Decision making can be a hard task, whether it is made by an individual or by a group of people, especially if the group is large like our class. People approach and act differently to making a decision. Decision making can be frustrating, it can lead people to withdraw or disengage, it can prone to self-serving behavior, it can be challenging under time constraints and uncertainty, it can require people to think deeply about problems, it can require an interplay between leader and group.
In our case, I think that all these components of decision making were involved. Because our group is large, there were very many different opinions. I believe that those students who did the best on some sections, wanted to retain those kinds of assignments and to eliminate the assignments that were the most challenging for them, whereas other students wanted to keep those “challenging” assignments because they were good at doing them. Some students were more active than the other, and some simply withdrew. I didn’t actively participate because there were too many voices and I didn’t want to add up one more voice to already very active discussion. Besides, I agreed with some thoughts that were already expressed.
I liked the fact that many students remembered ethical norms in offering changes and didn’t want to take an advantage of the offered right to make changes to the next tests. I think that the most challenging task in our decision making was to handle a big number of various and sometimes even controversial proposals of the huge group and to come to some mutual decision. The student who facilitated the process did very well, to my mind. As another way to handle asimilar discussion, I would suggest to break the group in smaller groups and to ask each group to come up with a number of suggestions. Then, to accept the most popular and reasonable suggestions. This would allow more people to participate and have their voices heard. I believe that it would also make the process smoother.
In our case, I think that all these components of decision making were involved. Because our group is large, there were very many different opinions. I believe that those students who did the best on some sections, wanted to retain those kinds of assignments and to eliminate the assignments that were the most challenging for them, whereas other students wanted to keep those “challenging” assignments because they were good at doing them. Some students were more active than the other, and some simply withdrew. I didn’t actively participate because there were too many voices and I didn’t want to add up one more voice to already very active discussion. Besides, I agreed with some thoughts that were already expressed.
I liked the fact that many students remembered ethical norms in offering changes and didn’t want to take an advantage of the offered right to make changes to the next tests. I think that the most challenging task in our decision making was to handle a big number of various and sometimes even controversial proposals of the huge group and to come to some mutual decision. The student who facilitated the process did very well, to my mind. As another way to handle asimilar discussion, I would suggest to break the group in smaller groups and to ask each group to come up with a number of suggestions. Then, to accept the most popular and reasonable suggestions. This would allow more people to participate and have their voices heard. I believe that it would also make the process smoother.
I agree with you, it is very difficult to come to a decision in a big group, like our class. I would consider myself as avoidance. I pretty much didn't participate in the discussion, one of the reasons being that I did not want to add one more voice to the crowd. Another reason is also very similar to yours’ that my idea was expressed by someone else. As a result, I became the listener and observer for the whole event.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you. It is hard to come to a conclusion that satisfies everyone especially in a big group. Even though there were a couple of conflicts and disorganization, it was a relief when we all came to a final decision that made just about everyone happy.
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