Teamwork

Teamwork is an integral learning component of my Physics 203 class. In just three months, I have learned how to be a responsible team member, how to help a group become more effective based on feedback and how to formulate constructive feedback for other team members to improve.

Reflecting on my experience as a member of “The Electras” team in this class, my role in our team changed from a follower to an integrator and a facilitator through engaging with our group discussion. When I first started the class, I thought I was going to spend the entire year learning physics concepts, solving problems and taking tests. However, I quickly found out that that there was so much more to it. I love that the class implemented the “Team-Based Learning” concept in every lecture. It helped me learn how to work effectively as a member of a team, as well as express my own idea as a future leader. I was shy and afraid to say what I thought at first. However, my teammate always encouraged me to engage in the discussion and asked me what I think about the questions. Thanks to them, I started to actively participate in group discussion, answering question and explain my ideas to others. Also, I figure one of my strength is being a good facilitator. Being a little OCD myself and love the feeling of getting things done, I always make sure that my group stay on top of our tasks, concentrate on our work and answer questions to the best of our ability. I think the fact that I made sure everyone understands and agrees with the final answer during the TBL team quiz would be a way that I positively contributed to our group. Moreover, when I do my work, I am very meticulous about how it is done and the quality of which it is done. I like to make sure things are thoroughly checked over before submitting them. Thus, I would usually write and check our answer before we presented to the class.

In spite of my strengths, I also have weaknesses when it comes to working with others. Thanks to the feedback that I received from other members, I was able to understand my weakness and try my best to fix it. I realized that for future discussion, I should be a little more open-minded to suggestions. There are times where I think my idea is best but the reality of it is that I am wrong. Being wrong is something I don’t usually like to admit. I think that being able to better take in everyone’s ideas is something that I need to improve on. Working in a team is truly a group effort in which everyone has the potential to bring something to the table. All of members of the group deserve to have their voice heard and their options considered before coming to a final decision. I remember the first time we were required to take the quiz on a new chapter as a group; I didn’t like this idea at first because I thought there would be conflicts arising from people having lots of opinions. However, after the first quiz discussion together, I found it very useful to listen to other members’ ideas. Nevertheless, I was not able to be a better listener until I read two teammates’ comment through CATME evaluation because I had always thought that I listened to others. Their feedback helps me pay more attention to what they are saying and respect their comments. For the quiz that happened a week after that, I told myself not to dominate the conversation and started to listen. I found that other members’ ideas were amazing and were able to learn from them. 

There were a lot of patterns that contribute to our group successes. First and foremost, our group members played very active roles toward solving the problem sets during our teamwork and maintaining good quality of work. This means we can ensure high levels of efficiency. Especially Julia, a member in our group, has strong organizational skills and problem-solving abilities, as well as the ability to put ideas in a logical way. When we discuss the question, she always takes the initiative to write our ideas on a board and present it in a more coherent way. Since all group members always contribute great ideas, our group discussion is always like a brainstorming activity which allows us to think in an unconstrained way. However, one issue we encountered is that group members easily reject each other’s opinion because it is difficult for each of us to fully explain and back up our idea. There was one instance very early on in the first quiz where one team member made a suggestion and the other two members immediately disagreed with it without trying to understand what she meant. When we scratched off the answer sheet, it turned out that the first member’s answer was right. We realized that we may have rejected the idea too quickly and should have listened to her explanation. I think this was an instance where we should be more patient and value others’ ideas. We are still working on this aspect and I hope that every member’s idea will be heard and considered in future quizzes. 

Working with five other members in this class, I have grown and learned a lot of helpful lessons that I can apply to other classes and my future career. It is important for a group to have shared goals and for each member to have a clear role. For my future group work, it would be helpful to have a team contract to ensure that everyone in the grouphas the same expectations of each other. This will avoid frustration and misunderstandings during the project. Being able to see the rules that all group members generated and agree together every time we have group work will remind us of our roles and staying on top of our tasks. The most important lesson is being able to analyze team feedback and changing behaviors to help facilitate teamwork. I enjoy the process after comprehensively reflecting the participation of our team’s collaborative processes through CATEME and listening to others’ feedback. It helped me to know what my weakness and strengths are and improve myself to be a better teammate. In future project, I will make sure to give others constructive feedback so that we can move forward as a team. For my future goal, I want to work in medical field and these collaboration skills are no doubt my most valuable assets that I would bring along when working with other professionals. 

Throughout this class, working as a group to share our opinions, rethink and understand the lecture contents helps correct my understanding of the topics and improve my ability of critical thinking. The experience has trained me to have good teamwork spirit and to cooperate with other students. I can apply these skills not only in the academic setting but also in my future career. After every TBL team quiz, there is always a reflection question “What makes your team the best?” Our group’s only answer is that we always stay optimistic, listen to each other’s opinion and come to an agreement at the end of the discussion. As the end of the semester rolls around, I believe we have not only met the goals that we set, but I would say we exceeded them. Our group always have clear objectives, defined roles and good communication to do work efficiently. In just three months, our group members all become closer as friends which makes our teamwork even stronger. At the end of the day, I am content with all the work we have accomplished as a group.