Reflection Report

Reflection ReportReflection report is generally written to share the experience with others about a project, event, scene or interaction.We usually write about our experience & what we learned with the project, event etc.

The things I learned by working in a group have been very important for me. I worked with another student & we were only two. But still, we learned quite much working together. Designing our project, collecting all the information was a very interesting job for both of us. My partner collected the information from the internet & I also helped him in his work & my work was to write down all the points & make the business plan.

I realized that working in a group was much more helpful & easy rather than working alone.

The methods of teaching & learning are changing continuously. Active learning is given more importance & there is focus towards collective work or collaborative learning & small group works. Students who get involved in collaborative learning & who interact with faculty members, get better grades (Wasley 2006).

Mentioning the advantages & disadvantages of working in a group are very important. So, first I will be mentioning these:

Advantages:

1. An individual has less information & a group has more information & there are more resources available to groups.

2. Groups tend to be better in problem solving.

3. Students remember group discussions better & group learning improves the individual learning.

4. Some students also learn more while working in groups rather than in their class.

5. It helps students know better of themselves. Working in the group allows students to know how others see them. They also receive feedback & that helps.

6. Team work is highly valued in business sector. Well developed interpersonal skills are welcomed by employers.

7. There is development of critical thinking skills.

8. Students learn from each other & teach each other.

9. It improves students communication & interaction skills, builds confidence also.

10. Quite students have the opportunity to speak & be heard in small groups.

11. Workload is shared & there is transfer of knowledge also.

12. The quality of output increases also.

The Disadvantages are as follow:

13. Conflicts is a major problem in groups.

14. An individual may dominate the group & may take all the decisions, this leads to some members not being satisfied by working in groups.

15. Some students rely heavily on others to do the work & not really contribute to their group.

16. It also takes time to work in a group, if a student was to work alone, he may have done the task in less time.

For sake of success for the group, objectives of working in a group must be clear & understood among all the group members. Some specific goals must be set & the output of the group must be assessed, to know how the group has performed & each group member must also be assessed.

Group work is assessed on a couple of levels such as

1. Group product: the quality of final project or presentation.

2. Group process: to know how effectively the group worked together.

3. Individual contribution: a student may have to provide an individual report of his or her contribution towards the group.

4. Self & peer assessment: students may also be asked to assess the performance of their group members.

Grading of the groups can be done by assessing the performance of individuals through interviews.

To increase the advantages of groups further, students must have some interpersonal skills:

Communication: includes listening, talking, use of body language & writing.

Observation: awareness & looking at others.

Self-expression:

Supporting others: helping & assisting others whenever possible.

Working in a group helped me. It assisted me to understand about how to communicate with my fellow students, I also realized that working in a group may also help me in the future. This is because, when working for an organization, employees need to work in a team & make presentations, design projects & design special reports. So I realized that working with someone would help me to interact effectively & discuss about all the important points. It boosted my confidence very much. My group partner helped me to understand & learn some accounting terms & concepts. He really helped in making the business plan. This group work saved my time also, if I had to make this project alone, may be I would not have made it in the given time.

In this group assignment, I learned about how to start a new business. What are the main aims & objectives. What is a mission statement, who are the customers that I must target & provide what type of services & products to them, what must be the marketing strategy, the location, pricing strategy, what type of staff to hire, the promotional strategy, advertising strategy & identifying the demand of customers. I got to know how to prepare the balance sheet & income statement of my company.

I shared some responsibilities with my group partner. We divided our work & also helped each other in our respective work. I learned that helping others also makes you feel more happy & mentally satisfied. Working together also made us very good friends. We have also discussed some other issues like politics, science & technology, sports & some personal issues as well. I was able to solve some problems that I had in my college with the consultation of my group member. I also assessed my self that is, how can I deal with certain situations, how to communicate with other people, how to convey my message to others, how to understand their views, how to resist any unethical behavior of someone else & how to resolve issues.

There is also a famous quote that two brains are better than one brain, & I totally agree with this quote. We were two person & this made our work very easy. I guided my group partner on quite a few issues & this helped to know hoe to explain things to others. My learning was not just about the accounting or business plan, it was about learning & understanding others & their behavior & how to work with them in a way that it leads to success.

