The Skit and Different Views on a Subject - Essay Example

Brave New World Rationale behind the Skit The skit helps us analyse what happens in a group work project. Time to time students have a chance to carry out various projects alongside their peers and come up with the best solutions to a problem. Although it is time consuming to look for solutions through groups, the skit demonstrates some of the purposes of solving problems through groups. In groups, students have a chance to brainstorm and come up with various views from which they choose the best. In addition, groups incorporate students of different cultures, origins, and beliefs, and thus the project will benefit from the great pool of knowledge. The skit demonstrates the role of the group leader in setting the mood and maintaining professionalism in the entire process. My Role in the Group and challenges faced by the group The narrator has a role to inform the audience of what they expect in the debate. My role is to organise the debate and the debate members in a manner to enhance cohesion and collaboration. I have to remind all the members of the meeting, venue, and the time. If need be for adjusting on the time or the venue, it is my work to inform all the participants. In addition, it is the work of the narrator to see to it that each participant has a chance to contribute available ideas according to the available time. Another task is to maintain the mood of the house by requesting participants to give applause to acknowledge a good point, control the extent of the laughter, and make sure that the mood remains professional. One of the challenges faced by the group is maintaining a professional mood. The fact that students are working by themselves gives them the freedom to express themselves and if not controlled it may fail to yield the expected results. For instance, some ideas are captivating enough to make students laugh. On their own, students will want to enjoy themselves by adding to ideas that will make them laugh the more. The leader will have to make sure that the group does not deviate from it’s main purpose. Potential Uses of this collaborative Unit outside English Class Working in teams has various uses to the student outside the subject. In the course of the group project, students have a chance to express their ideas and influence the decisions made by the entire group. This is unlike in class where students who rarely talk in class have a chance to build their self-esteem by contributing in a smaller group. Students in groups have a chance to take up leadership positions to make sure that their group members observe time, remind them to come for the meeting, and make sure that laid out plan for the project is in place and that the group is observing it. Besides building confidence, students will use the leadership skills learnt in the groups in the professional settings and in leadership positions in their schools, class, and religious settings. In the 21st century, many organizations take the aspect of diversity in their employees seriously. Collaborative units help students to get used to working with other students from different cultures. They learn to appreciate the differences present in their peer’s cultures, their speech variations, and learn from their expertise. In addition, students develop a sense of pride because of the accomplishment, which makes them accept their peers as part of them. As they leave school, students can now work well with people of different communities. In addition, it will not be a big shock when their employers request them to handle specific problems as a team. Experience gained in class will be useful in the employment setting. Challenges Inherent in All Group Work Project Undeniably, it is inevitable to form groups of students that match in all aspects. Various differences need to be harmonised for a group to be productive. First, groups face coordination costs in that a group will spend more time and energy to arrange meetings, coordinate schedules, make contributions, and decisions. Individuals will take lesser time to plan and make decisions. If the group fails to factor in coordination costs in their structure, there will be less creativity and the group might not meet deadlines. Some groups will have higher coordination costs than others especially where the group is large, cultural differences exist, and where tasks are interdependent in a manner than they cannot be divided. Secondly, group work project have to contend with motivation costs. Some students get may lack motivation of working in a group and leave the work to a few. Other groups may have a low level of accountability, which means that they will not use their expertise efforts to achieve maximum benefits. Conflict between the group members may also jeopardise the member’s efforts. Thirdly, group work project faces intellectual costs, which reduce creativity and productivity. Groups may conform to the majority’s view and fail to brainstorm on different views of the subject. In addition, group members may make assumptions that some attitudes or thoughts are common to all while that may be the case ignoring critical information. Proud Moments and Project Weaknesses Despite groups challenges in that some members are not native speakers, we overcame most of the coordination costs. Therefore, it was possible to tap from a pool of knowledge that exists from different backgrounds. Students from different backgrounds brought in their special knowledge, experience, skills to the project, making our project the best. From the discussion, we were able to teach each other and acquire skills applicable in professional situations. In addition, the project would have been overwhelming if left to individual student to handle it. Therefore, the proudest moment in this project was when we came up with three distinctive perspectives of our society. That is a controlled one, causes a dystopia, and in the 21st Century society is productive, efficient, and stable society. In this project, we did not expound the points in the manner we would have wished because of the limited time we had for discussions. Given more time, we would have brainstormed and encouraged more ideas, refining the three existing definitions of a stable society. Everyone will have a chance to express themselves and influence the final decision (“Harvard” web). Conclusion Despite the efforts, it takes students to solve problems in a group the results are overwhelming. The skit demonstrates that students are creative enough to come up with different views on a subject. Nevertheless, lack of motivation, coordination costs, and groupthink are some of the challenges every inherent group have to overcome to yield results in a given task. In addition, knowledge gained in school will go a long way to help students work with a diverse workforce. Works Cited “Harvard.” “Working in Groups.” 2010. Web, 04 November 2012, Read More