Professor Kurpis introduced to us our new topic of the week - Decision Making. He approached this topic by giving us a new activity on Monday (March 15th). Last week, our class took our first exam, and most of us were not satisfied with the grades we got. The task was simple: come up with a solution that will satisfy 100% of the class.
In this situation, I took a compromise approach. Everyone wants to reach the same goal, getting a higher grade and making the next exam easier for each of us to take.
In the beginning, the professor allowed us to make the decision as a class, and everyone must come to a 100% agreement, and we have until 7:05 PM to make the choices. Everything was given to us, but what held us back was agreeing with each other.
Everyone yelled suggestions across the room, but what really helped was that a student had volunteered to facilitate this decision making process. She really helped mediate the situation, and without her, we would have been arguing and yelling the whole time. there were a like of people who would compete to win, and many of those who are in the avoidance approach. One student in particular wanted to collaborate into groups, but the entire class disagreed with this idea. It was funny, because Prof K told us that this method was actually better at achieving a goal.
My part as a compromiser was that I believed everyone should be equal because we all need to make the same decision before handing it to the professor. I actually agreed with almost every suggestion listed on the board. The only thing that made me a little upset was that someone in the class did not believe in an open book exam. I agree that having an open book exam is time consuming and messy, but it would be great as a reference tool. You can always take the exam, then go back to check if your answers are correct. It would work if you're prepared, which you should be for every single one of your exams.
In the end, we decided to drop the lowest of the two test grades and double the highest and leave the format of the test to the discretion of the professor. This final decision doesn't seem so bad, and it benefits everyone, including Prof K.
I'm not a leader-type of person because I don't know how to take initiative. I am what you call a follower, because I like to learn before I do something. If I don't know how to do something, I'll only just wait until I do know. Therefore, the collaborating method is the best choice for me to interact in a group to make a decision.
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It alos bothered me that one person did not want an open book exam. He ruined it for all of us. This is college and you must study in order to succeed. If one studies, even a hard open book exam, can be easy. It just depends on how prepared we are. I guess we should not complain because the professor is being very nice that he gave us a say on how we will be graded. In the end of the day what matters is how much effort we put in.
ReplyDeleteI think i always act as a follower just like you. I would like to listen to all different opinions and options at first and then make a choice fits me the best. I'm not the type to throw out an idea and let everyone else to judge it. As a follower i'm a good one. I agree with mojarity point of view even though myself would not get any benefit because i know in this situation, to get something is better than nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteI found it funny too after reading the decision making debrief slides and Prof K said in class that a good way to go about it would have been to split into groups. I had also objected to splitting into groups because I thought it would've have taken too long to work in smaller groups then come back and basically do the same thing with a bigger group. But we took a long time to decide this way so splitting into the smaller groups might've been a better idea.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with almost every suggestion listed on the board,but I think if everyone argee, it's impossible. In this test, everyone had differnt grade, almost everyone only think about their situation.So I was surprised that we finally win the chance to make better on our grade. I appreciated for our leader, she did a very good job.
ReplyDeleteI choose the same exact ways that you did. Compromising and collaborating. I find that these two ways allows everyone in big groups, including myself, to be happy and at least get part of what each person wants.
ReplyDeleteIt funny that you mentioned that part about someone suggesting breaking up into groups. I had initially thought that it would be a better idea than everyone trying to make suggestions at once. However, when the idea was shut down, it's difficult to bring it back up.
Yea I guess you're right, she was more of a facilitator than a leader. and compromising is always good, but we always had 1 or 2 people that didn't want to.
ReplyDeleteI agree that usually the most efficient approach in a situation like this is to break up into groups. However, I personally felt that this would have been counterproductive in this case due to the tight deadline. I think we would have wasted a lot of time splitting up into groups and would have run out of time without having reached a compromise.
ReplyDeleteI agree that groups were probably not going to be the most effective method, but only because we had a leader that was able to organize all of our ideas and provide an environment so that we could hammer our ideas out and ultimately choose one. With groups we would not have one leader, something crucial in a time limited environment.
ReplyDeleteI also like to learn before I do something. on the other hand, I agree collaborate into groups and the group can attempt to convince others.
ReplyDeleteBreaking up into groups was another method that could have been used to decide on a unanimous decision. However I believe the method we used was the most efficient because breaking up to groups would have taken too much time. Because we were under a time limit, the only viable option was to have a leader constantly recognizing how much time we had left to make a decision.
ReplyDeleteCaren, I agree with you when you said that the fact one of our classmates stood up and took the initiative to lead the group discusion saved us a lot of time.Although she was not perhaps the best leader, she was a great facilitator. I can see why people ditched out the option of having an open book exam.
ReplyDeleteSome people has this preconception that if the exam is open book, it will be harder, which shouldn't be if you have studied. Open book exam doesn't mean not to prepare yourself for the exam as it would be a regular one.