Recently, we've been taught a very valuable lesson in decision making. The class was offered a great opportunity to design our second exam, and list suggestions on what to do with the results of the first exam. The only catch was that the suggestions had to be reasonable, and the the entire class had to agree on the decision. We were all able come to an agreement that the lowest exam grade would be dropped, and extra credit would be applied to our highest exam grade. The rest would be left to the professor's discretion. Although I thought our performance was satisfactory, I felt it could have been much better.
The process was nothing like I imagined it to be. I thought it would be a piece of cake, and the professor would have ended up regretting his decision to let us make the calls due to all the A's he would have had to give out. I soon came to realize that it was much harder than it seemed. Although I'm grateful for what we were able to accomplish for the first exam, leaving the second exam to the professor's discretion wasn't the best choice we could have made.
It was frustrating at times to hear students reject proposals which I thought would have benefited a lot of people, but I guess I was able to deal with it using an accommodation method. I didn't think I needed the perks as much as other students did. I figured since extra credit would be given, hopefully that would give me the boost I needed to achieve my desired grade. So I threw my suggestion for bonus questions out there, and left the rest to the class to decide.
I think if the class would have used a collaborating method of dealing with conflict, the outcome would have been much greater. Although I personally liked having someone step up and guide the entire class, now that I reflect on it, I feel the best option would have been to break into small groups. One of the problems seemed to be that it would always be one or two people who objected to something. If we were placed into small groups, we would have had the opportunity to talk it out and a chance to persuade those who disagreed. Instead, we needed absolute silence so that our suggestions could be heard by the person leading the class, which cost us to forfeit the opportunity to persuade one another.
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it's impossible to let everyone argee the same idea.Although I agreed with almost every suggestion listed on the board,but 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. Thank you so much our leader, she did a very good job.
ReplyDeleteI was not in class for the exercise, but I would have 100% suggested to break into smaller groups. People can be smart, crowds are not. A lot of times in similar situations people start to care more about their ideas and beliefs not being heard or not being choosen. I did not know until I read your post about the second test being left to the professors discretion. The first test was left to his discretion, an opportunity was given to allow the class to do better and the second exam. It is upsetting to know the group was unable to take advantage of it.
ReplyDeleteMany people think that the best way to make a decision is to break into small groups. I agree that because everybody can have a chance to speak out in a small group. Maybe we would get a decision for the next text.
ReplyDeleteLeaving the second exam up to the professor's discretion might not have been the best idea, but let's hope our professor is a nice guy and won't make it too difficult!! I also thought coming up with a decision would have been easier, but the fact that we had to completely reject an idea if even one person didn't agree with it made it hard.
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