Either the group is formal or in-formal, the group activity usually develops in the following ways:

a) Group formation: states that what are your individual strengths & who is in the group.

b) Group planning: the time limit, what is the topic & what needs to be done.

c) Implementation of plan: states how the group may support each other, how everyone will discuss their own & other persons work.

d) Completion of activity: the evidence that shows the group collaboration.

e) Evaluation of group performance: It shows, how effectively a student work as a group member & how much every group member supported each other.

Sometimes the teacher or instructor assigns the groups & sometimes, students are asked to make group themselves. Discussing about the previous group experiences can help students to identify their individual strengths. Students divide their tasks, this makes easy for each member to know what he or she has to do & their work & role is clear to them as well as to their instructor. Students can choose the area, in which they are good at. They can also choose an area, in which they are not really good & they can ask for assistance from their group members. Most of the time conflicts in groups can arise if the students have different attitudes towards the work group experience. Having the support of others while working, gives courage to take risky & difficult decisions that alone they may have not taken or may be afraid to take.

Well working with another person also gave me the courage to make the project & take some decisions e.g the format of the project & how to form it, how & what information & data to include, what points & details to mention. Together we had more ideas. We communicated with each other more often. I also realized that working in groups also helps us in a social way, i mean, interacting with others & sharing our experiences & views. Achieving goals seemed also easy to me, while working with a partner. As we were two in number, in practical terms, two members are not seemed to be good enough for group work. Two people in a group are called Dyads & are thought not to be encouraged because they are thought to be insufficient in the diversity of ideas & creativity. But I disagree with this. Me & my group member, made a very good business plan & learned allot of new things that we did not know before. We had an aim & that was to design a very good business plan & hopefully, we have designed that & in the future, the things we learned by working together will help both of us. I also hope to work in a group again & learn even more. I want to contribute to my future group more & I want to interact with others as much as I can. I want to know more about other students, how they work, what knowledge they have, what is their background, how do they analyze a situation & what decision they would have taken in a certain case or problem.

If I had to do a S.W.O.T analysis, I would mention that my strengths were

Unity as I already knew my partner before our group was made.

Good communication between us.

I did not had any conflicts or arguments with my partner.

My weakness was:

Lack of information & knowledge of how to prepare some financial details.

The number of group members was low.

Opportunities were:

I can add more financial statements in my project

I can improve my communication skills even more

I can improve my knowledge about business & accounting more.

I can learn how to handle different situations much better than I do now

Threats are obviously from other groups. Some groups had more number of students & more the students, more ideas & knowledge.

My conclusion is that forming groups & working together helps to improve & built relationships, get your work done easily & learn from others.I have got to know now that why employees work together in the organization because of its advantages. It also helps students to solve their personal problems.

My recommendation is, I think there must be more assignments to be completed in groups rather than individual assignments. Students must be given the freedom to choose their group members & if there is a problem, only then the teacher must make a group of his or her choice.

References:1. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/ltd/campus/grpwork.pdf2. Alison Burke1, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR 97520, Group Work: How to Use Groups Effectively, The Journal of Effective Teaching an online journal devoted to teaching excellence, http://uncw.edu/cte/et/articles/Vol11_2/Burke.pdf3. Working In Groups , http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/groupwork/docs/BenefitsOfGW.pdf4. Neil Kokemuller, Demand Media, Advantages and Disadvantages of Group Work in a Classroom Situation, http://education.seattlepi.com/advantages-disadvantages-group-work-classroom-situation-1333.html5. Advantages of Teamwork. Boundless Management. Boundless, 08 Dec. 2014. Retrieved 13 Feb. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/groups-teams-and-teamwork-6/defining-teams-and-teamwork-51/advantages-of-teamwork-259-4562/

Source: Boundless. Advantages of Teamwork. Boundless Management. Boundless, 08 Dec. 2014. Retrieved 16 Feb. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/groups-teams-and-teamwork-6/defining-teams-and-teamwork-51/advantages-of-teamwork-259-4562/