As you all know we all received our test grades back for the first exam, and lets just say we did great with the curve :) However, we were given the opportunity to change our grade around, given very limited instructions as to what we could do and what we couldn't do. We had to make a decision of how to make our next test, and what we can do to improve this test. After hearing the professor give this task I immediately knew the outcome of this proposition, "not good". I took the approach of "Accommodation" given in our slides, or seeing the issue as more important to others than yourself, allowing others to decide when your interests are not critical to you. I knew looking from the test scores that there had to be a curve for the exam, so as long as that was agreed on I knew my grade would be substantial enough. Therefore, as soon as the curve was agreed on I completely withdrew myself from the conversation and let the group take care of it. I chose this because when given that 60 people are in a class room debating, trying to get something done is nearly impossible from my point of view. Though I regret not speaking up a little more, I don't regret that partaking and getting a headache. Other methods I observed were"Compete to win"- lots of people wanting there own ways, ignoring others ideas
Avoidance- Some people withdrew from the conversation, and joined the next day when we met again.
Compromise- Some people who got in front of the classroom and worked as a mediator aka FABIO
In order to get better results we should have took the persons original idea of breaking into groups, and coming up with separate ideas, then we could have took this decision from many approaches. We could have doubled the amount of ideas that were given, and we could have reached out to the most people this way. It is too bad we didn't listen to him when he said that, because even though our ideas were good, there is always room for improvement :)
This was a great class one of the most memorable, if you have any comments on my blog please feel free, I love the feed back. Thanks
We are completely lucky to be given the chance to propose how we want the test we took to be curved. Not that many teachers offer such a proposal. It was so out of the ordinary that I believe the whole class did not know how to take it. Our grades and the proposal hit the class by suprise. I was not there in class but I can imagine how such an event with given circumstances can distinguish those "competing to win" or those people with alpha personalities. With everyone wanting a good grade anything could have happened.
ReplyDeleteMarco, I concur that the uncertainty atmosphere that Professor Kurpis "creatively" created for us was the underlying factor that influenced our decision making process. I too got frustrated and withdrew early...but for some reason, I could not totally isoalte from the class' negotiation.
ReplyDeletemarco
ReplyDeleteI do not think that deviding the class into groups is a smart idea. Coming up with multiple ideas was not the problem, infact we had too many ideas that it even made it harder . The main problem is that there was no order to things, everything was confusing and idaes got mixed.
hey i did the same thing after we got the curve. i mean every once in a while when iheard something i didnt argee with i would be like... ummm no. i figured anything that we got after the curve would just be the cherry on top, or in this case the big mac sauce on top.
ReplyDeletei think that no matter what we could have tried to do it would have been a mess. 60 kids trying to boost thier grade... plz
i always think that if we have a leader we could make a better decision but in this case, I am not sure whether we should have to have a leader or break class into a group because of time limit
ReplyDeleteI really wonder what we would get in different way of decision making.
Sufa,
ReplyDeleteBreaking into groups, the professor said it would have been the most efficient way to come up with the most optimal decision. If you have one leader and everyone is yelling there idea's nothing gets accomplished. Break the ideas down, then listing them, then deciding would have made the most optimal decisions. Even though we effectively made some, think if 60 people were involved, rather then the initial 20 that were talking in the class. Think about all the people that didn't have a voice, they could have had substantial ideas as well. :)