagan’s model, it is interesting to think about the perspective of others in the group and their dynamics in creating a solid presentation. This reflective method functions – of course – if you are comfortable thinking this way, but I feel it did make me certainly reflect on my attitudes at the time and how these feelings can affect my behaviour: past, present, and in the future. Ultimately, I feel as a teacher I would have set a smaller time scale – regarding the fact that most students did not use the whole eight weeks for solid study and preparation – and worked with this group of students’ more, highlighting targets and roles within the group, notwithstanding creating a focus, as these get broken down easily as was noticed in our group and notably highlighted in the time scale.
Words: 1007
References
Flanagan, J. C. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51, 4, 327-359.
Hitching, J (2008) Maintaining Your Licence to Practise (Professional Development in the Lifelong LearningýSector Series). 1 Edition. Learning Matters.
Hitler – The development of evil
(717 Words)
In the multitude of years that humans have walked this planet, the German leader Adolf Hitler has to be one of the most evil people to ever come into existence. Not solely attributed but largely as a consequence of Hitler through his regime of Nazism an estimated eleven million people were killed which included six million Jews. These are staggering figures but why so many Jews? Moreover, why was Hitler so against the Jewish continuation as a people in his country and ultimately as a race? In this essay, I would like to posit some ideas on the causes of Hitler disgust of the Jewish race while showing the effects that came about as he became the German leader.
Therefore, when Hitler grew older his resentment had to materialise and as such, he became a great believer in the Volkisch Movement that believed that the Aryan race (the master race of Northern European descent) was the noble race. Hitler was also to believe any contact with a Jew was not allowed resulting in the belief that his grandmother’s and ultimately his father’s blood was tainted in some way. So, even if his father had been fathered by an Aryan German he still had stains of evil Jewish blood in him making him the evil man he was. Furthermore, once Hitler became the leader he was to make sure Germany never produced a father figure like he had and a person like he had become. All his childhood rage came to the fore. For example, one of Hitler’s first moves in power saw him create a law that prohibited Aryan German maids from working for Jews. He also banned the marriage of Jews and Aryans Germans so as to cleanse the German race of any last thread of Jewish blood. There are even reports Hitler even lengthened WWII to make sure his plan was complete. Train loads of Jewish people were rounded up and sent to concentration camps over Germany to be sent to gas chambers and ultimate death through Hitler’s revulsion of Jews. His main aim was to complete the Holocaust and to cleanse Germany. As the German leader, he thought that any person tainted with Jewish blood would be evil forever.
So it is noticed, Hitler’s youth and his adult life bear a great relation. He had an awful childhood through his father’s beatings and grew to hate the ways his life had become therefore as he grew older he would let that anger out through war and the extermination of Jews. The hate inside him easily led him, as an adult, to Nationalistic movements promoting Germany as a clean Aryan state. Hitler was so angered inside he was prepared to let German soldiers die before the total destruction of the Jewish race was complete. His childhood anger that developed into older age was to the core of his body.
An understanding of the larger issues of Hitler’s existence through the whole of his life centering on his early life comes to show us how issues develop in people and how childhood experiences can reap extreme results as they lay dormant in the mind and develop in later life to catastrophic consequences. Hitler’s case is one that hopefully will never be seen again, but on a human level, this can be avoided where naive parents need to realise their anger and role model actions have lasting effects.
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Against Stem Cell Research Prohibition
(1484 Words)
Stem cell research has fast become a hugely debatable subject because of the controversies it has evoked, albeit through taking major strides in advancement in the biomedical research field. The potential is vast for stem cells, and it creates the hope that the medical world can not only repair but also regenerate the damaged and impaired bodily tissues of patients to restore their function. The ongoing controversy has arisen from the medical research which involves using cells from human embryos. This leads the debate about stem cells to many aspects of humans on earth. Those arguments are mainly regarding ethical and moral issues. One such branch of stem cell research, which has sparked the debates, concerns therapeutic purposes. This research area is a fascinating field because it can hold possible cures for a wide range of serious medical problems. Within this paper, I will argue on the benefits of stem cell research, and how the benefits may overshadow whether research should be prohibited.
