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Critical Reflection #3

The Team that made me want to cry

Weve been rotating which teams we work with in our team activities. Every week we

start up with a new group of students. This has been very helpful as it has allowed us to actually

get to know the teams better and weve been able to integrate more into their discussions. I was

quite fortunate that the first set of 4 teams I got to be involved with all seemed to work really

well together. I was able to listen in, or guide them, but they functioned well and I remember

thinking this is why we do team based learning, the students really do get it so much better.

Well a couple of weeks ago I moved on to a new set of four and my experience was completely

different. While most of the teams I encountered still seemed to work well together I encountered

one team in particular that made me want to cry. Of the six students in the group only three

seemed to be actively contributing. In the past when I had gone over to their group and just

checked in I thought things were fine. Someone was always able to tell me the right answer to

the question being asked, and with the right rationale. How could I have possibly known from

the short time I spent with them that something was terribly off? Well when I finally spent some

time with these students I realized that three students were quite far behind in their understanding

of the concepts, and rather than the team functioning the way it ought to by helping the others

truly understand the other three just kept moving forward, regardless of how confused the others

were. Once I saw what was happening I tried to intervene and get the other students to participate

more, but I felt very much like I was babysitting. Instead of thinking this is why we do team

based learning I was thinking Dont they know how much better it would be if they actually

worked as a team? Do they even care? I was seeing the potential pitfalls with team based

learning and it was not a good feeling at all.

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A Change in Perspective

Two weeks ago I was able to talk about this scenario at our check in and it was really

good to get it off of my chest. I was able to realize that a lot of why I had such a negative

experience is because I am starting to feel like I have responsibility over how the teams operate.

Obviously this is not true. It is not my job to grab the reins and not let go until I get the outcome

I want. Part of Dr. Addys choice in this is to allow for students to guide their own learning. The

Nature of Learning talks about three broad pedagogical approaches; guided learning, action

learning, and experiential learning (Dumont, Istance, & Benavides, 2010). Most classes operate

in guided learning where the teacher essentially decides all of the learning outcomes and how the

students will achieve said outcomes. However, our class is much closer to an action learning

classroom. Dr. Addy ultimately decides what we are learning but she is not dictating the

approach. Students get to determine how they wish to approach a particular objective and teams

do work well to do that. This type of learning does mean that the teacher is more hands off, and I

can begin to see the potential fears that are associated with it. In my experience I myself began to

doubt that this was working and I really just wanted to take the three not participating and try to

teach it to them myself. To the students who understood but just refused to try and incorporate

the other students I really wanted to shake them and drive some understanding into them that

they are doing a disservice to their team. If they worked together they would all benefit from it.

Unfortunately, I cant make people learn, and I cant make people want to learn.

The Nature of Learning goes on to list seven principles of learning. This team gave me an

example of how things function when not every principle is being met. One of the principles is

the social nature of learning (Dumont, Istance, & Benavides, 2010). When done well it is clear

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to see that it has a large impact on the way a student learns. This team were social in the terms

that they were talking, but they were missing out on proper communication. The students who

were struggling either didnt know they could ask for clarification, or the environment this team

created signaled that they werent welcome to. Whatever the reason is clearly there was not

proper communication occurring, and without communication collaborative team learning just

isnt possible (Romer KT, 1991) Another one of the seven principles of learning as outlined in

The Nature of Learning is that we need to recognize individual differences (Dumont, Istance,

& Benavides, 2010) .For me this is a huge thing to think about. The paper talks about how

different students will have different prior knowledge, different learning styles, different

maturity, and even different interest levels. I absolutely loved this class last year, so sometimes it

is hard for me to think that perhaps for some students it was just a filler class. They didnt take it

because they really wanted to, but because they needed an upper year bio class. As Lily pointed

out in our facilitation that I need to keep in mind not everyone is going for an A in the class. I

always do, so I find it strange that other people dont. But just because I aim for an A doesnt

mean everyone does. It helped me to realize that I was really bringing in my own bias and

judging this team for what I deemed as unacceptable.

Learning Through my Bias

I may not be able to change the way people learn, but that doesnt mean that I shouldnt

try to encourage students more. In my position as a peer mentor I have a little bit more authority

than the students. I could choose to make them feel like I was in charge and babysitting them

to make sure that they were doing what was expected or I could let that go and change the way I

see myself in relation to them. From the article Collaboration Across the Power Line I learned

that if I really want to work with students I need to make myself less of an authority figure and

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more of a fellow student. If I get down on their level and physically sit with them while working

through an activity, it is more likely that they will receive my presence and be willing to share

with me their thoughts as well as consider my own. How they perceive my authority determines

how effective I can be in their discussion and learning process. Many people believe that

authority is static and unchanging. Teachers always have the authority. In our classroom the

Power line would be Dr. Addy, the TAs, the peer mentors, and then the students. While we are

closer in the spectrum to the students than the professor is, it doesnt matter if the students still

perceive us to be higher/better than them. In collaborative style learning everyone is a teacher,

and everyone is a student (Romer KT, 1991) and so this is how I must be as a mentor. I need to

show the students that I am in this with them. Dr. Addy made mention today in class that the

teams really like it when we sit in with them and actually spend time listening and engaging in

their conversations. However, there was at least one team that said they didnt like it when we

were picking on them for lack of a better term. I dont know who said it, or what it was in

regards to, but it did make me think back to how I acted with the team I was frustrated with. I

kept asking the people who I knew didnt understand what answers were. I cant know if the

comment was made with my actions in mind, but I take ownership that it very possibly could

have been. If I was one of the students that I asked I might have felt dumb. I likely made that

student feel like I was in a place of power, and she in surrender. This is not how to mentor.

Instead I should be encouraging, not discouraging.

Collaboration Across the Power Line gives the definition of Authority as defined by the

dictionary. It can be to enforce, influence, or inspire (Romer KT, 1991) As a mentor I want to be

in the third category. I want to inspire the students. I loved this class and so I want to be able to

share my enthusiasm with them. Part of the way I can do that is to help students engage with the

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material by asking probing open ended questions. I need to give them the opportunity to have

their own voice on the subject. So for this particular team I struggled with, the balance is trying

to show the three fast students that they can lower their voice by lowering my own, and to try

and encourage the slower students to raise their voice by giving the opportunity to do so. Voice

is a massive part of collaborative learning (Romer KT, 1991) because it will not be effective

unless all parties get equally heard. Authority should not drown out students and prevent them

from taking the leap themselves. A third principle of learning as outlined in The Nature of

Learning is that material should stretch all students (Dumont, Istance, & Benavides, 2010) For

my challenging team It would be ideal if I could somehow show them that teaching their fellow

teammates will help them learn things at a deeper level. That way they are being stretched by

teaching, and the others are being stretched by learning the material. Im not sure that I will have

it together when I return to this team through my rotation, but I do know that I will be better

equipped. I wont be forcing learning because I understand not everyone is after the same thing

in their education. I will try to immerse myself more into the group and naturally allow for

opportunities to engage their voices.

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Works Cited
Dumont, H., Istance, D., & Benavides, F.(eds.) (2010). The Nature of Learning - Using Research
to Inspire Practice. In Practitoner Guide for the Innovative Learning Environments
Project. OECD Publishing, Paris,
http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/10.1787/9789264086487-en

Romer KT, W. W. (1991). Collaboration Accross the Power Line. College Teaching, 39(2).

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