FDTL – Assessing Group Practice

Workshop Materials

E 12. DGB

Exercise: Addressing Conflict Constructively

Tracy Crossley Steve Dixon

University of Salford University of Salford

Rationale:
This second session to a half-day event leads on from questions and issues arising out of the simulation exercise in the first part of the workshop, in order to focus on constructive ways forward for groups who might experience conflict and controversy. Participants are asked to reflect upon group conflicts encountered in their own experience and to consider ways in which students can be helped to manage difference and disagreement effectively to enhance learning in a group work context.
The session begins with small group discussions in which the groups are asked to formulate specific questions/problems around the issue of how teaching and assessment can be used to provide guidance for students in conflict resolution and in using conflict creatively in the achievement of task objectives. Participants then take part in a small group activity where they devise assessment models that might be appropriate to these ends.
Suitable for:
Academic staff or students and administrators involved with assessment.
Groups of 4-7 for role-play activity. One observer per 2 players

Timings:

75 minutes total.

Small Group Activity: 20 minutes

Group Discussion: ways forward: 20 minutes

Devising Assessment Models: 35 minutes

Facilitators:
The workshop can be led by one facilitator.
Resources needed:
Chairs
Note paper and pens
Flip charts and marker pens
Post-it notes

Running the Workshop:

Stage 1 - Small group activity: (20 minutes)

This session should be focused around specific questions and issues that arose in the first part of the workshop. The participants are divided into small groups and asked to share examples of conflict they have encountered in their own experience as members of a group and/or as a tutor of student group work, and to compare this with issues/questions arising out of the simulation exercise. The group are then asked to agree between them what they feel are the two most important issues/problems relating to conflict resolution in the teaching and assessment of student group work. The group are asked to formulate these into specific questions which are then written down, either on a flip chart or post-it notes,

Group discussion: (20 minutes)

The facilitator collects the questions from the groups and the whole group reconvenes to share, discuss and propose possible solutions to these problems.

Stage 2: Devising Assessment Models (20 + 15 minutes)

The participants are asked to go back to their groups and propose and agree a set of methodologies and strategies which acknowledge and address conflict in group work in relation to the following:

-Advice, guidance and feedback for students

-Teaching methods

-Assessment methodologies

-Assessment criteria

For the final 15 minutes of the workshop, the groups reconvene and present their proposals; explaining how these models might work to provide students with effective guidance in conflict management and help them to turn the potentially negative/destructive effects of conflict into constructive and creative outcomes.

Guidance notes and recommendations:
Be careful that individuals stay on task and don’t get distracted. For stage 2 it might be desirable that staff that work together work on real solutions together.
Variations:
Bibliography:
Adair, J. (1987). Effective Teambuilding. London: Pan Books
Boud, D. (1995). Assessment and Learning: Complementary or Contradictory, in Knight, P
(Ed). Assessment for Learning in Higher Education. London: Kogan Page in association with
SEDA
Bourner, J. Hughes, M. & Bourner, T. (2001). First Year Undergraduate Experiences of Group Project Work. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol 26. No 1
Gibbs, G. (1995). Learning in Teams: A Tutor Guide. Oxford Centre for Staff Development
Grian, C. (2002). ‘Process-Focused Learning. (Online).Available from URL
(Accessed 12:08:02)
Hughes, D. (1996)Collaboration: Process or Product, Means or End, Democracy or
Demagogy? Performing Arts International, Vol. 1, part 1, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic
Publishers
Jacques, D. (1991). Learning in Groups (second edition). London: Kogan Page
Johnson, D, W & Johnson, F, P. (1994). Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills.
London: Allyn & Baco

Tracy Crossley

Steve Dixon

University of Salford

FDTL - Assessing Group Practice

First delivered 23.01.2003