Therapeutic cloning involves the use of cells to mend damaged tissue in the body, such that is found after Parkinson’s disease, a stroke, and spinal injuries. There is support for the effectiveness of therapeutic cloning as shown by work involving the introduction of stem cells into the brain of patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease, of which about 1 million Americans live with. Parkinson’s disease occurs as a result of a gradual loss of a specific type of nerve cell located in an area of the brain. Although not yet routine clinical procedure, and more information is needed, trials offer the proof-of-principle for the approach that once the cells which have been added to the brain, differentiate to form nerve cells. They can in turn then lead to a recovery of the lost function. Moreover, at this time, there is no real treatment to stop or slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease, so stem cell research cannot be ignored. On the other hand, there are various treatments and methods, such as medicines and sometimes surgery which help alleviate Parkinson’s symptoms. Moreover, mice treated for Parkinson’s with embryonic stem cells have died from brain tumors. Some would also argue that there is such a high risk associated with brain surgery. This being said people with the debilitating symptoms of the disease would still feel positive that with the news given by EuroStemCell. They unite more than 90 European stem cell and regenerative medicine research labs. Recent trials with stem cells, major and long-lasting improvements were seen in some patients which alleviated them from their awful disease.
A love of diversity
(583 Words)
There have been noticeable effects on language that have come about due to explorers and the like that journeyed from their motherland many years ago. The journey of Christopher Columbus in 1492 was one that would herald the changing of the times for world languages. Such were these countries, a la, Great Britain with its English language and the colonies, and Spain with its Spanish in South America, that they spread their voice over many continents. This being said, there is still an emphasis that language existed long before the arrival of these powerful empires to far away lands. Languages such Chinese, Hindu and Arabic are still spoken by many millions of people around the world. We also have to recognise that many indigenous people still use their native language. In many respects, any of these rarer languages, relatively speaking, could have spread through the world as much as English and Spanish as we are all homo sapiens and have remained one species.
So, what do languages distinguish? Some of the aspects of many languages that although they evolved generally on their own, there is a general likeness found; for example the use of singular and plural nouns. English, French and Spanish retain in their language the distinction of one or more of something. However, in these languages, there is sometimes not a clear distinction as to what we are talking about, as with ‘I have some flowers’. There could be an array of different types of flowers and no actual number. This is opposed to Chinese which can use the same word for one or more than one. There are also other languages that will distinguish between the flowers being all of one kind or a mixed bunch.
Moreover, looking at world speech, it shows some languages make the clear distinction with a sentence to show that an object can be seen as the speaker speaks or not in eye sight. Visibility is central to their language. One example is of a woman with her arm in a sling, and how would an English speaker refer to this picture. English people could say ‘she has broken her arm’, but there is no certainty. English people can report the evidence and assume. Other languages have to make it clear how they know the information and not let a statement be glossed over.
Furthermore, over the world within languages, related words may take on different meanings. The sentences the ‘The colours are nice’ and the ‘The curtains are red’ have the same structure and relate to the same word types; nouns, verbs and adjectives but they are not the same in meaning. Other languages do not see the same as an English speaker sees, and end up putting the same sentences into other grammatical orders to explain the same sentence such that it may end up as ‘it is nice in colours’. This can also cross over to objects in space and the angle that people see objects in the world. All people look at a picture differently and can only give a subjective view. Also, some languages do not have words like the English ‘inside’ or ‘between’ thus their explanation is different for spatial objects. What’s more, some speakers only see an object from their exact position in the world. English speakers may not need to be so accurate.
To conclude, this essay highlights the diversity of language throughout the world, and the myriad of approaches to explain any situation where language is used.
Sense and Sensibility: A summary
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
(909 words)
Set around 1800 in England, this story tells of propriety and the appropriateness of people in that period of romanticism and sensibility. The story starts off with the rich Henry Dashwood on his deathbed, decreeing all his worldly goods to his son as was the rule at that time. This is very well for the son, but Henry’s two daughters Elinor and Marianne are left to make do with a humble five hundred pounds a year for their family. Their fate is worsened still by having to vacate their mansion to a smaller residence thus feelings become low as they have to lower their level of custom. Their fate is further troubled by the gentlemen that they fall for.
One such person comes into Elinor’s life before she leaves the mansion. A certain Edward Ferris, of a noble family, he spends time with Elinor, in a time when she is down. She is a little confused by his intentions, as he is not so disposed to pursue a lady even though he feels this way. Elinor still wishes them to be together although she is a lady and would not show her love so openly. Edward is also to be married off but must choose a lady of money as is the case, even though, he, as a simple man believes love does cross boundaries. The only difficulty comes when Edward is called to London just as the relationship strengthens leaving Elinor alone and confused.
